In reply to Tyler:
> What was the power data supposed to prove? That what he was doing was within expected norms?
Yes, although the data set presented by Sky was clearly cherry picked and everything done to minimize the actual values used for the comparisons. Does anyone really believe they don´t know EXACTLY how much difference an oval chain ring makes? Margins separating the elite riders are in the fractions of 1%, and we are supposed to buy a measurement inaccuracy of up to 6%? Maybe if it were confirmed by Father Christmas...
I can´t see why Sky are put on such a pedestal in the UK, as many things they did are clearly dodgy (sponsor aside...)
- At the time of Wiggins´ first tour victory they still employed Dr. Geert Leinders, who is now banned for doping activities before his time with Sky. Unlikely he forgot everthing he knew when switching employers, so what is the exact, other expertise he had been hired for?
- Same with Servais Knaven, convicted by a French court in 2001 as a doper. Why did Sky go through the farce of having these court documents reexamined by some shady, ill defined "expert gremium" that absolved Knaven from the same accusations? Why him, what does he know/do?
- Why have Peter Verbeken (ex US postal) as a physio? According to Brailsford, Verbeken never knew anything about doping in the Armstrong years, which is either a lie or proves blatant incompetence.
- Why do the Sky riders look as if they were anorexic, without apparently losing either stamina or power? As one German newspaper put it, the other teams also don´t serve pork knuckles and dumplings for breakfast, so what is the supposed difference in diet that gives the Sky riders their power / weight advantage?
Years ago riders were experimenting with drugs like AICAR and GW 1516. Both drugs are ridiculously dangerous, especially the latter, and IIRC banned since 2008/9. My suspicion would rather be that they found a novel way to adjust bodyweight that will probably not even be banned yet.
- And finally, two missed doping tests with excuses that very much sound like the dog ate my homework....
Call me cynical but the entire testing charade proves nothing at all. How often was Armstrong tested negative, never mind the disappeared positive tests?
CB
PS: No one commenting on testicular cancer and cycling?