The fatal blow cycling wont recover from

Not at all. I find cycling almost as uninteresting as football. I've never watched the TdF.

I don't bother watching the bikes, but during the highlights there is some spectacular footage of some of the very scenic locations through which the race progresses.

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Originally Posted by Slunnie

Absolutely! Just about every man and his dog will stay up until 2 in the morning, watch TdF and turn up for work again with eyes half stuck shut. :D

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I'm with Ron, watching cycling ranks somewhere between watching grass grow and synchronised swimming as far as entertainment goes from where I sit. I guarantee I won't lose one minutes sleep while it's on. ;)

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Originally Posted by Homestar

I'm with Ron, watching cycling ranks somewhere between watching grass grow and synchronised swimming as far as entertainment goes from where I sit. I guarantee I won't lose one minutes sleep while it's on. ;)

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Yep x2 ;)
I think watching synchronised swimming would be a lot more entertaining:p

Forget the motors, electromagnets are the go now, apparently.

Mechanical doping: A brief history | Cyclingnews.com

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Originally Posted by vnx205

I don't bother watching the bikes, but during the highlights there is some spectacular footage of some of the very scenic locations through which the race progresses.

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TdF has to do so much for tourism over there. What a spectacular location.

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Originally Posted by bob10

Forget the motors, electromagnets are the go now, apparently.

Mechanical doping: A brief history | Cyclingnews.com

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That's the wheel one I was talking about earlier.

Speaking about cycling, there is an ad with Anna Meares on tv, she stands in front of what looks like boxes, about shoulder height, and does a standing jump , from the floor to the top of the box. Talk about lower body strength. Impressed me.

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Originally Posted by Slunnie

This blew up with some girl in the MTB racing or Cross-triathlon or something and it's publicity has been great - it's making people get off their asses and do something. This isn't comparable to drugs at all, they way they were testing for drugs like EPO and testosterone was flawed from the start as they were testing to a threshold, now they use a biological passport to allow for individual differences which threshold doesn't but even within Australia the governing bodies know how to administer via micro dosing etc in a way that the testing protocols doesn't pick up. Mechanical doping is a whole different ball game. There are no thresholds etc. It's either there or it isn't. It can be picked up via heat, scans, inspections and metal detection etc. Its also not just motors in the seat tube that work on the crank, there are ways also of making the rear wheel drive. But you speak about Australia and in my last 2 years of feedback to ASADA I slammed them. The reality is that nobody is being picked up because nobody is being tested and nothing is being checked. If you see their list of banned athletes it is pretty obvious that they're not testing, of all of the people that I compete with/against I don't know of a single person that has been tested from the winner through to last place - I suspect it is more like tip offs which they have to respond to. Many people in my sport believe that athletes who have tested positive mysteriously spend 12months out with an "injury" and I can't argue either way but I can see how this is possible when an athlete spends 12months "injured" and returns to racing with win's straight out of the box until the next "injury". In all of the events I have done, and this includes world championships I have never seen ASADA or WADA at an event. Actually, they were present at 1 Ironman event this year and they sat under a sunshade at the finishing complex for the day as I understand it. So in response to your question, my answer is that they do nothing, it's not actually a problem of not being able to do something - from what I can see, they just don't do anything. Even ASADA work on the principal of reducing incidences of all varieties of doping by fostering awareness and education.

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Slunnie, maybe they aren't testing the triathletes, but they are certainly testing track cyclists. My son has been attending the National Junior Track Series for the last four years, these are U15, U17,men and women and U19 women, several of the athletes there were tested with one Queensland girl tested at least three times.

Cheers, Mick.

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Originally Posted by Killer

Slunnie, maybe they aren't testing the triathletes, but they are certainly testing track cyclists. My son has been attending the National Junior Track Series for the last four years, these are U15, U17,men and women and U19 women, several of the athletes there were tested with one Queensland girl tested at least three times.

Cheers, Mick.

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We are an unloved bunch! :lol2: That also included Cross-triathetes and Duathletes who are even more unloved. :(

That said, I also train with a girl who tried out TT. Nobody in the TT world knew her, she won NSW out of the box and then went on to win the Australian title in her second race... nothing. It will be interesting to see if they test in the upcoming worlds. That said, quite sincerely Mick I'm really pleased to here that they are testing at the track where they push big numbers. Personally, I think they should be testing at every state, national and world qualifier. It's great that the juniors who in reality are the ones who are the next big things grow up knowing and that all of the evidence is there to support the athletes and governing bodies in promoting that sports in Australia is clean.

Sadly, from what I've read, it's the age groupers who are the main offenders in sport, not the professionals.