Drugs in Sport

Then there is his relationship with Jama Aden, Farah has denied knowing him (then backtracked a bit when somebody published photos of the 2 men together) , then denied he was ever coaching him, saying he was a mere 'facilitator' when Farah was training in Ethiopia. Make of that what you will, but 2 of Aden's athletes that he does coach have been banned for doping violations in the past few years. 

Then there is the bit about the doorbell not working. And the bit where he is unbeatable at his race distances. None of them on their own anything near enough to think Farah could be cheating, but added together, it doesn't paint a brilliant picture. Guilty ?? I have no idea, but there is certainly enough there to be suspicious of, given the history of the sport. That bit is important of yer ever in any doubt about someone, have a look at the history of the sport & what it tells you, it helps when drawing a conclusion. That conclusion is rarely positive though. 

It is a banned substance if administered by intra muscular injection (which Wiggins' use of it was, even though he claimed to be injection free in his autobiography) - http://www.sportireland.ie/Anti-Doping/Athlete-Zone/Advisory-Notes/ , as incidentally, was Mo Farah's. Hence the need for the TUE exemption, if it wasn't banned, they wouldn't have needed to apply for a TUE. 

The large stock of it British cycling/Sky had was described at yesterday's hearing as too much for one individual. So either you believe they had a shed load of it just in case a close to retirement cyclist needed it in the future, or there were other cyclists using the stuff as well. I'm fairly confident there as to which of those options are correct. 

TUE's are a legal/semi legal fudge, how about this for simplicity, if an athlete is sick, they don't compete, or compete without the drug, finish 22nd, write it off to a bad day & maybe they will have a better day next time when their ailment has cleared up. If this is a career long issue for some of them, pack it in or change to another sports discipline that the drug isn't required. 

I would dispute that Wiggins wasn't suspected, maybe not by the general public, but there were a good few informed people suspicious for a good while. For meself, I thought he was clean when he won the TDF (he certainly wasn't) but what made me suspect him was actually the performance of Froome, who was visibly stronger than him in 2012 and would have won were it not for team orders. After that; this is from the TDF thread in 2014, posted by meself, and there were plenty other sceptics on that thread, Landon, Shamtheram, Denis, Sid- to name a few;  actually that whole thread is worth a read just to see how correct we were proved 3 years later. 

That's Matt Lawton again, him who broke some of the stories about Sky & went investigating Brad's jiffy bag of whatever it was nobody can remember was in it. So he has a good track record in this stuff. 

The article mentions EPO a few times, for some reason. That is a specific mention (but careful not to associate it with Farah) and not a random one, it is mentioned for a reason, and likely a reason he can't legally say. 

Well, at one stage in the past few years, Sky stated that their lads giving up Nutella was one of their competitive advantages, so anything is possible. 

Basically he outlines the series of excuses/bizarre coincidences that Sky etc want us to believe and rubbishes them. But also tells the tale of a kitten he had that drowned & when he told his 6 year old daughter what happened, she refused to believe it & in her own fantasy world, was seeing the kitten alive & well from time to time. There are lads on this thread seeing dead kittens alive & well, and they aren't 6 years of age. 

As regards the drugs, seems Sky/Dr Freeman/British cycling ordered 60 or 70 vials of triamcinolone for their HQ. Wiggins's use of it accounts for 3 or 4 vials. Dave said he got a shot or 2 of it himself, for a knee problem, so did some other Sky (non cyclist) employee. As for the rest of them ??

Well, sure this high tech team with their adherence to the theory of marginal gains, giving up nutella, taking lads own pillows on tour so they could sleep easier, training at altitude & all the rest, well, they forgot to keep medical records of medicines administered to cyclists (which is a medical dereliction of duty & professionally very serious for the doctors involved, there will be more on this angle) , so they don't really know where it all went. I would have a fair idea where to start looking though, all the same. 

There was also the case of Dr Freeman ordering testosterone patches (downright illegal) and these may or may not have been returned to sender when another Sky/GB cycling team doctor refused to sign off on the delivery. Think the official line on this is either ordered in error or not for cyclists use. (ie Kitten alive & well, not dead at all) 

Other Sky doctors were seemingly concerned about Freeman's use of triamcinolone & TUE's, so they changed their policy for TUE application, meaning 2 team docs had to sign off on it. Freeman asked for another one for Wiggins for the Tour of Britain 2013, none of the other 3 Sky Doc's would sign off on it, he didn't get one and finished nowhere, even though he was pre race favourite. This will be fun to watch, with nearly daily revelations at this stage. One of the Doctors, more so out of professional concerns, will crack at some point, I would be certain of it. 

As for Mo, here ya go; https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/mar/05/nike-accused-hindering-usada-alberto-salazar-doping-investigation?CMP=twt_a-sport_b-ussports_c-us_g-1

Nike have a bit of form here too, remember the World Cup final in '98 and them making a clearly ill/unfit Ronaldo play in it ?? No allegation that they drugged Ronaldo, but very much an allegation that their commercial concerns overrode the well being & health of one of their big names. In this case, it looks like their commercial concerns are overriding a USADA investigation into Salazar. I wonder why, they hardly fear the outcome of it or anything mad like that ???

I really want Farah to go the full Lance Armstrong with open confessions on Piers Morgan, or maybe on 'This Morning' with the goofy one with the cracking rack while making a Quorn lasagne with the camp Italian chef.