MattTuck
06-23-2015, 07:38 AM
In an all too common story, Nicki Sorensen has admitted to doping in the early part of his career. (http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/06/news/nicki-sorensen-admits-to-doping-in-early-part-of-career_374768)
Not really a shock to anyone paying attention, but the guy is still working as a DS at Tinkoff-Saxo. This sort of 'graduation' from racer to team director is one of the most vexing aspects of PED use in professional cycling. There has to be, in my opinion, a real 'stick' when it comes to PED use and someone's future ability to oversee riders' training and racing programs. The team officials should represent (through their actions) a model of behavior for current riders to emulate. You can't have dopers running teams and expecting current riders to not see the hypocrisy.
Granted, I don't think Sorensen test positive as a rider, and Tinkoff-Saxo claims that “Tinkoff-Saxo has a deep-rooted anti-doping culture that is implemented throughout the entire team. Tinkoff-Saxo was convinced at the time and remains of the view that Sorensen has conducted himself fully in accordance with this culture over the past decade of working with the team.”
Yes, I know what you're thinking. If you eliminated all the team staff members with a history of doping, you'd have no one to run the teams. Well, therein lies the problem.
Edit: Maybe you'll just have teams made up of riders and Russian billionaire DS's.
Not really a shock to anyone paying attention, but the guy is still working as a DS at Tinkoff-Saxo. This sort of 'graduation' from racer to team director is one of the most vexing aspects of PED use in professional cycling. There has to be, in my opinion, a real 'stick' when it comes to PED use and someone's future ability to oversee riders' training and racing programs. The team officials should represent (through their actions) a model of behavior for current riders to emulate. You can't have dopers running teams and expecting current riders to not see the hypocrisy.
Granted, I don't think Sorensen test positive as a rider, and Tinkoff-Saxo claims that “Tinkoff-Saxo has a deep-rooted anti-doping culture that is implemented throughout the entire team. Tinkoff-Saxo was convinced at the time and remains of the view that Sorensen has conducted himself fully in accordance with this culture over the past decade of working with the team.”
Yes, I know what you're thinking. If you eliminated all the team staff members with a history of doping, you'd have no one to run the teams. Well, therein lies the problem.
Edit: Maybe you'll just have teams made up of riders and Russian billionaire DS's.