Rabobank tolerated doping on cycling team, De Rooy claims

By: 

Cycling News

Published: 

May 5, 08:40, 

Updated: 

May 5, 11:53

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Medical staff said to have overseen riders' activities; Boogerd claimed as HumanPlasma client

Team Rabobank tolerated the use of doping up until at least 2007, according to a Dutch newspaper. The riders could select their own products, but the team medical staff made sure that they did not hurt their health, theVolkskrant newspaper claimed. At least three former riders, including Michael Boogerd, were also said to have been involved in the HumanPlasma blood doping ring, as well.

Cyclingnews has contacted Raboank for comment on the story.

According to the Volkskrant, Theo de Rooy who was team manager from 2003 to 2007, did not deny that there was doping on the team. “If it happened, it was a deliberate decision by the medical staff,” he said, but claimed not to know of the HumanPlasma involvement.

De Rooy, who reffered to the whole matter as “medical care” rather than doping, indicated that the efforts were to some extent overseen by someone within the team structure. "If you have a number of knowledgeable people who pick up the right signals from the riders, you can brake and steer them."

The former manager said that the team took no “unreasonable risks” in the matter. "But when it comes to medical care, you need to find the limit. You can't say you risk your life (in dangerous descents, for example, ed.), but when it comes to medical care, it does not matter. Then you're not an  athlete? For me it has always been: the health and well being of the rider in the short and long term.”

De Rooy said it was the responsibility of each rider “to determine how far he would go in the medical field”, the newspaper reported. The team management did not encourage or pay for doping, and was not officially allowed. .

He also acknowledged that he had disciplined riders who wanted to organize their own medical care outside the team structure. “Michael Rasmussen was not the first, for that matter. I had to take disciplinary action once before. By not using riders in races, for example.”

Rasmussen was removed from the Tour de France after the 16th stage, whilst leading the race, and fired by Rabobank, for having lied about his whereabouts in the time leading up to the Tour. De Rooy left the team shortly thereafter.

HumanPlasma involvement

At least three Rabobank riders were involved with the Humanplasma blood bank in Vienna, the story claimed. Stefan Matschiner, who was the power behind the blood doping  scheme, claimed that Michael Boogerd was one of them.

The newspaper said that 37 athletes from various disciplines used the transfusion services, and that Matschiner made appointments for them, maintained the contact with them and accompanied all but one of them to their appointments. All but one of the athletes, at any rate. Matschiner claimed that Boogerd brought with him the blood of another unnamed Dutch cyclist.

Boogerd denied any involvement. “I deny that I have been there,” he said.

Matschiner was the manager and supplier for Bernhard Kohl, who whilst riding for Gerolsteiner, won the mountains competition and finished third in the Tour de France in 2008. He subsequently tested positive for EPO-CERA and was suspended. Kohl made a full confession.

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Jet Man Rio

Hugo Salinas Price Interview with Eric King

Today multi-billionaire Hugo Salinas Price told King World News in stunning detail what he believes to be the frightening plan to “control the world” going forward.  He described this as a “very disturbing fact that is facing humanity.”  Here is how he described the situation:  

“Eric, the problems we are seeing in the West are not going to be resolved in any positive way.  What we have had in the West, in recent decades, has been the welfare state.  The welfare state is, in my view, what I would call, ‘socialism light.’  We’ve had ‘socialism light’ and now we’re going to transition to full-blown socialism.” 

“This could not be paid for out of taxes:  It had to be financed.  This is what has caused the explosion of debt in the West.  The people who are in power, the elite, do not want to relinquish their power.  They plan to retain it under full-blown socialism for the populations of the West.

This includes all countries that have central banks:  They are going to have to follow suit.  This is a very disturbing fact that is facing humanity.  It means the inevitable decline of industrial civilization, and the inevitable impoverishment of the world’s population.

This means that over time there will be a decline in the number of people on this earth.  That is the rather grim outlook that I see.  So, it’s socialism ahead.  And with that will come more government control and a centrally run economy.  This is inefficient and unproductive, and it will lead to impoverishment.

Nakita Khrushchev, when he came to the United Nations, said, ‘We will bury you’....

“Well, it’s not the USSR that buried us, it’s us burying ourselves, under the rule of our elite, who do not want to give up their control.  The furtherance of their control lies in socialism.

I think this comes from a central idea that has possessed the imagination of the world.  It’s the idea that authority comes from below.  In other words, that authority comes from the people.  This idea of authority from the will of the people is a myth of our civilization.  Excuse me for saying that it’s a myth, but I see that as a fact.  

I’m just saying that those who control the world know they have to curry the favor of the people.  To do this they went the way of the welfare state, and democracy to give people the fiction they (the people) are in control.  Well, they are not and never have been.  

We also have fiat money to fund the welfare state.  Then we have entertainment to distract the people.  We also have war to distract the people.  The airplanes bomb people, and the victims are just humans who are expendable.  This is how the elite see things.

We will continue to see this from the elite, in order to maintain their power.  Remember, socialism impoverishes, it consumes capital, it does not accumulate capital.  So, you will have this de-capitalization that will come with socialism.

When you combine that with the probability that we are at peak oil, as that prime source of energy comes to a point where it begins to decline, you will see a decrease in the population.”

Hugo Salinas Price also warned: “Italy and Spain have already imposed a limit on cash transactions.  Any transaction above 2,500 euros has to be paid with a credit card.  Now that’s ominous.  It confirms the socialist trend because in socialism you have very little use for money.  Everything is supplied by means of ration cards.

That’s what I see coming, and I see it in the United States as well.  Take, for example, the fact that there are 46.5 million people on food stamps.  You already have the ration card in action there.”

He also added: “For those people who want to protect themselves, they are going to have to take some drastic measures.  They will have to be imaginative in trying to protect themselves in whatever way they can from this onslaught of centralized government.

Everybody should constitute a reserve of something that will function as ‘real’ money because there will be continued abuse of fiat money in order to fund the socialist state.  We will see more limitations on the use of cash, and people need to be prepared for that.”

Hugo Salinas Price is a hero to many, and he has crusaded to help poor people around the world.  For KWN readers and listeners globally, when Hugo Salinas Price talks about ‘real’ money, based on our interviews over the years, I believe he means gold and silver.  He prefers physical silver because it is easier to exchange for goods or services if the system breaks down.

Big Bubble

“The biggest bubble in recent history is heading for the mother of all hard landings,” says Albert Edwards

The chart and paragraphs below come from friend, scrumming partner and uber-bear (equities, not bonds), Albert Edwards, global strategist from Société Générale Cross Asset Research.

“We are in a profits recession, both at the developed and emerging level. My Quant colleague, Andrew Lapthorne, pointed out to me that forward earnings growth for both MSCI developed and emerging are now falling. For we are at that point in the cycle where the easy productivity gains are over. In the US, for example, we can see unit labour  costs running well ahead of output price inflation, leading to a downturn in the margin cycle. The equity markets seem able to ignore this inconvenient truth for the moment while they think the US economy might be reviving and China’s policy makers are successfully engineering a soft landing. But any evidence to the contrary at a time when profits are already under downward pressure will likely be met by an unforgiving response.”

Edwards concludes by saying that with global stock market profits in a recession, it “explains why US bond yields might dive much lower”. He therefore remains overweight long government bonds and remarked: “Government bonds will become even more expensive on a 6-12 month view with an evaporation of confidence in the sustainability of the US recovery and/or a China hard landing (the former could occur with or without the latter).”

Source: Albert Edwards, Société Générale Cross Asset Research, May 3, 2012.

Read more: http://www.investmentpostcards.com/2012/05/03/the-biggest-bubble-in-recent-history-is-heading-for-the-mother-of-all-hard-landings-says-albert-edwards/#ixzz1toFrn1pA

The Rise of the Machines

Martin Feldstein

Paul v Paul