Ullrich

[majorpat]

Just read this on a pretty decent blog someone turned me on to. He makes some good points. I know we have beaten the doping horse to death. Some have said it doesn't matter because everyone doped, some are disillusioned with the UCI or WADA or the teams for condoning it. Others justify the practice because it is "entertainment".

Me, it bugs me. There is no honor in doping.

Pat

http://www.belgiumkneewarmers.com/2008/04/six-figures.html

[e-RICHIE]

they shoot horses, don't they atmo?

Richard is a genius. Follow his advice.

[saab2000]

There needs to have been an amnesty if you came clean. Instead there was (and continues to be) a witchhunt. This witchhunt has done much to ruin cycling IMHO.

I don't condone illegal practices but some of the stuff that has gone on to catch some riders while others seem to go under the radar is absurd.

I would like to have seen an amnesty, followed by a fresh start.

[William]

Nice to be able to buy your way out of trouble. :rolleyes:

Ullrich is reported to have paid six-figures to make the investigation go away.




William

[bostondrunk]

It's all BS IMHO. I think they should leave him alone. And if not, why isn't Basso having to pay huge sums of money too?

[saab2000]

Nice to be able to buy your way out of trouble. :rolleyes:






William


Interesting that someone would sell the exit from trouble as well. To buy it also takes a seller.

[William]

Interesting that someone would sell the exit from trouble as well. To buy it also takes a seller.

Very true. Good point.



William

[harlond]

I'm not sure I understand his point. The idea that Ullrich defrauded T-Mobile was never very credible and it has gotten much less credible now that there is evidence that the team was engaged in systematic doping. Is his point that he doesn't mind Ullrich paying a heavy price, though he almost certainly committed no crime, because he did what pretty much every other contender of the era caught in the "classic double-bind" did?

I guess I'm OK with that, Ullrich did make a lot of money from cycling. Of course, he probably would have made it in a clean peleton, too. I'd feel a lot better about dinging guys like Ullrich if the clean rider that otherwise would have been winning the podium at the TdF didn't feel so hypothetical.

[Acotts]

I'd feel a lot better about dinging guys like Ullrich if the clean rider that otherwise would have been winning the podium at the TdF didn't feel so hypothetical.


well said.

Add to that, it is an impossible task to hold athletes of the past to todays standards. Once in an interview, Muhammad Ali admited to doing Steroids in order to shed weight for a boxing match. he was extremely casual about it as if it was right there with shadow boxing and jumping rope. No one gave it any thought. He certainly did not think he had done anything wrong.

I think if we went back in time looking for all the things that athletes did to give them an unfair advantage in the highest level of competition, there would be a whole lot of astericks in the record books.

[72gmc]

I don't see how a one-rider-at-a-time witch hunt is any more "fair" than what may have happened. It's time to name a year and declare no more hindsight prosecution/persecution beyond that point. Amnesty for those who cheated, empathy for those who did not, but it's over now and the sport moves forward.

What year do we draw the line? 2000? 2004? For me, the bungling of Tyler's testing at the Olympics is a fitting event to serve as day 1 of amnesty.

[torquer]

I'm not sure I understand his point. The idea that Ullrich defrauded T-Mobile was never very credible and it has gotten much less credible now that there is evidence that the team was engaged in systematic doping.

Exactly what i thought when I read:
"T-Mobile has ample evidence to file a civil claim against him."

Besides, "T-Mobile" was the sponsor, so they would need to sue the corporate entity now known as Team High Road, and this would probably reveal a few more skeletons in assorted closets than anyone has a taste for.

To put Jan's "six-figure" settlement into context, its worth remembering that he was getting a seven-figure annual retainer as celebrity spokestud for a watch company in Germany. Who knows how much else was coming through the door, and, just as significantly, how much he was stashing in some Lichtenstein bank?

[shinomaster]

they shoot horses, don't they atmo?


If that's true they would have shot Bart Wellens, and George Hincapie, and Johon Musseew etc.