Grrrr... another black eye on our sport. I suppose if we really want to clean it up then this is how it’s going to happen. Would the news have been any less devastating if we’d found out after the Tour? Of course not, and there would have been a lot of questions about how Vino (or Rasmussen) and the teams affected the results.
As a rider looking to make a meager living from this sport, the news is like a punch to the gut. How do you convince sponors to give you money for a sport that’s constructed a cloud of suspicion over every competitive cyclist at any level? Our heroes test positive, guys I race against on the regional level have tested positive, and a mountain biker I coach who races in the Expert class has had a competitor test positive. Now as soon as a rider at any level starts to enjoy a little too much success, there are immediately grumblings that “he must be on something”.... and unfortunately, the rumors are proved true too often.
I’m tired and don’t want to go into it too much... but it seems that throughout history, in pretty much every sport, there are athletes that will desperately search out an advantage to win — and the desperation is so deep that ethics of the methods don’t even enter their minds. How do we stop them?
Fortunately, it looks as though cycling is on the right path to a clean sport by working to create a community that is completely intolerant of doping. Riders need teammates, teams need managers, managers need sponsors. The riders, managers and sponsors that survive this painful “culling” will hopefully be the people we need to give cycling a clean rebirth.
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