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Suppose I'll hold off on buying any groupset stuff for the Field for a week then...
It would be a good idea , however, I'm guessing they'll only have flat mount front brakes and your fork is Post mount, yeah?
 
It would be a good idea , however, I'm guessing they'll only have flat mount front brakes and your fork is Post mount, yeah?

Very correct. However, I could always go DA everything except the brakes themselves (presuming compatibility won't be an issue).
 
Very correct. However, I could always go DA everything except the brakes themselves (presuming compatibility won't be an issue).
Very true, Sir. You never know, they might release a DA post mount brake (fingers crossed).
 
came through on twitter.
I'm more interested in where can these can be sold to later (as illegal goods), rather than in the small fish who do the legwork. I've heard a lot of speculation that stolen bikes are shipped to mainland Asia, but it seems unrealistic to me that countries with such low purchasing power could pay enough to offset the risks involved in such a big illegal operation, plus the logistics of shipping it abroad etc. To me it seems much more probable they are somehow disposed of within Japan (either as parts or something).
 
That would have an impact I think. As long as those that benefit financially or otherwise remain impervious to the penalties they will tacitly approve of the actions of the individual, or at least remain deliberately ignorant.

I think that for all the idiosyncrasies (so many of them harmful) of cycling's sponsorship model, in the post-Festina, post-T-Mobile age this kind of deterrent is to some extent built into the way cycling makes money. Sponsors are so horrified by doping that the merest whiff will send them running, and this is especially true in France and Germany. Needless to say these are incredibly important markets for cycling.

The flip side is that you can take most of Vaughters' hot air (so much hot air) for what it's worth, but he's kept a team going for a long ass time, and that's because the rhetoric of clean cycling sells. Same goes for a team like Giant-Sunweb. Some will seize on the word "rhetoric," but this is no 1999 "Tour of Renewal" bullshit. It takes immense cynicism to argue that teams like these are orchestrating doping programs on the order of USPS or ONCE.

Teams like Katusha, Astana, and even Tinkoff are to some extent immune from these commercial pressures, and yeah, this is where the model breaks down, but I'm not sure the ideas linked above will scare them much either. Still think these teams are not as chock-full-o-dopers as many imply, but this is another conversation entirely.

Regarding doping in cycling I'm agnostic with a tendency toward optimism (yes, thanks so much for asking, everyone). One of the things I love about cycling is the incredibly high standard that fans and sponsors demand re: PEDs. One thing the "everyone's doping" and "everybody's clean" crowd can agree on is that if you tested any other major sport at the level of cycling, you'd catch everyone and their dogs at it. (Okay they did catch Valverde's dog at it, but you know what I mean.)
 
you levy the bans against the team as a whole and the fines against the team sponsors and see how quickly things change.

You wouldn't see doping rides back after their 2 week holidays like nothing happened. Because they wouldn't be a financially viable prospect for any team to take that risk.
You would find the teams themselves take over the bulk of the testing and enforcement at the behest of their sponsors.
 
@theBlob it sounds good for sure, and a lot of teams do this sort of thing already. Many will look over the bio passports of riders they're looking to hire, and will even decline to hire a guy with fishy numbers. As for internal testing I'm not sure, but I want to say that's happening too.

The first big obstacle to this plan--after the abrupt mass exodus of sponsors and probably a riders' strike, I mean the first really immovable object--would be a body like the CAS. I'm no expert, but can you see them upholding a ban on an entire team in the case of an individual? And there's the question of how, legally, to get the sponsors to pony up? Who in the first place would back a sport where there's even a non-zero chance that not only will you fail to make the meager-to-zip ROI you expected in the first place, but that you'll actually be paying some dude in Switzerland (I guess?) for the privilege? Then there are labor laws (god love 'em, and we should) that protect the livelihoods of hundreds of riders and team staff. Have fun in court forever--or rather, I suspect, for a very short time.

Even aside from all of that, imagine a case like the recent Yates positive with this rule, or whatever, in place. (As an aside, he got four months, in the heart of the season, not two weeks, for the most innocuous thing that can possibly be classified as "doping.") Orica, one of the most popular teams in recent memory, goes up in smoke because of... carelessness? A couple dozen riders and that number x2 or 3 of staff lose their jobs due to a lost form. Even if we could enforce that sort of thing, would the sport be better off?

Definitely don't wanna blow smoke at you man, I just enjoy the conversation :tup
 
All good points mate, but what you are effectively saying is the current business structure couldn't survive such a radical readjustment. Well, that is the point right? The system we have encourages cheats and encourages teams and sponsors to look the other way. 4 months for Yates is a joke. He did his winter training and sat out nothing and was back for the tour.
Look at that idiotic ban Conatdor got. By the time there were a few appeals his 2 year ban was backdated and he sat out just a few months. And there he is again earning the big bucks and his team is carrying on as if nothing happened.
The system is broken and if any of us expect it to become a clean sport then it is going to take a reorganizing of how the money is made and the who received the fines for transgressions.
Most of these riders with their asthma and other bs medical complaints know nothing but cheating. They cannot be trusted.

How many are actually clean I have no idea but given the culture very few I would suspect.

The other option is not to care. I find it hard to cheer for cheats though. I think that's why I never watch or have much interest in pro cycling.
 
We are always looking for the cyclists and drugs, if it was mechanical doping the teams should be held responsible. In this way they check the bike they should check the cyclists! And the team should be punished, otherwise teams don't make sense.
 
Ha ha ha! Good info! I wonder what his bro had to say about it. Of course he must have known.
 
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