[shag]

N.B.O.L., on 19 July 2012 - 05:31 AM, said:

Maybe I'm lost here. Why would Vaughters have any explaining to do? Gabrovski isn't on Garmin.

Just because JV has been coming out with (in my view) outlandish statements about how basically most everybody is clean these days and whatever doping is taking place among the few "bad apples" is limited to small potatoes stuff that has a negligible effect on performance. I just don't think this is the case and I think the Gabrovski positive is instructive.

[shag]

micomico, on 19 July 2012 - 12:53 AM, said:

Do the number of dead rats indicate how well the rat trap is working, or does it indicate how ineffective it is on the overall number out there?

I think the rat trap is working ... but I am worried that it catches mostly (1) the little or isolated guys, who are trying to cobble together a decent program on their own but due to their lack of sophistication get tripped up and (2) the guys with a good program that make a small mistake and get nailed (Landis, Contador, maybe Schleck). Don't get me wrong, I think both of these are generally beneficial (though one could argue that the net effect is to tilt the playing field unfairly toward the group that can afford to run a good program ... i.e., rewarding the worst of the worst), but hardly reason to throw a party.

[Leafcake]

shag, on 19 July 2012 - 12:50 PM, said:

Just because JV has been coming out with (in my view) outlandish statements about how basically most everybody is clean these days and whatever doping is taking place among the few "bad apples" is limited to small potatoes stuff that has a negligible effect on performance. I just don't think this is the case and I think the Gabrovski positive is instructive.

Just noting that he was riding for a third league Continental team which does not take part in the BP programme and the riders on such teams probably get tested far less, considering their calendars have mostly smaller races. In recent years, it hasn't been rarity that riders on smaller teams suddenly pull out amazing performances. Gabrovksi's performance in the Tour of Turkey had raised eyebrows at the time. Professional Continental teams do take part in the BP.

It took nearly 3 months for the Athens lab to get the test result (as the sample was taken on April 24th). That is not encouraging, though neither is it, one may suppose, the work and financial conditions out there now.