Doping megathread - I can't even think of a witty tagline

The difference is some teams blab on about doing things differently and having "thin blue lines".

Kinda similar to the difference between Armstrong and the rest. Another guy who couldn't shut up about how clean he was.

For me it became obvious on 'modern day' doping in 4 parts!

Cancellara co-ordinated bike swap (was in Roubaix?) and his dissappearing up the Kappelmuur* leaving Boonen behind like an amateur.

Froome going up L'Alpe D'Huez leaving Quintana standing. On one specific corner Froome's bike was flying and his cadence simply not matching the speed.

Froome in the Giro. What was he 5 mins down..and then has a 'Good Day' and rides away from the best in the world and wins by mins.

Jumbo Visma:

2 or 3 years ago in Paris -Nice and 3 of the team TT-ing away from everyone.

WVA in the tour. Up the road every day. EVERY FU****G DAY for almost 3 weeks.

Roglic and Vingo superb TT'S in the Giro and Tour respectivley.

Sadly I am around long enough to know if it walks like a duck,quacks like a duck and looks like a duck ..its a duck!

It's a point I've made repeatedly to fans of football, GAA, rugby etc. and it get pooh-poohed.

Coming from a background in martial arts (MMA), and having worked as a personal trainer (particularly in a power lifting/strongman gym), I'm more than familiar with the idea of athletes doping.

It may be the cynic in me, but I don't believe for a second that the top sports people in every sport aren't doping to some degree. There's too much at stake, the margins at the top are too slim, and as the saying goes, 'if you're not cheating, you're not trying'.

This is just a brief overview of football, doesn't even touch on other major sports.

I watched amateur strongman competitiors take nandralone and dianobol to take part in local or regional competitions, that they had to pay to enter, to win trophies that nobody outside their small group would know anything about, much less care about.

The idea that pro athletes, with the money that's at stake, are not seeking out anything that will give them an edge is, to me, nonsense.

Soccer will never damage "the brand" the way cycling did and rugby is thoroughly up its own hole about being a sport of gentleman who play the game in the right spirit.

In many sports athletes are assets and regularly play with painkilling injections to compete. Soccer especially is rife with this & it amazes such actions are widely accepted & almost applauded.

Nadal another one who has terrible injuries to his joints but for years has been playing with injections but again no attention to that.

Given all the commentary around JV, I'm surprised the weekend turnaround hasn't raised any eyebrows - quickest performance turnaround since Landis? Or is it only TT's that people throw shade at?

The collapse raises more questions than the revival. Almedia had a bad day, shipped a couple of minutes. I thought Remco was so far down he was going to climb off.

Zinedine Zidane used to get lauded for having homologous blood transfusions to rebuild his body, it was taken as a sign of his professionalism. That's doping. I doubt football is as squeaky clean as they like to make out, same with tennis, golf, GAA, rugby and probably all other sports.

My son who plays both football and rugby tells me that lads on his Junior C football team take 'steroids' in the gym (not sure what they are) and that they are easily available. Whenever you raise the issue of PEDs in the GAA you get the usual response of sure how could drugs make you better, it's all about skill. Given the cross over in players between his two teams I have no doubt his rugby mates are at the same thing. It's depressing tbh, especially the blind eye that's turned to it in Ireland. You see stories of rugby players becoming addicted to tramadol and talk of players taking cocktails of pills to play. The current Irish management team have form in this.

Yet cycling is the sport most associated with doping.

On a lighter note if you want to see how far normal people will go to cheat have a read of https://www.marathoninvestigation.com/ - it's very entertaining.

I was being a bit facetious tbh, but if the Tour winner, the giro winner and the best mountain domestic of the last few years (who was let in, and gained all his time in a break) is a sign of doping, why isn't such an immediate turnaround?

I’m shocked - tip of the iceberg

That’s what I thought when I read this - someone’s either fcuked up or he’s been shafted. I’d wager there’ll be no discussion of if he was taking PEDs when at Man U in the UK press.