Doping – The Long Game
This year has seen some alarming news stories surrounding cycling and the dark art of doping, some more shocking and unbelievable than others. As we head towards 2013 and an off season that will surely be filled with more finger pointing and name calling, has the future of the professional sport been saved by the mainstream media splashing the men we once called our heroes, over the front page and exposing them to be what they really are?
Many people have heard of the ‘omerta’ of doping in cycling and if you have been interested in professional bike racing to any degree of the last 100 years you cannot escape the fact that performance enhancing drugs (PED’s) have played a part in almost every generation of the sport. It has always been a sad state of affairs but finally, despite the attempts of some of our most senior-ranking governing body officials, the sport seems to be taking positive steps towards cleaning up its act for the safety and health of its riders as well as the sanctity of sport (although I’m sure similar articles were written following the Festina and Operation Puerto affairs!).
An argument I’ve regularly used to friends who accuse (maybe rightly or wrongly) cycling of being full of cheats is that the sport tests their competitors much more vigorously than most other sports, resulting in the cheats being found rather than left lurking in the background with no fear of being tested and found out. I for one, am proud that my sport chooses to be so proactive in the fight against PED’s, even if the hierarchy of the sport and some teams attempt to derail that at times. The average cyclist/cycling fan knows a considerable amount more about the issues surrounding doping than many other sports fans because we have been slapped in the face with it so many times and have HAD to learn about it or else you lose touch and fall out of the loop.
But what about those friends of mine who once called cycling ‘dirty’ and ‘full of cheats’? 2012 has been a huge year for sport in general but particularly for cycling here in the UK. Bradley Wiggins’ triumph at Le Tour and a hefty medal haul at the London Olympics for Team GB riders has resulted in cycling going through a British renaissance and thrust it in to the popular culture and consciousness of a much larger proportion of the population (not to mention a carbon road bike is now favoured as the new ‘go to’ toy for middle aged men in a mid-life crisis rather than the Porsche 911!). All of this publicity has allowed the mainstream media to devote more column inches to cycling and publish the hardest hitting topics including cycling. To me this can only be a good thing. The more people who understand the sport and the troubled past we have gone through, the more likely we are to fight against those that want to drag us back down again.
No longer can we turn our backs on doping and pretend it’s not happening. We owe it to the sport and ourselves to be alert to the pitfalls and rather than hide them like a dirty secret, be open and honest. Fans of cycling have known for years that there is a strong chance the riders they follow are on the juice purely as a result of the sport being so doped in the past. But that hasn’t stopped some riders. When fans follow their every move, Tweet and buy every product they endorse regardless of erroneous medical practices or pathetic excuses why should they change? Only when an athlete’s livelihood and their endorsement deals are put on the line do they even begin to suggest they have done wrong and try to persuade us they can change. We need the masses to understand doping, deplore it and then the sponsors of riders who cast a shadow across our sport will eventually take note.
The recent departure of Rabobank from the sponsor line-up of professional road racing was described in their press statement as if it was a step in the right direction and that they could no longer tolerate the fear of doping in the team. Although their continued support of developments teams on the road and in CX highlights their love of the sport and a desire to keep the Rabobank name clean their departure was not seen to be for such noble reasons by some, most notably David Millar.
Rabobank are not the first and they surely wont be the last sponsor to leave the sport due to concerns about doping. Whether it is a damage limitation exercise or an altruistic movement, I’ll let you decide. I believe the louder we shout about doping and the ‘omerta’, the more likely we are to improve our sport and banish professional doping to the history books.
Make a difference today, tell someone about professional cycling’s doping history and be part of a proactive renaissance.
Stevie
Really enjoyed this post. REALLY well written, thought provoking, and makes me question how I feel about the whole thing. I like and agree with Joel’s comment below about Lance being left to twist in the wind, but as with the post itself I dont agree with all of the it. Cheating, with PED’s is not just about the money, I am CERTAIN that there are MANY age group triathletes and Cyclists with NO hope of a professional career that are using banned/illegal performance enhancing drugs right now.
I think about myself (at a much younger age), and I am not certain that I would not have used them if they would have extended a college football “career”, with ZERO hope of actual income related to it.
With regards to Lance, I have always reconciled it in my head that I believe he was not doing anything significantly different than any of the other riders of his caliber at that time, therefor I dont believe it had a differentiating effect. Who knows?
Sadly, there is just so much at stake that I do not believe that the technology available for testing will ever truly be able to keep up with the technology available for “cheating”. Not really sure where that leaves things.
I guess to me the sport of pro cycling will always be entertaining, but the pedestal that the athletes are on, just might not be as high.
I am glad that I tend not to pick professional athletes as my heroes. It does not seem to matter which sport you are a part of, eventually the coach/trainer/etc… will say if you want to keep making the money and supporting your family you are going to have to try this… This making professional sports a bit of a wash. I have found forever that elite level amateurs are more fun to watch and look up to. I actually found it saddening the year that Olympic officials allowed pro’s to compete in the Olympics.
The problem is greed. No one cheats for a participation ribbon…unless it’s accompanied by a 5, 6 or even 7 figure check, in some cases. It was not athletes that developed PED. Lance was left to twist in the wind by the very same people that demanded he give everything to the sport. I am sorry, but when you receive MILLIONS of dollars as compensation for ANYTHING morals have been compromised. That old adage, “Successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people won’t”. The problem is, what’s it take to be a successful rider, or any athlete for that matter, at that level? Face it, today professional athletes are expected to perform at an almost un-human level and they go to great lengths to do just that. In their corner is a team of coaches, doctors & trainers all with one job, help X be the best X can be. I’m afraid that as long as athletes are competing for big money, then there will always be some for of cheating.
The taking down of Lance Armstrong makes it look as though the powers that be in professional cycling are cleaning up their act, in one fell swoop. Inversely, with no positive drug tests for Lance, with all the years of 24/7/365 random testing leaves questions about who or what is still “left lurking in the background”! Too many questions remain for my taste! -Michael
Oh I’m sure there is lots of skeletons left in the closet Michael. But admitting they are there to be found is the first step!