Team_Italia, a.k.a. Official "Mafiosi" Thread

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by garo

Bob Lefsetz:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/08/samsung-armstrong/

Bill Gifford:
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor....html?page=all

Enjoyed the Lefsetz piece, except for the multiple reader comments congratulating Barry R. on "his latest great piece."

Now we only need to see some justice done w.r.to the greatest fraud in history ... and it ain't related to sports or tech. gizmos.

[ewmayer]

Pearls Before Swine on How to save F-loads of weight on hill climbs

[Xyzzy]

There are too many links to post for today. It appears the dam has burst.

[garo]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

There are too many links to post for today. It appears the dam has burst.

Indeed. Cyclingnews.com is one start for those not in the know.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by garo

Indeed. Cyclingnews.com is one start for those not in the know.

Gah - I can't take that kind of insanely over-busy website layout. Here are link to a pair of NYT articles on the USADA report, which make the point that many of the testing gaps still exist:

Report Describes How Armstrong and His Team Eluded Doping Tests: Lance Armstrong was central to a sprawling doping program, officials said, yet he used both cunning and farcical methods to beat his sport’s drug-testing system.

The techniques used by Armstrong and his teammates to elude positive tests were used by many cyclists, and many believe those tactics are still in use today. They often exploited weaknesses in the antidoping system, many of which still persist.

The most basic technique outlined in the report, based on affidavits from some of Armstrong’s former teammates, was simply running away or hiding.

“The most conventional way that the U.S. Postal riders beat what little out-of-competition testing there was, was to simply use their wits to avoid the testers,” the report concluded.

Ah yes, the old "slippery testees" ploy. That one drives the enforcement folks nuts.

For an Armstrong Insider, a Passion for Cycling Gave Way to Corruption: By the time Lance Armstrong’s teammate Christian Vande Velde hit his early 20s, cycling had taken a dark turn for him as a professional rider.

In his affidavit, which was among the antidoping agency’s evidence, Vande Velde, who married his high school sweetheart, described how he went from boy-next-door to athlete trained to drip testosterone-infused oil on his tongue to recover faster and help Armstrong win.

“I never dreamed it would come to that,” Vande Velde said Thursday from his home in Lemont, Ill., one day after his doping admissions became public.

Vande Velde cannot remember life without cycling. His father, John, competed at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics and is a Hall of Famer, and at one time traveled the country with a portable velodrome for impromptu track cycling events. John Vande Velde had also appeared in the classic cycling film “Breaking Away” as one of the Team Cinzano bad guys.

LOL@ the Breaking Away reference. Bad, wicked, naughty, evil pump-wielding Cinzano bad guys!

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Ah yes, the old "slippery testees" ploy.

I thought that Armstrong beat that problem years ago.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

I thought that Armstrong beat that problem years ago.

Alas that proved only a half-measure. (I know: shame on us.)

NYT op-ed today looks at EPO in a broader cultural context - Amgen Tour of California, anyone?

Op-Ed Contributor: A Drug to Quicken the Blood: The Lance Armstrong report didn’t explain the seductive power of the blood booster he used or how health care providers and our culture pushed its irresponsible use.

But it wasn’t until 1994 that the marketing of these drugs burst into the mainstream. Amgen and Johnson & Johnson began trying to expand the uses of their energy-boosting drugs to include treatment for fatigue, depression and quality-of-life issues. Commercials depicted old, slow-moving people who, after a shot of Procrit, displayed a zest for life, and a young cancer patient, who after an EPO injection happily returned to work.

The aggressive marketing worked. Soon, exhausted but otherwise healthy people were begging doctors for a shot of what one Amgen executive called “red juice.”

And many doctors went along with these off-label promotions, even though regulators hadn’t approved them. Indeed, in March 2007, Congressional hearings revealed that many oncologists were profiting. The drug makers paid doctors to prescribe the blood booster in high doses to unwitting patients. Some earned honorariums for speaking to their peers about the unapproved, off-label uses; others pocketed “education grants,” or joined marketing studies that never quite addressed the safety of high doses even as they recommended them. The two drug companies were told to stop paying doctors for overprescribing, but that flew in the face of our cultural belief: if a little of something is good, then a lot must be better.

Increasingly, scientists were discovering that EPO doping doesn’t work so well — in fact it can be lethal. Yes, it multiplies your red blood cells. But too many red blood cells turn your blood to sludge and make the heart work overtime. The drug raised the risks of strokes, blood clots and heart attacks. Even worse was that EPO could potentially multiply cancer cells. In fact, just last year, regulators warned most patients they should try and stay off the red juice completely.

But it’s too late. We live in a world where the 7-year-old reality TV star Honey Boo Boo feels the need to drink “go-go juice” (a blend of Mountain Dew and Red Bull) just to maintain her energy and ratings; where a seven-time winner of the Tour de France feels emboldened to lie repeatedly about doping; where doctors would risk the health of their patients to make them better, quicker, and to make themselves richer.

Back in Fall of 2005 when I was in hospital after getting hit by a red-light-running SUV (with pretty much every large bone in my lower body broken), I was convinced by one of the helpful doctors at Stanford Med. Center to enroll in an Amgen-funded study of whether EPO could aid recovery of trauma patients such as myself. In retrospect, I see now it was just another bullshit way for them to try to extend patent coverage, by discovering "new, exciting uses". Wish I'd known then what i know now about the incredibly sleazy way in which Big Pharma operates; I'd have told them to f*** off. (I don't know whether I got drug or placebo, obviously, but just as a matter of principle).

[garo]

Must read for the day. Remember that Paul Kimmage tussled with Armstrong in a press conference among other things and LA put out the cancer card to try and humiliate him.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/othe...s-3266380.html

[Dubslow]

The original FML website, the French viedemerde.fr ("shitty life"), has a daily VDM posted by a celebrity. Guess who today's is?

http://www.public.fr/News/VDM/La-VDM...stifere-338783

I'm having some trouble rendering it into English (my French isn't that good ) but he does say things like "my friends are turning their backs on me" and "only Sean Penn is with me"...

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Dubslow

I'm having some trouble rendering it into English (my French isn't that good ) but he does say things like "my friends are turning their backs on me" and "only Sean Penn is with me"...

Maybe LA managed to convince SP that he (LA, that is, not SP) is in fact a Haitian earthquake orphan.

Dear Mister Penn Sean:

I hope this missive finds you blessedly well, Jesus willing. I am writing in hopes you may be able to help me and my fellow Haitian albino earthquake orphan bicyclists. You are very famous and populaire here in Haiti thanks to your famous movies like The Pulp of Fiction and generous relief work. We were recently falsely accused of blood doping and as a result our club funding was revoked by the government of Haiti..."

[pinhodecarlos]

I was wondering if money will be returned if I give back my Lance Armstrong Biography book.