Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanilla
Very good point, money is one of the main drivers of cycling in competitons as well as recognition as being the top cyclist in the world. There are plenty of egos that need boosting so doping is the easier way to achieve glory.
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The teams demand success from their riders and the sponsors demand success from the teams. The teams have a quota of how many riders they can have due to budget restrictions. So if you're a rider that's going for glory you're going to take whatever help you can get, especially when you think that your rivals are probably doing doping as well. Also the lesser known riders who run on yearly contracts. have got to fight to stay in a team or lose their place to an up and coming amateur, therefore they'll consider doping to maintain or improve their level and stay on a team.
Every single year a whole load of riders of all levels are banned for doping for a set time period, they say its going down and the sport is cleaning up, but over the last decade I've noticed roughly the same amounts of riders being caught for doping. Also this year a rider called Frank Schleck was banned for doping in the Tour de France, now if anybody had asked me which riders probably didn't do doping, I would have suggested him! So what does that tell you about the extent of doping in the sport.