Huge drug bust in Spain on bikers -

This is going to make the Festina scandal look tiny. Lots of big names going down. It'll be fascinating to see he gets brought down. All the big names except A. Valverde? Cycling will never be the same after this.

I was always suspicious about Spain. How can such a small country have so many world class climbers? Now we know. At least we won't have to hear that big mouth Saiz screaming, "Venga! Venga!" into his bullhorn.

doesn't look good for Vino's chances with liberty segurous

mucho mas detalles a www.marca.com if you can read spanish

Not just cyclists - I have read reports saying that track and field athletes are implicated as well.

The word from Spain is that Roberto Heras is cooperating with authorities, which has led to this.

Some other reports have suggested that both Ullrich and Basso are caught up in this, but I suspect its not true. If it were more than rumors, it would be all over the news.

I wonder if Heras will start talking about his days with Postal...

Unfortunately the article at Marca.com doesn't add a whole lot to the cycling.com story.

everybody's dirty on that level! so many busts have happened in the last 5 years that i think its impossible to think that anybody in the top 50 at the tour is clean. its a sad state of affairs. cyclings reputation is getting killed and it seems to just be getting worse and worse. oh well, at least they don't just sweep it under the rug and act like nothing is wrong like alot of sports.

lance got out just in time!!!

Lance is clean.

He beat cancer.

No way would he screw around with dangerous drugs after going through a time like that.

lance is probably more drugged up than them all put together perhaps he got cancer as a side effect of steroids

loadie wrote:

everybody's dirty on that level! so many busts have happened in the last 5 years that i think its impossible to think that anybody in the top 50 at the tour is clean. its a sad state of affairs. cyclings reputation is getting killed and it seems to just be getting worse and worse. oh well, at least they don't just sweep it under the rug and act like nothing is wrong like alot of sports.

Cycling has always had a big drug problem, it goes back more than a hundred years. All those guys virtually live together nine months of the year, in a sport which is just too hard, surrounded by doctors and trainers who keep them informed about what drugs to take and how to avoid testing positive.

If you think this scandal is limited to cyclists, then you're in for a big surprise. Apparently, athletes from numerous disciplines including track and field had blood stored at the lab and were video'ed entering the facility. Stay tuned, big names will fall.

at least cycling wants to catch the cheats...here we have posters who always appologize for the legats, el g's and geb....barry bonds and legat are now marketing a new health product...

Is this a fake article? There's nothing in cyclingnews, velonews, various cycling forums, the rec.bicycles.racing newsgroup, etc.

It's been all over the news here in Spain, so I would think the article is legit. Of course the news has been wrong before...

Oh, I just noticed that the original post was from 3 days ago. There is mention in cyclingnews, but it doesn't seem like a big deal is being made of it yet. Maybe it will blow up when actual names come out.

And I just noticed that my original post to this thread has been removed by someone. All I said was that it was no surprise about the cyclists and I implied that there a few distance runners here that are also dirty...

Here's a link. Scroll down half way, there's a list of links to stories on the drug bust called, "Operacion Puerto." I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more widespread attention because the participants aren't exclusively cyclists, although the biggest fish caught runs the biggest cycling team in Spain.

The Spanish are clamping down on drugs. Great. I'd like to see that here in the U.S. MLB, NFL, Cycling and Track and Field, NHL, etc. are dirty and no one is doing anything to clean it up. Meaningless measures have been taken for public relations purposes only. Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, Victor Conte, etc. are not in jail where they belong.