Smithers MINNEAPOLIS - Old HALOSCAN comments, please discontinue the use of these comments.
If Riis does admit, you can damn well be assured that he'll pull a Basso and say he rode the TdF clean in '96...
I don't think there's a chance in hell that Riis will admit to anything.
I can't see how admitting to doping could possibly be a "cool fad." But if you're halfway smart and have something in your past that you're not so proud of, what better time to come clean than when half your teammates are confessing? That isn't to say there is not any personal risk involved in doing so - Zabel has a lot to lose, for example. I think it is interesting that the Telekom riders say they decided to dope once they became convinced they couldn't keep up. For every rider resorting to doping to win, there must be 10 others who resorted to it out of fear and desperation. The real crooks are the doctors -- Conconi, Ferrari, Cecchini, Fuentes, et al -- who appear to have served as the conduit of blood doping into the peloton.
I imagine that it is tremendous relief to get it out into the open after all these years.
Team CSC Press Release
[25.05 16:19] Concerning the current debate in Germany, Bjarne Riis would like to give the following statement:
After the long run of confessions concerning the Telekom team in the 1990s, I have decided to give a statement about my involvement.
I have decided this for two reasons.
First of all, I'm doing this to keep the focus on the work we are doing today that keeps cycling in the right perspective. The massive steps we have taken to fight doping and the ways in which we have secured that the team rests on the right and proper foundations.
I think if we are to talk about doping, we should talk about what to do now and not about the mistakes in the past. The recent developments in Germany have taken the balance out of this and therefore I want to set the record straight. And I want to do this, because the future of cycling needs the right focus.
Second of all, I'm doing this to get rid of the endless discussions about things that are truly in the past and that I personally have put behind a long time ago. I don't want my personal past to overshadow that work and brilliant effort that Team CSC is doing today. We are the number one team in the world for the second year running and I want my riders and sponsors to be proud of that. They work, within the rules, with passion, professionalism and commitment and I want them to keep on doing that. When I was a rider in the 1990s, I worked extremely hard to get my results. I worked extremely hard, day in day out and I sacrificed a lot just even to be part of the best. In that time, the perspective on doping and preparation was wrong and misguided.
That also means that I did things that I shouldn't have and I have regretted that ever since. Those were mistakes that I take the full responsibility for and I don't have anyone to blame but myself. We all make mistakes and I think my biggest mistake was to let my ambition get the better of me. That I have had to deal with a long time ago and I am glad to say that I am a lot wiser now. Both in my personal and in my professional life.
I don't want the mistakes of my personal past to stand in the way of the work we are doing today. I did what it took to compete at the highest level back then, and it's a deep satisfaction for me that those days are long gone and the sport has moved in the right direction. If that wasn't the case, I wouldn't be here today.
I have learned from my past – for better and for worse. The experience and wisdom I have gained informed my decision to come back to cycling and has energized me to create the best team in the world.
I doped in the 90s, too.
I doped in the 90s, too.
I think we are talking about performance enhancing drugs...
i bet my dope was better than yours ... wasn't performance enhancing ... but mmm...
"Enhancing" is a very grey word.
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