After Mortirolo and Stelvio... Alpe d'Huez! Canadian amateur continues Strava KOM hunt in chase of World Tour contract

Hey look I'm sorry to hear what you are going through that sounds truly terrible - he tested positive for using hydrochlorothiazide when he was 18 though I think

Thanks, am trying to deal with it calmly as I have now seen similar cases that get much worse.

He was cleared of that 2x when it was proved the local water was contaminated and the quantity he drank explained the tiny amount found.

This is a real problem with modern labs that can detect amounts so small that none of us would pass a drugs test after drinking tap water, kissing a user or even after breathing in the air in a nightclub for an hour. Like just amount everything else, just about the whole world now shows a level of background contamination that any lab can pick up. Most fish in the ocean probably have half the products on the UCI’s banned list in detectable amounts by now. Even top quality Swiss chocolate now has Lead and Cadmium from soil contamination.

Stay strong you will get through it! -I'm usually pretty sceptical about any accidental contamination stories - been a cycling fan since the 90s and there have been so many.. it's entirely possible he's innocent, but that history may still make teams hesitant & so I think a proper journalist should have mentioned it to put the story in context

Thanks, we’re trying, it’s harder for the Mrs, I’ve been through more than my fair share of injustices in life so can keep a straight head when it matters.

The problem is that journalists are too expensive for anything but the most serious and valuable stories so these days there is very little comprehensive reporting and texts are left to volunteer wannabees who have little regard for the consequences of publishing incomplete or angled stories. If you’re interested in anything you have to double check everything by doing further research. But, as most people aren’t really that interested and read most material for entertainment or distraction purposes or simply to have something to help promote their preconceived ideas, it has all become the accepted norm and we will never ever turn that back around as a society because we train humans to become more and more lazy and comfortable, including when it comes to brain use and critical thinking.

There, that’s my bit said for Sunday ;-)

Ha! So true, often the comments are more informative - best wishes you you and your family