Yates does his bit for clean sport

[Colin Steadman]

On the subject of yates, I find it a bit sad that cyclists in the UK confer on him a certain mythical ,god-like status when the reality is that he was riding at the hight of the EPO era when every man and his dog was on EPO and during that time had some rather above-par results that suggest .....well...... you make up your own mind.

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

[quote]"Of course Astana has had some bad press," said Yates. "But Johan Bruyneel has never had a positive test with a team he has been involved with.

[huw williams]

There are now so many dissgraced riders who "never had a positive test" that those who did have a positive test seem somehow less guilty

[Paul H]

What was Yates meant to do - go on the dole?

Plenty of racers in Surrey have respect for Yates and his brother as they have seem at first hand what they can do.

[Dominic]

I think a lot of the respect for both the Yates' has primarily to do with the scene in Britain ie TTs.

There is a chapter in the Roule Britannia book on Yates and it describes well I think, the reasons he is respected outwith his professional career and that it all based on grass roots racing in Britain.

But I will lay my cards on the table and say I am a fan based on his performances. But then I also think it is just too easy to write everything off to performance enhancing drugs (although I accept that they play a part). There is still the drive, determination and sacrifices required to succeed at every level that the riders go through to get where they are going. But that goes to the root of the doping problem in my opinion"can you make a race horse out of a donkey?"

But I also find him quite an interesting person from what I have seen and read and have always been tempted to book one of his day rides when I have the cash.

[Paul H]

[quote]Respect Sean for what? Being complicit in organised doping