Sunday, July 29, 2018

2018 Tour de France Bedlam

Geraint Thomas and Team SKY wins another Tour de France!  Break out the champagne!  Whew!  The international cycling fanatics were outraged.  (An aside to David Brailsford, cycling fanatics attend the Tour de France from all over the world, you dolt! )  Along the course international cycling fanatics pelted team SKY cars with eggs, people attempted to leap over barriers to knock team SKY riders off their bicycles!  People spit in the faces of team SKY riders! It has been alleged that people threw urine bombs at team SKY!  Totally dangerous bedlam.


Chris Froome, four time winner of the Tour de France, had to settle for a podium third place.  Chris Froome and team SKY were lucky to get invited to race the Tour de France.  ASO did not want Chris Froome or SKY, after the UCI mysteriously dropped the salbutamol adverse analytical finding Chris Froome was charged with.  Chris Froome tested positive after Stage 18 of the 2017 Tour of Spain for salbutamol, a beta-2 agonist bronchial dilator.  The WADA threshold for salbutamol is 1,000 nanograms/milliliter. Chris Froome tested 2,000 nanograms/ milliliter.  Since salbutamol is not an endogenous substance produced by the body, the only source is an external application, like an inhaler.

Never, to my memory, has an adverse analytical finding been so thoroughly debated among the worthies at the UCI and WADA.  Dick Pound the former president of WADA, amazed me when he stated that Chris Froome may have innocently snorted too much salbutamol!  What turnabout is this?  In every other case on record riders were banned for the mere presence of a prohibited substance, regardless of circumstances.

I am simply astounded at the myriad of excuses WADA and the UCI are dishing out to explain away this innocent snorting of salbutamol.  Usually, excuses to explain away positive tests fall under the purview of the riders.  Unique physiology, specific gravity, they actually proposed doing a longitudinal study to determine if Chris Froome could keep his values constant.  Constantly above threshold?  What manner of insanity is this?  WADA standards are so variable! WADA standards should be discarded as useless rubbish!  The goal posts change either in favor of, or against, athletes depending upon the person being considered.  If you are going to use a set of standards as a bludgeon, at least be consistent, or exit the field.

Unbelievable.  Dick Pound says WADA only try cases, or spend money on cases,  prosecutors expect to win.  Really?  Floyd Landis was prosecuted with zeal based upon a single metabolite above threshold, WADA spent millions to support weak evidence, no concern for unique physiology then!  At the point of being sarcastic, Mr. Pound, your long drawn out charade proved nothing except WADA laboratory incompetence.  However,  Chris Froome is an open and shut case.  But WADA declines to appeal the UCI decision to drop the case, even though Mr. Froome would likely be banned with overwhelming evidence.  Mr. Froome was double the threshold limit on both samples.  Mr. Froome has no credible excuse to explain away these test results.  Any credible prosecutor would rip Mr. Froome to shreds.

I remember when Dick Pound wanted to throw the entire peloton in jail, suspecting everyone of doping.  Now he is acting as a apologist for the dopers, accepting every half baked spin job in existence.  Dick Pound has gone mad.  Mr Pound should refrain from adding future senile commentary until he consults with his doctor.

In 2013, I warned people about SKY and David Brailsford .  Nobody listened.  Now their biggest star Chris Froome has tested positive for salbutamol.   Nobody cares.  The indifference by the regulatory agencies almost started a riot at the Tour de France. People may get hurt next time.  David Brailsford did not improve relations when he called the people of France xenophobic hillbillies.  Next year, David Brailsford may be the spark that blows up the whole Tour.