[cycomanic]

When I read statements like this, I always wider what people think is happening in other sports, especially those where there is much more money involved. I mean the US professional sports don't even have proper testing. Baseball has had plenty of steroid abuse, for basketball one only need to look at how players look after a year of playing in the NBA (Dirk Nowitzki was a tall skinny boy when in Germany, he gained >20kg of muscle mass in the first season of the NBA). Soccer has had plenty of cases where games of referees and players trying to throw games, for betting or other bribes.

The thing is that cycling has just not enough money/influence in contrast to other sports. Just one example, in operacion puerto, which exposed blood doping of many cyclist. When there were strong indications that many of the so far unidentified blood conserves belonged to Real Madrid players, political influence quickly led to the whole investigation being cancelled.

I'm not defending doping in cycling, but it is extremely naive to believe that sports with several orders of magnitude more money involved dont have rampant doping.

[waxyalan]

One of Armstrong's team mates from US Postal days wrote a tell all biography after he was banned for doping: Tyler Hamilton the secret race, in it (paraphrasing) he said he saw athletes from every professional sport in the waiting room of the private doctor who was doing his doping.

[ben7799]

I read Tyler’s book and don’t recall him saying that quite so directly. It is surely true though.

I met him at an unsanctioned/non-UCI race he showed up at during his ban but before he came clean. Weird experience, he obviously won the race and most people were supportive but it was such a weird scene. You could practically feel the tormented aura of guilt/shame/embarrassment coming off him. IIRC he had won that race as an amateur prior to doping as well.

[cycomanic]

I don't recall reading that part either. The book is a great book though, not just for the doping part but also because it gives a very interesting behind the scenes view of many iconic cycling moments of that time.

[waxyalan]

It has been a while since I read the book but skimming it now I can only see the Spanish police unofficially linked tennis players and soccer teams to the Spanish doctor they were using.

I maybe misremembering or misquoting.

[pessimizer]

> Baseball has had plenty of steroid abuse,

Most people to my knowledge think the exposure of this damaged baseball seriously, and maybe irreparably. It at least made fandom more local; World Series ratings are half what they were 20 years ago during the bulk of the steroid frenzy.

[PrefixKitten]

All of the friends of mine that have competed in competition level E-Sports have each told me individually at some point or another that literally - every - professional player uses either Adderall or methamphetamine during tournaments