At this point I’d prefer to see a Looney Tunes style race with no rules at all.
The Enhanced Games: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/68672104
Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
101–110 of 354 posts
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#102I am definitely a layperson when it comes to organized sports, but from my POV it seems like competitive cycling attracts WAY more fraud/cheating/doping/etc. than many other kinds of sports. At least I have heard about it a lot more. I wonder why that is.
Honestly there's an (unhealthy) dose of self-loathing to want to bike long distances uphill for several days during the European summer
But I'm not surprised they want "extra help" with that
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#103The lengths people will go to to cheat in sports is super interesting - sometimes more interesting than the sport itself! There should be a global all-sport annual prize for red-teaming (against the cheaters).
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it's such a tough sport. The Tour de France was originally intended to be so tough that only one person might finish it. In other words it was set up to be extremely hard for most normal athletes to compete without some kind of artificial assistance. So there was a history of drug taking from the start. But after the scandals of 20 years ago it became one of the most tested sports in the world. So now, in my…
> drugs are not used much they just switched to drugs you cant easily detect.
"just"
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#105The lengths people will go to to cheat in sports is super interesting - sometimes more interesting than the sport itself! There should be a global all-sport annual prize for red-teaming (against the cheaters).
And the black maillot for the most powerful doping chemicals goes to…
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Basketball isn’t as demanding physically as cycling. You need to be fit but not to the extreme degree cycling demands. I would expect doping to be most beneficial in sports where pure physicality is needed. Marathon, triathlon, track running.
There's a lot more money in basketball, though. And money is the number 1 incentive. Growth hormones might be used.
You can reasonably assume that some NBA players are using PEDs. However, the effect is different. To be an NBA basketball player you need to have several attributes, such as height and hand-eye coordination, that cannot be affected by PEDs AFAIK. If basketbally are using PEDs, it is probably to recover faster, which means coming back from injury or training more. More training can lead to a higher level of skill, but it's a second order effect. It's not like cycling where, for example, EPO directly affects performance on the bike.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can swap bikes in the middle of the race if you have a mechanical issue. There was one famous time where someone climbed impossibly fast, had a mechanical at the top of the mountain, then finished the race on a different bike, leading us to forever wonder.
The first athlete to be sanctioned for mechanical doping did exactly that. Inspectors found a bicycle in her pit with a hidden motor. Her excuse was "the bicycle was owned by a friend and was taken to the pit in error". The bike looked exactly the same as the bike she was riding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femke_Van_den_Driessche#Allega...
Except in cyclocross you swap bikes constantly during the race so the current one can be cleaned of mud before it blocks the wheels from spinning.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#108I am definitely a layperson when it comes to organized sports, but from my POV it seems like competitive cycling attracts WAY more fraud/cheating/doping/etc. than many other kinds of sports. At least I have heard about it a lot more. I wonder why that is.
it's a safe bet that your big money sports (not cycling) have a lot more doping than cycling. the issue is that you can't report what you don't know.
* cycling is a mix of moderate money and lots of drug testing. there are significant incentives to dope, but it's fairly hard to do these days since there is a lot of testing.
* big money sports (in the us especially - nfl, mlb, nba) are the jokes of the testing world. they rarely test and often inform their athletes when a test is coming. the big money basically assures that the incentive to dope is also big. but you'll never get caught if the testing process is a joke, so there is nothing to report.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#109I am definitely a layperson when it comes to organized sports, but from my POV it seems like competitive cycling attracts WAY more fraud/cheating/doping/etc. than many other kinds of sports. At least I have heard about it a lot more. I wonder why that is.
it's a safe bet that your big money sports (not cycling) have a lot more doping than cycling. the issue is that you can't report what you don't know. * cycling is a mix of moderate money and lots of drug testing. there are significant incentives to dope, but it's fairly hard to do these days since there is a lot of testing. * big money sports (in the us especially - nfl, mlb, nba) are the jokes of the testing world.…
>they rarely test and often inform their athletes when a test is coming. the big money basically assures that the incentive to dope is also big. but you'll never get caught if the testing process is a joke, so there is nothing to report.
This reminds me of compliance training when I worked at a trading firm.
>Canada is perceived to have the least corrupt stock exchange in the world.
>>Makes sense ... wait perceived?
>Yes.
>>So no one looks at the actual amount of fraud?
>No.
>>...
>...
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is pay off greater in cycling than other sports? Salary of the top riders? Compared to say NBA players, pro cyclist make relatively little. Tadej Pogacar (best and top paid cyclist) makes about $8M (euros) in salary per year. Steph Curry (highest paid) NBA player makes $55M (dollars) in salary per year.
Basketball isn’t as demanding physically as cycling. You need to be fit but not to the extreme degree cycling demands. I would expect doping to be most beneficial in sports where pure physicality is needed. Marathon, triathlon, track running.
have you seen the physiques and workloads that nba/nhl/mlb players are dealing with these days? these athletes have more incentive than cyclists to dope ($$$), and the testing in those sports is a joke.
there are obvious performance benefits for traditional endurance sports, but the testing infrastructure is pretty robust and the financial incentives are much less than those big team sports. it's harder to dope (and get away with it) and the financial pressure is less.