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Thursday Throwdown: Are the Spanish worse dopers or just dopey at doping?

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Alberto Contador, Ezequiel Mosquera, David Garcia Da Pena from the Pro ranks and Margarita Fullana from the Olympic squad have a few things in common. They’re Spanish and they’re cyclists.

In addition, they’ve all been implicated in doping scandals in the last few weeks and now the Spanish police have opened a criminal investigation.

In our regular Thursday Throwdown, held on the GGB facebook page, we invited your views on whether doping is a worse problem amongst Spanish cyclists. Or, are they simply more dopey (excuse the pun) at doping and consequently get caught more than others?

In a surprisingly measured response to an emotive topic the facebook community did not think the Spanish cyclists stood out from the peloton in their abuse of drugs. Phil posted that it was because the Spanish used more detectable drugs whilst Peter thought the police investigation showed that that authorities were taking the problem seriously.

Whatever the reason for the sudden flurry of Spanish cyclists getting investigated the failed drugs tests by two Nigerian athletes and one Indian athlete demonstrate that doping is not only cycling’s problem.