I agree with everything you just said, I find myself with the same bitter anger everytime I see him, regardless of the race. I’m glad someone came out and said it bluntly

it’s his right and he’s about to achieve the greatest accomplishment in his career. The thing that makes me sick is the incompetence of the UCI, who keep dragging this case out. So my answer would be, he doesn’t make me smile or sick, Pat McQuaid makes me want to vomit all over the fucking place!

Sept 2007 – McQuaid blasts Bettini,
Oct 2007 – “#18 is him” - Pat McQuaid,
June 2009 – UCI files to make Valverde Ban World Wide,
Sept 2009 – Valverde free to ride - Pat McQuaid

I’ve been trying to follow but it’s a little confusing.

I know normally a rider who tests positive or gets caught with other evidence (e.g Basso) is suspended by their home[?] federation and/or the federation of the country that caught them. Usually that ban is automatic worldwide.

So is valverde only banned in Italy because the Spanish peeps refuse to recognise the ban? Because the UCI folks don’t recognise it? There a process that is currently happening to make it worldwide yes? But the UCI are taking their time (when they announced nothing would happen before the end of the season).

Why the hold-up?

I used to love Valverde. He was gorgeous. I loved his silly yellow (and black and orange) bike. And now he gets my goat the same way he does PopUp Rolen. I still like Basso. Even though I’m almost certain he gilded the lily with the whole ‘intention to dope, I hadn’t actually done any smack yet your honour’.

At least he has been caught and punished to a certain extent. And with all the doping that was (probably) going on when he won the Giro, I can almost accept that maybe it’s best to leave those sleeping dogs lie, so long as he did get named shamed and removed from the sport for a year and a bit. Valverde’s dog however, needs to be woken up and sent away without a bone.

Anyway, I would at least love to See Cadel on the podium, so if he comes 4th and Valverde wins I will be pissed off. his dog I like.

I can say he doesn’t make me smile though. The whole situation makes me sick but lie Phil said, I certainly can’t blame him for racing. I think the team management stinks over there. I think that any team that cares about credibilty would have shown Valverde the door.

I hate the “living in suspense” and the “not owning up” and the “damage to cycling” aspects, naturally.

However, in that I have to guess he’s pretty clean now, and he’s demonstrating that he’s very good at this level of clean-ness (whatever that may be). And yeah, I know “clean” is an absolute that should not be degraded with asterisks and modifiers. But I can’t come up with a better way to put it.

He’s a very good strategist on the bike. He’s an intelligent racer, with impressive self-control and a good poker face. What little trash he talks is not very trashy. The bike’s very Spanish, but not terribly gaudy beyond that.

He doped when a lot of people doped, and maybe a bit beyond that point, or maybe not. I think he’s “caught” enough that there ought to be sanctions, and I’d really like that to happen soon. But I don’t feel any more personal enmity towards him than, say, Basso, who frankly strikes me as “not as competitive in his present incarnation as in his non-doping-era incarnation.”

To put it another way, Valverde was and is impressive for all the right reasons, as well as being a doper. I wish the sactions had already happened, and he was riding again, or that they will sanction him for a year or two starting after worlds, and cut short his career, or cancel results from his doping era, rather than reversing results that he has gotten in the interim, while (presumably / relatively) clean.

what i meant to post:

Basso, who frankly strikes me as “not as competitive in his present incarnation as in his non-doping-era incarnation.”

no one knows how much of his form valverde would’ve lost if instead of racing he’d spent two years at home having dinnar with his family like basso. as such, i’d place an asterik next to a conclusion that a victory of a clean valverde over a clean basso in 2009 means that he’s inherently a better rider. he might be, but, before i’d make such a claim, i’d want to climb in the tardis, travel back two years and exile both riders.

mind you, i’m not a basso enthusiast. as far as i’m concerned, the sooner he’s forced to pass the gc baton to kreuziger, nibali and pellizotti the better. in fact, i’m quite content to watch evans podium in madrid. i only lament having watched szmyd, kreuziger, zaugg and carlström spend the lion’s share of the past three weeks essentially pissing in the wind.

you have to first force Valv out of compettion for the same amount of time. If you look at LA compared to Basso, that’s a little better comparison. Both did two grand tours first year back and completed them respectably I’d say. Basso didn’t quite meet most people’s hopes and expectations and LA probably exceeded his. Vino, much less time to prepare for his grand tour (re)debut, didn’t fair so well.

I try to avoid speculating who’s presently clean or who’s not and getting away with it, and just enjoy the racing. When they bust another idiot, throw them out and move on. If Basso is declared busted and thrown out, then the same should’ve already happened to Valv.

Vino, for crying out loud, talk about your ballsy,arrogant, in-your-face unrepentent pricks. How this guy is escaping twice the amount of tongue-lashing and more that LA has received is beyond me.

What he does is just business as usual for a world class rider. Go race, that’s what they get paid to do. Until they don’t. When it’s official maybe I’ll care and then again maybe he’ll just be another doper. Either way no feelings what so ever except that he’s the strongest rider in Spain at this time. One thing for sure is that he’ll never be as one dimensional and boring as a certain Texan that raises the level of vitriolic debate in these circles.

I cringed a bit when seeing Valverde take the winning trophy.

And there’s quite a flow chart of thieving that will probably never be fully untangled. Down to and including the people who were not in the race or not on the team, because of the pace and the standards set by dopers.

today before the stage?
I accidentally deleted it, so I’m writing only what I remember but when he was asked about CONI and his ban, he played everything down, saying something like people don’t understand pro cycling and how hard it is, the familiar mantra I’ve been tested X times and I’ve never tested positive. He also said he didn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to ride the Tour, since it only had 80 or so kms in Italy…..
When he was asked about 11 Spanish riders testing positive this year, first he said it was sad, and when he was pressed harder he refused to comment further.

This was what our Finnish commentator said, more or less.
So I vote sick.

My conclusion of #Vuelta can be found in ’I’ll Stick Around’ by the Foo Fighters – careful listening required! (Your guess who “you” is)

From http://twitter.com/CadelOfficial/status/4131816951

I guess he’s referring to the line “I still refuse all the methods you’ve abused.”

…would I bet my house on him being innocent.

I dont want to be homeless so no.