Can you believe he's coming back? He just inked a 3 year deal to race road and mountain and says he's shooting for the 2008 Olympics.
Filip Meirhaeghe
- Thread starter Heidi
- Start date
Dude he's sooo old. He was like 34 when he got busted. . .but then again look at ol' Ned.
I'm surprised he can get sponsors! Specialized completely wiped away any evidence of their involvement with him immediately after he was busted. They removed his name and images from their website immediately and never spoke of him again.
Why not, everyone else that has been busted is coming back.
I like the Omerta we have in cycling. It crushes those with clean minds and consciences, and rewards those who are deceitful.
The Big Lebowski was wrong, man
The bums always win...
The Big Lebowski was wrong, man
The bums always win...
Though I do kinda feel that everyone should be given a second chance, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Look at Millar too, he'll be Horner's teammate next year (this year now I guess, eh?).
The same is gonna happen when Tyler comes back, because you know he will too.
I'd think that the shame would keep him away, mountain biking is a much, much, much smaller and tighter-knit sport than road, there are really only a couple of guys up for a win on any given day.
I say let them try and prove that he can do it without the juice, and if he fails, so be it.
JJames
The same is gonna happen when Tyler comes back, because you know he will too.
I'd think that the shame would keep him away, mountain biking is a much, much, much smaller and tighter-knit sport than road, there are really only a couple of guys up for a win on any given day.
I say let them try and prove that he can do it without the juice, and if he fails, so be it.
JJames
What? no, if anything you should have more respect for the guys who get caught and admit it, instead of the pathetic snivelling self-centered liars like Hamiltonsanjuro said:
pit:
I agree he's not the EPO guys like M & M, but he was blood doping. He didn't argue the fact that he had two different types of blood in his system, just argued how they got there. I like him a lot, and I want to give him the benifit of the doubt, but arguing this chimera/ghost twin thing just kind of bugged me.sanjuro said:
Just because people fight it doesn't mean that they're not guilty.
I'm all for redemption, look at Virenque, who you mentioned earlier. I totally love that guy now, he fell, and he picked himself back up to become the guy with the most polka-dot jerseys. It would really hurt if he was on the juice still, but I really don't want to believe that, same with Lance, I just don't think they are.
Blood doping is still doping, even if it's not with fancy medications.
Isn't Tyler's suspension almost up anyway?
It is hard for me to believe Tyler blood doped with someone else's blood. The chimera/twin defense was BS, but when faced with a BS charge, what else was he going to do?Just James said:
Maybe I am wrong, but I think Tyler will never admit to this charge. Is is an unrepenant liar and cheat, or an innocent man?
If he's faced with a BS charge, fight it tooth and nail, don't make up a super-flimsy defense for something that you didn't do.sanjuro said:
I'm not super familiar with his case, but I'm pretty sure that it'd be hard to prove that someone was blood doping with their own blood, and much easier to find blood that was someone else's, hence his chimera defense. Old-school blood-doping, before all of these newfangled chemicals and elixers.
I don't want to judge him, I don't know him, I don't know the whole case, there could be something huge that he knows that I'm missing. But I'm all for him when/if (and I'm sure he will) he comes back.
Doping is a slippery slope even to talk about. What I don't want to do is get into a discussion with cool peeps on my favorite site about stuff that we're probably never going to agree on, and has been beaten to death.
To sum up: I'm a big Tyler fan. I don't know if I believe him, but I'm willing to forgive. Same goes for Virenque, Millar, Meirhaeghe. And here's a blast from the past: Jerome Chiotti...
I'm the first person to say I think all the roadies are taking something, and probably most of the top XC guys, but to think he's dumb enough to take someone elses blood i don't think. The test is BS, the science behind it is on the voodoo side and the fact that they actually beleive that the test has no false positives so they've never calculated the rate, would get you laughed out of the real science world.
Let filip race, no body seems to car when an NFL or MLB player gets busted...so why would olympic sports be different.
Let filip race, no body seems to car when an NFL or MLB player gets busted...so why would olympic sports be different.
The only thing about the blood doping test is all that it does is prove you took someone else's blood, not your own.Just James said:
I used to make this joke, who blood would Tyler take? Lance's?
On a different point, people don't forgive when you haven't admitted guilt. Just look at Tookie Williams.
If Tyler admitted wrongdoing, by this point, most people would have forgiven him. By not admitting anything, he will never convince the doubters...
Interesting point of view in the latest Cycle Sport America magazine. . .
"I believe we expect too much from professional cyclists. We want them to be superhuman not only physically, but mentally and spiritually. We expect them to ride 200 km a day for 20 days at 50 km/hr, with only two days of rest inbetween, on pasta, vitamins and strength of heart. . ."
". . .Could it be that the distances, frequencies, and intensities of the races we expect our riders to race were established in a time when dope controls were inaccurate or non-existant, giving us a false reading as to human capability and endurance?"
". . .the sport we love so much will be tainted to the point where it will disappear or become a farce like many other professional sports."
Sorry I couldn't type up the whole letter, it's freaking long and I couldn't find a link.
"I believe we expect too much from professional cyclists. We want them to be superhuman not only physically, but mentally and spiritually. We expect them to ride 200 km a day for 20 days at 50 km/hr, with only two days of rest inbetween, on pasta, vitamins and strength of heart. . ."
". . .Could it be that the distances, frequencies, and intensities of the races we expect our riders to race were established in a time when dope controls were inaccurate or non-existant, giving us a false reading as to human capability and endurance?"
". . .the sport we love so much will be tainted to the point where it will disappear or become a farce like many other professional sports."
Sorry I couldn't type up the whole letter, it's freaking long and I couldn't find a link.
Dopers SUCK! All the worldly succes cannot subdue their demons...they will have to live with the guilt whether they are caught or not. I remember when Philipe got caught their was a lot of outspoken, outraged professionals. I am sure he will not be completely comfortable back on the circuit.
sanjuro said:
Yeah back in the day it was all about endurace, now stage racing is who survive having the crap beat out of the speed wise day after day after day.
Yeah it will be interesting to see what happens, if the road sie is any indication, after a few months no one will care anymore.Heath Sherratt said:
If Filip goes to Sea Otter this year, I propose everyone wears a "Dopers Suck" t-shirt at the short track.
Bwar. I'm down. Doubt he'll show...MtnbikeMike said:
L
luelling
Guest
I just have one thing to say.....I have a friend who placed 9th at this years national champs for the single speed class and I believe he was 13th (it was top 15 and there about) in the XC class. He is pro and works his butt off and I know he doesn't dope. I know that being at the top for our nation is a bit different from a world cup, but he is still good. I'm a bit split on the doping "theory" that most people do it. Him and I have talked about it some and he basically thinks that if someone does its becuase they are already losing, ie Chris Shepard (who is a locally boy to where I live). Thats for mountain biking thought, not road.Zutroy said:
He does however have a friend that races on a Division II team for road and he says that basically everybody dopes. This is second hand info I'm getting, but the reason for doping is that its competitive to make Div I and in Div II they don't drug test as heavily.
L
luelling
Guest
Ever make a mistake in life? or your profesional life? I have waaaaaaaaaay more respect for those who nut up and admit it than for those who dodge it. I prayed that Heras would come up negative on the second test, but my old man was right and he tested positive. He has been dodging it like Tyler and I think someone like Millar or Filip who admits it and comes back will be a valuable asset to cycling.MtnbikeMike said:
I loved watching Jerome Cheotti (sp?) race and it really sucked when he was found guilty of doping along a with a bunch of the Festina team in 1998. Ultimately it is an afflication that our sport has to deal with, but public flogging of athletes who haven't even proven guilty (by Dick "the idiot" Pound) does not help mountain biking or road cycling.
So hate the dopers, but most of the people chasing them are worse than they are.
I agree, let them redeem themselves. They have one chance to do it, in my opinion.luelling said:
The thing about Chiotti is that not only did he dope on the road and mountain, he colluded with another racer to cheat at the French National Championships, buying off that racer for first place.
And to say that the people chasing them are worse? Yes, they can be over-zealous, and I think the whole "guilty 'till proven inncocent" thing is pretty crappy, I'm sure it's worse for the riders. But at the end of the day, they wouldn't be there if it weren't for people doping. It's not a case of the chicken or the egg, the needles came first.
This isn't like a momentary lapse of judgement. Meirhaeghe made the decision to dope, got on a training program designed around doping, as well as doing whatever was needed to pass the drug tests. Who knows how long he was on the juice, possibly his whole professional career.luelling said:
I believe it is very hard to catch the cheaters. Keep in mind Millar never failed a drug test before his suspension. I am not sure what can be done to clean up the sport.
luelling said:
So you have more respect for a guy who, while admitting he doped, denounced his positive test as "bad luck"? A guy who was complaing about "cheaters" cutting the course at a world cup, 20 minutes after giving a blood sample that later tested positive for EPO? I remember SuspectDevice here on the 'monkey mentioning how in '98 or '99 how Filip and a couple of other riders were not allowed to race because of a high hematocrit. Could he have been doping his career?
David Millar, yeah, he sure nutted up and admitted it:
Velonews said:
Like Sanjuro said, it wasn't a quick "oops, I just took it once." He (Filip) made a decision to take the stuff. And, like all dopers, he likely would have kept on doing it had he not tested positive. And what's to keep him from doing it again? He got around the tests before; he could do it again.
In my opinion, it's the sponsors and the business aspect that creates the neccessity to dope. I actually feel bad for riders who are caught doping, when so many other people feel hatred and anger. The decision to dope is not made because a rider has the urge to "cheat", and the decision does not make a rider vile or evil, it is a decision that is made from the huge weight on a riders' shoulders to get results for their sponsors. The racers are not corrupt or "deceitful" they are simply pawns in a sport that is saturated with huge corporations. I wish there were more huge, title sponsors within the cycling industry for racers and teams, sponsors who actually are a part of and a fan of the cycling community, but instead we have multi billion dollar conglomerate companies who only see cycling as a way to advertise their product. So of course when a racer does not produce the results that get the sponsor good publicity then they either need to succumb to the pressure from director-sportiffs or team managers to dope, or they lose their job. Most riders obviously do not want to lose their beloved profession so they make the decision to dope, and then when/if they are caught doing it, the same sport and fans that created them and that they love turn on them and rip them to pieces, calling them "snivelling, self centered liars" or saying that "the cheaters deserve to be taken out and shot." I do not applaud the decision to dope and I wish that the sport we all love so much was clean, but the truth is it will take a HUGE change to bring that around, and attacking riders the second they don't have a negative test, or sh!t talking them when they try to come back is just going to destroy biking from the inside out.
Riders dope, not because of some obligation to their high-paid sponsors, but because their talent does not meet their egos.Muuqi said:
What if a rider is a just middle-of-the-packer? Does he accept his limitations and work at doing a good job in whatever role his talents place him, or does cheat to improve?
Or take Thomas Frischknecht. I looked through his palmares, and he finished 2nd in the WC's 5 times. One of the riders who beat him have been suspended for EPO use, and Frischknecht won his only world championship after the cheater, a middle-of-packer before doping, confessed.
Would Frischknecht won 5 championships if he doped? Sure, but he accepted being 2nd and worked hard to stay with the dopers until he was vindicated as a clean racer.
It is romantic to think every doper is a Marco Pantani character, an extremely talented rider who held onto to greatness by any means necessary.Muuqi said:
Yes, doping exists at the highest levels to the Expert racers. There is no easy answer but simple vigilance: continued strigent testing.
I've always respected Jerome Chiotti, as he came forward on his own, and showed some real guilt.
Meirhaeghe, on the other hand has always been dirty in my mind, at least since I saw that picture of him winning Houfallize in '98
Anyone who remebers this picture remebers the huge rash he had down the side of his neck. Something that I was warned about in school as a sign of Testosterone use...
I still take the depressing POV that everyone is dirty except for people that I know personally, and have known since they were green juniors. So basically I think Adam Craig and Willow Koerber are clean...
Meirhaeghe, on the other hand has always been dirty in my mind, at least since I saw that picture of him winning Houfallize in '98
Anyone who remebers this picture remebers the huge rash he had down the side of his neck. Something that I was warned about in school as a sign of Testosterone use...
I still take the depressing POV that everyone is dirty except for people that I know personally, and have known since they were green juniors. So basically I think Adam Craig and Willow Koerber are clean...