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Hidden motors in cycling: Van den Dreissche banned for 6 years, titles stripped

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Re: Hidden motors in cycling: Van den Dreissche banned for 6 years, titles stripped

#151

Post by altotrees »

Being a cycling fan and rider, and reading quite a bit about the various allegations and methods of cheating over the years have led to me becoming quite jaded — and not surprised in the least at this announcement.

Thinking of all the ways riders have cheated, from Lance's blood-doping to the Festina Affair to Marco Pantani...it just seems like many of the icons of the sport are mired in cheating and doping scandals, and this story is further evidence that while testing may have evolved, so too have the methods of cheating.

This leads me to wonder why cheating is so rampant in the sport? I used to think it was only due to lax testing policies, but now think it is more a product of the insane amount of stress the grueling courses put on a rider's body, along with the likelihood that anyone in this very individual sport is probably more competitive than most other people by nature.

It just disheartens me as a fan. I truly wonder sometimes if the testing and oversight can ever catch up with all the cheating. A part of me wants to think yes...but stories like this continue to make me think otherwise.

Re: Hidden motors in cycling: Van den Dreissche banned for 6 years, titles stripped

#152

Post by r00fus »

DINKDINK wrote: post #57
shpx wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should install Bluetooth sniffers before steep sections, it would be cool to see a little ping on the radio and then watch one of the racers magically pull ahead.

how would you filter out Bluetooth signals that are and aren't cheating signals?

By cross-correlating with performance shifts (ie, the pulling ahead comment above).

It's not a smoking gun, but it could be evidence perhaps to do more thoroughly audit that bike, for example.

Re: Hidden motors in cycling: Van den Dreissche banned for 6 years, titles stripped

#153

Post by r00fus »

methehack wrote: post #145
methehack wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While they're at it, they should make better humans.

My point here is that I have always found it so completely unfathomable that someone would spend so much time on an activity -- any activity -- and then cheat. Cheating is about looking better, not being better. At the same time, it robs others, equally devoted, of a fair basis of comparison. That it ever happens is amazing to me; yet, it happens all the time at the highest levels of competition. And it happens in ac…

Partially because we as society likely reward "results" better than "good effort" or "team playing".

I'll leave it an open question whether the money involved in these activities is an influencer, or whether it's just rotten ol human nature (addictiveness to winning).

Perhaps the reality is that cheating happens everywhere and only in the highest-stakes competitions do we notice and punish it?

Re: Hidden motors in cycling: Van den Dreissche banned for 6 years, titles stripped

#154

Post by bardworx »

oh_sigh wrote: post #119
bostonpete wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sharapova immediately took full responsibility for her recent failed test -- though in her case it seems likely it was an honest mistake...

It was a mistake that she didn't check that her drug was banned, but it wasn't a mistake taking the drug. Usually you would take that drug for a couple of weeks. She was taking it for 5+ years, for its doping powers.

From my understanding, a "cycle" of the drug is some amount of weeks but that doesn't imply that it cures whatever ailment / you never have to take it again.

More importantly, the difference between a regular dose and a doping dose is very severe (by a factor of 10).

When the blood tests are revealed, it would be easy to tell if she was just taking the doctor suggested dose or downing 10 pills per day for its increased endurance.

Re: Hidden motors in cycling: Van den Dreissche banned for 6 years, titles stripped

#156

Post by Symbiote »

ars wrote: post #137
nl wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much, much worse is the US mm/DD/yyyy format, especially if mixed with DD/mm/yyyy format, unlabeled, in the same file.

See, that's kinda my question. As a programmer I refuse to use anything except yyyy-mm-dd, unless I'm forced to. So do Europeans analogously refuse to use anything except decimal points, except where they have to?

Britain and Ireland use the "American" way (presumably, it's actually the British way).

Displaying English-formatted numbers is incorrect in the rest of Europe, and will confuse users. Programming languages handle this, but you still write pi = 3.14 in the code.

Note 123.456,78 is German, but Swiss is 123'456,78. I think.

(Displaying miles and yards, inches and 'letter' sized paper is also incorrect, but it's unfortunately not uncommon.)

Re: Hidden motors in cycling: Van den Dreissche banned for 6 years, titles stripped

#157

Post by Bootvis »

WalterBright wrote: post #92
soperj wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pretty sure the cork would break before your teeth.

I wouldn't want to test that theory.

Then you're not a professional cyclist ;) The lengths they will go to for a small advantage...

Re: Hidden motors in cycling: Van den Dreissche banned for 6 years, titles stripped

#158

Post by ars »

rasapetter wrote: post #146
ars wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, that's kinda my question. As a programmer I refuse to use anything except yyyy-mm-dd, unless I'm forced to. So do Europeans analogously refuse to use anything except decimal points, except where they have to?

Are you sure you didn't mean to write yyyy-mm-dd?

I did, thanks I fixed it. (If you delete your post, I'll delete mine and we won't clutter the thread.)

Re: Hidden motors in cycling: Van den Dreissche banned for 6 years, titles stripped

#159

Post by Symbiote »

ars wrote: post #138
imtringued wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what's so difficult to understand about calling a function like parseInteger(userEnteredNumber, defaultLocale) on user input and then calling something like formatInteger(numberToBeOutputted, defaultLocate) on numbers that will be shown to the users. Programming languages already have a fixed representation for decimal numbers that will be used regardless of the user locale which is generally always with…

It's more the confusion about seeing two kinds of numbers. If I see: 123,456 Is it a list of two numbers? Or a single number with a decimal?

In American, how do you know it's not 123 thousand etc?

Re: Hidden motors in cycling: Van den Dreissche banned for 6 years, titles stripped

#160

Post by hawkice »

Symbiote wrote: post #159
ars wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more the confusion about seeing two kinds of numbers. If I see: 123,456 Is it a list of two numbers? Or a single number with a decimal?

In American, how do you know it's not 123 thousand etc?

The are two ways to distinguish it being one number or two:

(1) Context. This helps most of the time. Not the most helpful for computers, or CSV files. (2) Space. 123,456 is one number and 123, 456 are two. Again, not _strictly_ helpful for CSV files, which is why people use e.g. TSV.

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