Paweł and Kacper both qualify as repeat offenders. Paweł earned a one-year suspension after testing positive for testosterone at the Polish Championships in 2006 at the ripe old age of 17. As for Kacper, he tested positive for nikethamide a year later. He claimed that he just forgot to get one of those pesky doctor’s notes. Given the benefit of the doubt, he got a lighter sentence. So, add in the tests at Tábor, and each brother’s got a pair of positives to his name. All before the age of 21.

one of his riders tested positive for EPO. Shocking!! (That guy should be banned from the sport, imho. How many riders have been caught under his watch, I wonder? /rant)

He rode a cracking race, looked better than Meeusen for most of it. The shitty thing though is that the way the poles ripped that race from the start it’s hard to say how the race had played out without their (apparently drugfuelled) rampage.

that, normally, a World Championship podium (albeit U23) doesn’t get tested on EPO? I know the tests are expensive but c’mon!, top 5 at Worlds should get tested for everything. It was their Worlds sample that tested positive, wasn’t it?

 Are they part of the bio-passport? Isn’t it just riders on ProTour and certain ProConti teams that are part of the passport?
Two young crossers who don’t ride for either, how are they part of the passport?

I’m curious as to who actually purchased the EPO. Given the family’s financial situation, how could the brothers even afford to cheat to such a degree? I’ll admit that I’m clueless as to the going rate for doping products, but I have to imagine that EPO costs a fair bit more than testosterone and nikethamide. The family’s financial straits make the allegations of a coach’s involvement seem much more plausible. Not that that makes the brothers immune from prosecution, of course. As for Kacper, I hope that he’s safe and that he’s getting proper counseling and care. I actually wish that the family had chosen to keep that particular piece of information private. He’s under enough of a microscope already. Most importantly, though, as Albertina said, he’s got many years ahead of him, and no one wants to see his story end that way.

It’s a bad situtation but Kacper still has his whole life ahead of him…nothing can be that bad. Sheesh.

and offers some explanation why some sportspeople take the risk. I’m not condoning drug taking, but I don’t always think it’s black and white..

but it shows why kids from Eastern Europe/Asia have a reason to dope, to escape the lifestyle and help the family/themselves out.

It is a shame that it had to come to this though.