Jonathan Vaughters on cycle sport doping reform in Bicycling

 

Two days ago Bicycling carried a long interview here with Jonathan Vaughters, team boss of Garmin. Vaughters talks in details of his doping, the pressures to dope, why he quit and the continued need for doping reform and vigilance.

This insightful piece is particularly important in the light of Lance Armstrong's decision not to submit to arbitration over the accusations of doping over many years, despite having his legal complaint that the process was unfair being thrown out by a Texas court, albeit with some reservations. 

If the USO (organisers of the Tour de France) and the UCI do follow USADA's example and strip Armstrong of his seven Tour wins, it will as many have already acknowledged be hard to award his victories to anyone else given that blood doping now appears to have been widespread at that time with Armstrong being the only most successful. Perhaps the simplest solution would be to award the Tour 1999-2005 to EPO.   

Doping in cycling: arresting piece by Jonathan Vaughters + dispositions in Armstrong case

The subject of doping is again coming to prominence with a piece by Jonathan Vaughters, once a team mate of Lance Armstrong and now boss of the Garmin team, which coincides with the expected ruling this coming week by Judge Strauss in the Armstrong/USADA case.  

Vaughters tells here in The New York Times of the pressure to dope in the 1990s and early 2000s. He claims it was then easy to circumvent dope tests: 'When I was racing in the 1990s and early 2000s, the rules were easily circumvented by any and all — and if you wanted to be competitive, you first had to keep up.'

Velonation has details here of the latest moves in the Lance Armstrong/USADA case including WADA's backing of the USADA position.