Paying the Price of Racing Clean

[Rueda Tropical]

This puts a number on what it cost to just say no to doping:

Bassons: For one, with money. When it came time to renegotiate my contract in June 1998, they proposed two entirely different contracts. The first was for 30,000 francs a month; they also offered a second contract of 300,000 francs a month if I would go on the EPO program.

http://bicycling.com/blogs/thisjustin/2012/10/15/bassons-people-now-see-i-wasn’t-lying/


360,000 francs a year versus 3 million 600 thousand francs. Plus it's unlikely a team with a program would want a clean rider around -not a team player -not to be trusted.

How much money does that amount to over an entire career?- stolen by the dopers. In a clean peloton Bassons could have been pulling down something like $700,000 USD a year early in his career.

[harlond]

360,000 francs a year versus 3 million 600 thousand francs. Plus it's unlikely a team with a program would want a clean rider around -not a team player -not to be trusted.

How much money does that amount to over an entire career?- stolen by the dopers. In a clean peloton Bassons could have been pulling down something like $700,000 USD a year early in his career.A mighty generous offer considering his palmares as of 1998.

[Rueda Tropical]

A mighty generous offer considering his palmares as of 1998.

What did you expect for a clean rider?

His palmares are no surprise for a guy racing clean in that era and are no indication of his talent. For that kind of money the team must have seen a serious talent who - if he was on the juice - would have been competitive with the best.

Note the clean offer was bottom of the barrel.

[harlond]

I'm not criticizing his palmares--a young rider, particularly in that era a young clean rider, could not be expected to have impressive palmares. But talent doesn't always equal results, so generally high salaries follow results, not the other way around.

[Rueda Tropical]

I'm not criticizing his palmares--a young rider, particularly in that era a young clean rider, could not be expected to have impressive palmares. But talent doesn't always equal results, so generally high salaries follow results, not the other way around.

True - so management must have looked at his numbers in training and performance clean and thought they would have a super star if he got on the program. Why else would they offer such a huge amount to a guy without palmares?

[harlond]

True - so management must have looked at his numbers in training and performance clean and thought they would have a super star if he got on the program. Why else would they offer such a huge amount to a guy without palmares?Defies logic.