Right, so I've been banging on here for ages about cycling and doping (Keith read on please this concerns non-bikies too). Generally we're at the point in the sport (cycling) where the sport is simultaneously on the point of collapse as everyone and his Uncle Frank is getting positive tests while concurrently there is a sunrise on the distant horizon as at last there seems to be some sort of serious cohesive testing programme which is not only rigid, but rigidly adhered to and accepted as a necessary evil by the riders (or at least in public it is). So what would be the worst things WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) could do?
OK part of testing is giving definite whereabouts at specified times of the day every day (or 5 days a week) so that genuinely 'surprise' testing can be carried out as a rider will be accessible 5 days a week all year round. Not being in the locations he specified got Michael Rasmussen disqualified from the Tour last year amid a big (for cycling) media hoo-ha. Now cycling is a team sport, you cannot win major races (particularly multi-stage events such as the recent Paris-Nice or the three grand tours) without team structure, support and tactics. So when WADA bows to the weight of money behind FIFA and grants concessions to football as (quote) "Individual athletes have to provide details of where they will be for one hour on five days of the week, but FIFA and other sports have argued this is not so easy for those involved in team sports" it rings false. Well cycling 's a fucking team sport and has done it for the last year at least. What it means is pampered footy pros will be able to spend more time spit roasting and powdering their bugles and don't have to worry too much about the inconvenience of being tested. Cf Rio Ferdinand's ban which he served with all the good grace and penitence of someone not very penitent (must bet a new thesaurus) for football's attitude to doping. I love footy too, but the lax attitude to doping that sport is showing mirrors the kind of denial cycling had for years and has ended up in the disaster that is going on now. Full story which I lifted the above quote from here.
Then to add insult to injury, Quick-Step pro Kevin van Impe has to undergo a random test as he is preparing for his baby son's funeral. He was getting ready to bury his own dead child, and a WADA doctor refused to return on another day. To make it worse he isn't even riding at the moment due to injury, I know HGH is one of the hot drugs to be tested for as it is a current fave of dopers, as it boosts recovery from injury, but it has to be taken in sustained "bursts" as far as I'm aware, so a day or two's delay would make no difference to the result of any testing. Full story here. I'm not surprised there was a protest at Paris-Nice by riders. They may not earn as much as soccer players, but their human rights should be the same.
Don't get me started on capitalism.
Image is Vicky Pendleton GB track gold hopeful for Beijing, to make me feel better (well part of me anyway).
Condolences to the van Impe family.
Glad you got that off your chest.
Agree to some extent.
Not sure the benefit of drugs to a cyclist matches that of a Le Tiss for example.
Posted by: Art Monk | March 21, 2008 at 08:43 PM
Marilyn out of Home and Away'd probably disagree.
Posted by: Gilbert | March 21, 2008 at 09:13 PM