Vaughters: Wiggins’ 2012 Tour de France win “blemished” due to triamcinolone use

Maybe we should be more concerned that an athlete suffering so badly that Sky broke their ‘no needles’ policy, started the race at all?

Vaughters is just out for headlines here, he's selling a book. 

This is a clear 'non-story' which just brings the trolls out from under their bridges. 

There's some very angry keyboard warriors here, I wish they'd get Jeremy Kyle going again so you've all got somewhere to go back to...

These days, I suffer mildly with hay fever ... usually consisting of a bit of a runny nose, sore eyes and a bit of wheezing on particularly bad days. 

20 years ago, my hay fever could be utterly debilitating, on one occasion having to be evaced from the side of Ingleborough becuause it was so bad I literally couldn't breathe and spent the afternoon in an oxygen mask. And I am not asthmatic, I can only imagine how that might have played out if I was. 

Pollen allergy manifests itself in different intesities for different people at different times, and writing of all pollen allergies as "a bit of hay fever" is the same as writing off migraines as "a bit of a headache".

Knowing that Wiggins is asthmatic and seeing what my allergy did to me half way up Ingleborough,  I don't have much of a problem with Sky obtaining a TUE for a drug to ensure that didn't happen to their lead rider halfway up a real mountain. 

^
Is it unfair to everyone else who didn't show up at the start line charged up with steroids?

One thing that a great many people have failed to pick up on, is the Fancy Bear hacking group are linked to the GRU - Russia's intelligence service, formerly known as the KGB.

The KGB have previously been involved in Russian state-sponsord doping programmes, with the aim of showing that Russia is stronger than the West.

The hacking attempts to try and discredit western athletes by leaking their TUEs strongly  suggests that it fits the same motive; to show that Russia is stronger than the West. It fits with other messages that the Russian state excude, for example that Putin is a macho leader, much stronger and tougher than his Western equivilents.

This whole conversation is precisely what the Russian state would want, tarnishing the reputation of celebrated sports stars. And the method used was to illegally leak medical records.

Is the win tarnished? Of course it is. Is it unfair to Brad? Hell yes.

Before Sky even won the Tour, I recall a presentation given by Dave Brailsford where he discussed athletic performance, using words such as trajectory etc, and the involvement of sports scientists. He pointed at an upward deviation  point on one of his graphs and said “ this is where Brad became compliant” meaning that he began to work with the ‘back up’ team. At the time, the word compliant seemed an odd description for a character like Brad Wiggins. Now, with hindsight, does compliant mean that this was the point where the Sky management convinced Wiggins that they had found a loophole whereby they could pursue performance without breaking the rules. Before then it always appeared that Wiggins would always compete within the rules. If he conceded (or was convinced?) that he could use a TUE to gain the beneficial side effects of a banned substance without any repercussion maybe he did become compliant. Don’t forget, marginal gains  can be found by lawyers in the rule book as much as by scientists in a lab. 

He won the Tour, didn’t break any rules and, despite the moral objections of many, will be able to keep his victory.

How many times does everybody have to be told, triamcinolone does not improve athletic performance. You can eat less to lose weight, simple.

 triamcinolone is supposed to be used only under strict supervision ( usually in hospital) and really isn’t for ‘hayfever’. As stated, one ‘side effect’ is weight loss, without power loss, thus increasing power to weight ratios, without any extra effort. Just be done with it, and strip him of his title.

Look at it this way.

You've got a headache. The rules allow you to take one paracetamol or two. One paracetamol may not cure your headache. Two paracetamol is 'bending the rules to the very limit'. You have to get rid of this headache. You take two paracetamol. They cure your headache. Would one have been enough? You'll never know.

Of course it's a little more complicated than that but ultimately all we're doing is delving back seven years into the past and saying, 'OK, with hindsight maybe the rules should have been different.'

Fair comment from Vaughters.

Wiggins didn't dope but he bent the rules as far as they'd go.

In a lot of people's eyes, including mine, that's enough to blemish his tour win.

If someone is on twitter and nothing to do, could they please ask this mutton head how he can even open his mouth on doping having paid a wage to David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde – and david miller...or was it the fact that he was admittedly a doper himself.

shush