British Cycling and Sky

velo.2010

Beasty wrote: »

There seems to me to be little point in seeking publicity in the Cycling world on the back of Wiggins name nowadays

Official vehicle supplier to the Tour de France would disagree!

RobFowl

Beasty wrote: »

Don't think they should be expressing surprise, and given the background would have thought that team should probably be disbanded (or possibly re-branded). There seems to me to be little point in seeking publicity in the Cycling world on the back of Wiggins name nowadays

Yet Sky who transported dodgy Jiffy bags, gave steroids to past and current riders, are run by a certain Darth Brailsford and who are the subject of multiple ongoing accusations are not just invited but guests of honour....

And thats even before I start about Murdoch .....

Beasty

Wouldn't be surprised to see Sky drop out at the end of this season. They no longer sponsor Team GB and I suspect they are not going to feel it's providing an ongoing return on its investment

petethedrummer

He didn't leave his house for two months because of severe depression partly caused by using Tramadol.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/39293763

I wouldn't leave the house either if I had a supply of the stuff!

TheBlaaMan

Beasty wrote: »

Wouldn't be surprised to see Sky drop out at the end of this season. They no longer sponsor Team GB and I suspect they are not going to feel it's providing an ongoing return on its investment

Plenty of riders have contracts into the end of 2018, so I dont think they can easily just wind up operations...........to be honest, despite all the duplicity on Brailsford behalf, another team pullin out is not what the sport needs.

RobFowl

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bradley-wiggins-what-i-have-to-say-will-shock-a-few-people/

Wiggins going to let rip soon??

Beasty

RobFowl wrote: »

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bradley-wiggins-what-i-have-to-say-will-shock-a-few-people/

Wiggins going to let rip soon??

Guess we'll only know if and when it happens. Anyone know how long the investigation is expected to take? He has a legacy to protect but no longer has to think too much about his career prospects. He's also arguably been forced to keep quiet while the investigation is ongoing. Hopefully he will give a full and open account in due course.

CramCycle

RobFowl wrote: »

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bradley-wiggins-what-i-have-to-say-will-shock-a-few-people/

Wiggins going to let rip soon??

Expect a tamed down version where he admits a few minor things and then they pin one person to the wall and nail them to it. Considering the length of time for him to come forward, it is hard to tell if it will be more or less believeable than LA. Would love if he came to the fore with motors, that would be interesting.

velo.2010

Well, Wiggo has called bollox on 'marginal gains' anyhow.
http://www.eurosport.co.uk/cycling/blazin-saddles-bradley-wiggins-slams-rubbish-marginal-gains_sto6106372/story.shtml

Wasn't asked about 'that' package'.

Looks like he's maxing out on the corporate gigs before the **** storm happens.

RobFowl

velo.2010 wrote: »

Looks like he's maxing out on the corporate gigs before the **** storm happens.

LA still gets the corpo gigs, fat cat bankers don't let ethics get in their way....

Beasty

I think whatever comes out it will be put forward as within the rules. The questionmarks are likely to remain over things that are not black and white (such as the apparent widespread use of TUEs)

I do think the world has moved on certainly since the start of all things Armstrong. This digital world puts things in a very different perspective than even 15-20 years ago.

It's much more difficult to keep anything under wraps (this applies across many walks of life - I certainly am seeing it in my own area of work). In the past it may well be that people close to whatever wrongdoings were going on had some personal interest or were under pressure not to allow anything to leak. Nowadays there are many different ways for people to release information with little in the way of audit trail to track back to a source.

For those reasons I really do not believe there can still be organised "wrongdoing" in the way it was endemic 20 years or so ago. Yes there will still be small groups or individuals who can keep everything they are up to under wraps, but I am pretty sure a team like Sky would not be able to do that, and will have known that. That is why, in my view, we are seeing more debate over those grey areas where it's easier to claim you are within the letter (even if not in the spirit) of the rules.

velo.2010

FWIW, another session on 'combatting doping in sport' from the UK culture, media and sport committee. Some interesting witnesses including, apparently, Alberto Salazar - the controversial coach of Mo Farah.

2.30pm start here.

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/7c893196-03f4-456b-a148-dc13bab64613

velo.2010

Some damning quotes from the committee today...

'some of the evidence we have heard shows a lax attitude to what is essentially the use of performance enhancing drug taking in sport'.

'team doctors are enabling performance enhancing for non-medical reasons to give athletes a competitive edge'.

'we shouldn't just be concerned about performance but how that performance has been achieved'.

re Salazar. 'he did have an undue control over the medical treatments despite not being a doctor'.

CantGetNoSleep

UK DCMS Committee report on the jiffy bag seems to be out tonight. Should be interesting reading, especially given how many times Sky were caught lying trying to defend this

velo.2010

And Doc Freeman DID order those testosterone patches...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-5451759/Banned-testosterone-patches-ordered-Team-Sky-HQ.html

CramCycle

At this point it is fair to say my 4 year old who claims it is the dog who keeps doing a, b or c is far more believable.

RobFowl

UCI: Explain yourself Sky
Sky: The dog ate my notes
UCI: Fair enough then, off you go

velo.2010

Just popped up now...




Fairly damning report by the UK parliamentary committee. I wonder if Team Sky, as we know it, will survive the end of the year?

Part of me say lets them rot and the other part worries about the damage. You look at the quality they bought over the years to essentially win the TdF for Wiggins and Froome, Sky crumble Froome gets contract in ... who can afford him ? UAE or Bahrain ? Lets see him win a tour/giro/vuelta then and competing against ex team mates bought up by other teams. The team mates are more valuable in terms of they actually race to win outside of GT's

EDIT: Trying to think of someone in the GC category who would ride as little as Froome does in terms of racing in the year. Quintana maybe?

Hurrache

Might be a good thread to follow, BBC journalist tweeted a photo of Wiggins and Brailsford before the report was published so presumably has the juicy bits.

https://twitter.com/danroan/status/970439359337025536?s=19

https://twitter.com/danroan/status/970452037837230080?s=19

it is Sir Bradley Wiggins - Britain's first winner of the Tour de France and most decorated Olympian - and his former boss Sir Dave Brailsford - the man credited with turning cycling into the driving force behind Britain's ascent into an Olympic superpower, and in charge of the sport's dominant team - for whom the 50-odd pages make for particularly grim reading.

Both are effectively accused of cheating. And if not cheating the actual rules in the strictest sense, then certainly the spirit of them. Of flouting their own commitment to be a team the sport could finally be proud of.

"Crossing the ethical line" is how the MPs put it.

Even Shane Sutton - Wiggins' former coach and right-hand man - tells the committee that the rider's use of powerful corticosteroid triamcinolone was "unethical but not against the rules".

And Wiggins responding pretty early
https://twitter.com/SirWiggo/status/970449489092898818?s=19

Grassey

http://www.the42.ie/bradley-wiggins-and-team-sky-dcms-report-3885398-Mar2018/

Leroy42

Very telling that Wiggins response does not deny that the drugs were taken, but that "any drug was used without medical need".

Which really is the cornerstone of the report. It does not say that what they did was against the rules, but against the ethics of the rules.

Wiggins response basically admits that the foundation of their thinking, if not the conclusion, is correct.

RobFowl

Has Dave gone yet?

He has a very impressive brass neck.......

death1234567

RobFowl wrote: »

Has Dave gone yet?
He has a very impressive brass neck.......

It's 'Sir' Dave, beloved shining knight of the empire

Weepsie

RobFowl wrote: »

Has Dave gone yet?

He has a very impressive brass neck.......

Dave is now directly employed by Team Sky as of this week. Previously he was a consultant. He wound up his consultancy firm last week which had £5 million in cash reserve.

Suggestion is they are protecting him if Disney come in and want rid. They'll have to pay him now.


Lastly, a lot of this seems like they'll (Dave & Sky) gladly be throwing Wiggins under the bus if it keeps attention away from Froome.

Eamonnator

RobFowl wrote: »

Has Dave gone yet?

He has a very impressive brass neck.......

As they used to say; he has a hard neck, like a jockey's boll*x

PeterParker957

I think Wiggins is genuine and the gear was used medicinally - now, Froome on the other hand has a lot to talk about.

death1234567

PeterParker957 wrote: »

I think Wiggins is genuine and the gear was used medicinally - now, Froome on the other hand has a lot to talk about.

It wasn't, according to the report it was used to lose weight and improve his power to weight ratio which is what we all suspected/knew all along.

Leroy42

PeterParker957 wrote: »

I think Wiggins is genuine and the gear was used medicinally - now, Froome on the other hand has a lot to talk about.

Exactly. Which is proven by his continued lying about it.....

oh wait

lizzylad84

Nice cannon fodder for team sky to taje some of the media flack off the froome debacle