Bernard Kohl and doping

[rich p]

"Without doping there is no equal opportunity in the top international field," Kohl said, according to nachrichten.at. "This is absolutely the end."

The former Gerolsteiner rider acknowledged, "I have voluntarily doped – in a system in which you can't win without doping. Talent, training and iron discipline just aren't enough at some point. Doping becomes the rule. A clean sport is unfortunately an exception."


Cynical or realistic - who knows

 

[Skip Madness]

Cynical or realistic - who knows

The guy could be right.

On the other hand, he might just not be as good as some of the others.

Talent, training and iron discipline may not be enough for some people, but without any reason to believe that the entire peloton is doping I will settle for the opinion that Kohl is one of the ones who is not as good.

 

[rich p]

Cunego is of the opinion that the race is "too fast" these days.

 

[Steve Austin]

Sounds like the words of someone trying to justify their actions.

or scaringly truthful....

 

[yenrod]

Sounds like the words of someone trying to justify their actions.

or scaringly truthful....

Who knows - other than to test every rider prior to a race ?

 

[roadiewill]

is it only the top finishers who get tested at the end of a stage?

 

[Dave5N]

No. If you watch grassroots racing, some guys are just stronger, end of.

However they suffer. When you see pros climbing Alps in the big ring, sat down and in the zone, you need to start asking questions...

 

[Keith Oates]

I think Kohl was/is good but not good enough to win against the top guys. He decided to take the drugs to be more competitive and got caught. You pay your money and you take your chance, his chance was to fail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mangaman]

Testing every rider wouldn't work anyway

Apart from the occasional team that have obviously not got their doping policy right eg Saunier Duval / Phonak who have a whole raft of positives, most people are caught out in other ways

The most effective busts have been things like Festina / op. Puerto and the French and Italian police getting tough (eg searching David Millar's flat)

What we need is the equivalent of a sporting fraud law in the Uk and more countries

The trouble is consistancy - I'd be interested to know the French doping authorities attitudes to the current tennis tournament in Paris. I'll bet their attitude will be very different in July come the TDF

 

[biking_fox]

Isn't that basically what Kimmage and others have been saying for years/decades.

And the response has always been, 'you just ain't good enough'. Which was fine until some of the sayers were also caught positive.

The only sure if impractical way is as said above, to test everyone, every stage. But it is curious how few other sports really focus on test regimes that cycling does have.

 

[Steve Austin]

WEll, Kohl has retired and has admitted he was doping from 19 just to keep up!

 

[yenrod]

No. If you watch grassroots racing, some guys are just stronger, end of.

However they suffer. When you see pros climbing Alps in the big ring, sat down and in the zone, you need to start asking questions...

I know, having rode a chaingang with Steve Cummings and I know why that man is a professional !

Believe me...

It was on a false-flat he - 'wound it up' !...never forget that !!!!!!!!!!