So after the latest news re doping and cycling what do ya reckon? I hope he is....I also hoped Lance was as well. What a shame, maybe they should just let all cyclists dope so that there is an even playing field.
George Hincapie, a key teammate of Australian Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, has been named by a Dutch newspaper as one of four ex-teammates of Lance Armstrong who are said to have testified against him in an United States Anti-Doping Agency investigation.
The Tour awoke to the news on Thursday with websites reporting that the Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf had named Hincapie (BMC), Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp), David Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp) and Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) as the riders.
It was also reported that the same four riders had confessed to doping and that they will receive bans of six months that will be served at the end of the season.
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Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France titles are under threat should doping charges be upheld against him. Photo: AFP
All four riders had recently told USA Cycling that they did not want to be considered for selection into the five-rider US road team for the Olympic Games in London. Hincapie, who is racing a record 17th Tour, also recently announced that he would retire after the season.
Also named in the report was former rider Jonathan Vaughters who is the general manager of the American registered Garmin-Sharp team.
Hincapie, who has been a professional for 19 years and was the only rider to have ridden in all seven Tours that Armstrong won, last week was guarded when asked about the investigation, although his remarks were more supporting than condemning of the Texan.
Speaking at the BMC Tour team launch hours before USADA revealed that it was formally charging Armstrong, Hincapie was asked if the controversy had an impact on his Tour preparation. He said: "I am here to focus and help the team. Even the fact that I am retiring - thoughts are coming in my head and they make you think about other things; but it's my job to be here and support the team and I do my best job . I don't let it affect me, no."
Then, when asked if he would feel "betrayed" should the charges against Armstrong be proven, Hincapie said: "I have nothing but respect for Lance, for what he did for cycling. It was incredible. What he achieved in cycling and how he inspired millions of people with cancer is honourable.
"That's all I have to say about [it]. I have a lot of respect for what he has done for the sport."
The De Telegraaf report came in the aftermath of USADA's decision last week to formally charge Armstrong who could lose his seven Tour titles.
The charges relate to alleged offences from 1999 when he won his first Tour, to 2011 when he retired for a second time after a two-year comeback.
The move to charge Armstrong came after a three-member review panel assessed the evidence submitted by USADA whose allegations became public on June 13 when the Washington Post published details of a 15-page letter from USADA to Armstrong and four other former associates of his.
The other four were his former sports director Johan Bruyneel, now the RadioShack-Nissan team manager but not at the Tour because of the investigation, doctors Michele Ferrari, Pedro Celaye, and Luis Garcia del Moral, and team trainer Pepe Marti.
They have all been accused of offences that include the administration of doping products, trafficking, assisting and abetting and covering up.
The USADA letter also said that it had 10 witnesses who would testify against Armstrong, but that their names would remain confidential.
Armstrong's camp responded to the USADA allegations in an 18-page letter, asking the review panel to reject the charges, saying there was not enough proof, but his response fell on deaf ears. The USADA then said in a statement: "All respondents will have the opportunity to exercise their right to a full public arbitration hearing, should they so choose, where all evidence would be presented, witness testimony would be given under oath, and an independent group of arbitrators would ultimately decide the outcome of the case. USADA will continue to follow the established procedures that are compliant with federal law and were approved by athletes, the US Olympic Committee and all Olympic sports organisations."
The case will now go to an arbitration panel. Although, whoever loses could appealing the verdict at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Read more: www.smh.com.au/sport/cycling/us-cyclists-testify-against-lance-armstrong-report-20120705-21jnl.html
Apart from Cadel, and let's say Armstrong is a junkie, who's the last winner to be still considered clean?
100% on the juice.
Not physically possible to compete and beat them and not cheat somehow.
W
I bloody hope Cadel is clean.This type of racing must push endurance to the max..All about money..cheat and get away with it,your set for life.Ok for people with no morals..could be a bit of propaganda going on at the moment too.
It is a shame that Lance will be remembered for doping and not for overcoming adversity with his fight against cancer. Cadel has to be clean surely...
I agree 100% and I hope he is proven innocent. I am a big fan of Lance. Unfornunately for many he will be remembered for the accusations alone regardless of the verdict.
A few years back Cadel was the only one you could pick as being clean I reckon. Unfortunately the reason it was possible to pick he was clean, was due to a lack of performance compared to the other riders.
Now most of those riders that were in front of him then, have been dragged under spotlight and been found out, hopefully he and those he's up against are all playing fair!....
Go Cadel!
Cadel had a bit of a reputation for being a sook. His nickname was Cuddles.
He would beat guys again and again and be world champion and stuff. Then, in the Olympics or the Tour those same guys would thrash him. He'd have a moan about it, not say anything specific, but the implication is the other guys were doping.
re-post from Cycling Tips (cyclingtips.com/2011/06/the-armstrong-era/) on the same topic from the Armstrong Era.
I don't know if Cadel (Or Lance) are (were) clean or not but this does provide interesting summary IMO:
This graphic comes from Bicycling Magazine, May 2011. To put this into context, Bicycling Magazine prefaces this graphic by stating:
Here's how the Tour de France would look during every year Armstrong podiumed if the top 10 were scrubbed of any finisher who at the time of his career was formally connected to performance enhancing drugs or blood doping (those riders appear in the shaded boxes). Because we had to draw a line somewhere to prevent unsubstantiated accusations from eliminating a rider, we defined "formally connected" as riders who:
- Admitted to doping or were banned or fully (not provisionally) suspended by a sanctioning group for doping in relation to it.
- Were fully (not provisionally ) suspended or fired by their teams or individually withdrawn from races by their teams for some connection to doping
- Were convicted of doping in a sporting, criminal, or civil hearing or trial, or paid a fine to settle charges related to it.
Our criteria leaves lots of room for argument, and frankly, allows some riders who inspire widespread public doubt to remain categorized as clean. But even through this somewhat constrained lens, the decimation of the general classification of the sport's crown jewel is shocking
"Most of these blokes ar clean a a whistle ."
is that a stutter there??
maybe you are correct, but i believe that is a delusional opinion...
I don't know what to believe.
I think the juicers are in a minority these days given their team or competitors will give them up.
I like to think the best and think they are all drug free but i guess that might be wishful these days.
I hope Cadel is drug free. You never here any scandal about him at all so maybe he is. He also made a stand last year against doping.
However you can't go past the athleticism of these blokes. With or without drugs their stamina is unbelievable.
....and don't forget you can't give a donkey dope and expect it to win the Melbourne Cup.
if the news is true and 5 people are given immunity for dopping expect AC to be extremely pissed off.
pro sports persons best friend is a leading chemist, they are probably taking drugs that there are no tests for
"There isn't a drug in the universe that could get me to do one stage!!! "
but if you could finish a stage, there are plenty of drugs that will get you to the end quicker.
it is quite simple the performance of an elite athlete will be enhanced by the right gear.
more money is invest in drug technology than drug detection, just look at the money involved in winning.
To give another perspective, sometimes lately I ride with a bloke who was a pro cyclist in Europe in the late eighties and he told me it's (the doping) never as easy as everyone makes out, he said imagine you are a young fella in one of the top teams on a yearly salary more than 500k (lot of money 25 years ago)and you have'nt had a win for a while and your team boss shoves a pill bottle over the table to you and says take these or your contract will be terminated.
Two years ago on a mountain top finish you only had to look at the face of Contador compared to Evans to tell that Evans was completely shagged and Contador would be lucky to blow out a candle.
Is Cadel clean ??
The dude is in France for 3 weeks for crying out loud.
The French stink. On average the French use less than one bar of soap per person per year.
He may be clean compared to the locals, but I am sure when he leaves France he will probably smell of brie and tabacco and bread that is too hard to bite into like the rest of the French do.
And be-jeezus, the Tour started in Belgium this year, friggin' Belguim, he probably stinks worse than a tent on Herrisson Island by now.
I remember a few years ago when every September me and 3 mates would go to France and live in my small car for 3 weeks, surfin' drinkin' and running amuck. After 3 weeks we stank, absolutely stank. Sometimes on the ferry back home we would be asked to leave the duty free shop and when we got back to UK customs we would be accused of vagrancy. An accusation we challenged on more than one occasion by showing the customs bloke we each had 3 pairs of underpants with us, thus clearly tourists and not hobos.
I challenge anyone to go to France for 3 weeks and remain clean.
Funny Carantoc...
I'd say most, have taken something at sometime, still doping ? who knows, they might catch them in 10 years when someone comes forward and gives them the drug. Like Marion Jones, she would have never been found if it wasn't for the coach giving up some of the "clear" so the drug tester actually knew what to test for. Then they went back and tested for it and found out who was on it.
I hope Cadel is clean, I hope lance is clean but it's always been a dirty sport and everyone who wins is always looked at as if there is a chance their on something. And sadly in the passage of time many were proven to be on it.
Anyway..... See you in 10 years when we're still asking the same questions. 
Is Cadel clean ? - I would like to think so.
Australian Cycling got flogged back in the day when the French were at the fore front of performance enhancing in cycling. They did it all & took all the major prizes from Olympics & World titles. Everyone caught up & doped too if they had a big budget & were hungry enough. They know what physical limits are possible.
He has a so many losses to dopers through his career. I took the advice of a former legend of Australian cycling, when he said they knew it was not a fair fight before they had arrived & unpacked back in the 90's before a big event.
Cadel HAS always been a freak. I recall a friend saying they all traveled to Victoria with a crew of South Aust cycling for a criterium race. From the get go some scrawny 14 year old got away solo. They chased their eyeballs in crap conditions & caught him beginning the last lap. That was their first taste of Cadel.
If a visiting team smashed the Aussies every year on Australia day or Boxing day can you see some folk throwing mud ? Hoping it sticks to protect national pride.
