Someone made this comment. If we reach back into the history of cycling to strip titles from the admitted or not quite clean dopers of the sport, we are going to discover empty podiums. Gone will be Anquetil, Merckyx, Indurain, Delgado, Moser, Fignon, Thevenet, Riis, Zabel, Basso, Marteens, Bataglilin, Zootemelk, Coppi, any German cyclist, many Spaniards most of the Italians. The list is in the hundreds. Most of these guys admitted their doping within the eight year statute of limitations so forget that out. The French remain humiliated that their system has not generated a champion since 1986 and that winner is a known question because he reneged on a deal with Greg Lemond. The grand Tours beg for doping. The demands are beyond expression. The pain and suffering is intense on a minor climb, forget the grand climbs of the Tour. Perhaps this is one way Greg LeMond gets the recognition he truly deserves in the sport of kings – the rest of the heroes are simply gone, ghosts in the hall of fame. Cyclists do not start out as dopers. The juice finds us in our darkest hours. Hours like a too young 17 year old trying to finish a 171 mile stage in a pro-am tour, you have to make the time limit or you are out. Dope finds us in disputes with sponsors over a racing schedule that makes no sense to an athlete. It finds us when we cannot just hang on or hang in but when we have nothing in the tank and we have to drive tempo for our leader at the front of the peleton. It finds us simply because unlike many other professional team sports there are no substitutions. Over 21-days in the Tour it is unacceptable to have an off day or a day off. And then when the Tour is over, the nightly criterium schedule ramps up. This pursuit of Lance is a joke. It relies on the subtleties of the definition of modern doping - abnormal levels of x relative to y. X is okay below threshold z and only if q is not present at all. Simple things were completely ignored like the presences of plastic residue from transfusion bags – too easy. WADA has the legacy of Dick Pound to live down and the USADA has more than its share of problems like medical exemptions granted with nary a question. We were all asthmatics; the medical evidence was irrefutable as all of us had trouble breathing under sustained exertion. USADA tell the truth – How many exemptions for Clenbuterol did you grant for world class athletes? Hundreds? Thousands? Or you do not have records or the dog ate them on the way to school? The real tragedy of doping was in the late '80's and early 90's when 25 or so young riders died in their sleep of apparent heart failure. Hearts gave out when EPO boosted blood took on the consistency of toothpaste could not deliver oxygen to the body while the heart was at rest. It was an era of a silent killer creeping through young pros. Everyone stood by knowing but not really knowing as only a refined lawyer preparing for a deposition understands. Riders were waking themselves at night to exercise and get their heart rates up in fear they would otherwise die in their sleep and that fear was justified. USADA and WADA were silent because going along was easier than doing their job. The current action by USADA and WADA is all theater to continue and perhaps perversely atone for the fight they ignored. It reminds me of the accounting firms that missed Worldcom, Enron and the Banking crisis of 2008. The regulator’s of this world care more about their position in the economic food chain than doing their job. They play go along get along until the price of go along gets in the way of maintaining their position in the economic food chain. I sense cycling is improving. The indicators are simple. Average speeds are no longer increasing; team tempo riding has diminished in both duration and intensity. The days of eight drones at the front of the peleton boiling off one hundred or more other athletes while protecting their leader appear on the wane. Only the organizers fail to get it. They keep creating ever more brutal and diabolical stages (Tour of Italy 2012). I care for the future of the sport, not the past. The regulators knew what was happening and took the easy view at the time– he passed the test. Conveniently reacquired virtue does not create an excuse to destroy those that worked within the system WADA mis-managed in the past. They were happy with the standard then, they need to live with it now. WADA could have helped Pantani and so many, many others, but instead they played along because they perceived getting along was more important than looking out for the athlete. I love the sport, nothing is more enjoyable than the relaxed hour or two deep in the peleton chatting it up at the beginning of a long stage, and nothing is more gratifying than any finish line intermediate, stage, mountain top or the Champs Elysee. I pray for the success of young Peter Stetina and Taylor Phinney and hope they are able to realize what their fathers could only dream. Lance did great things for this sport against insurmountable odds, let him go. Americans simply fail to understand how deeply affected the French are by the fact that their system has not produced a winner since 1986. USADA should be a pawn in the healing of their annual humiliation. French riders have never resisted doping in pursuit of a pure victory – just ask Anquetil, Virenque or Fignon. Let’s clear the path for a new generation and hold WADA and USADA accountable to that future and not the past that they both so clearly missed with eyes wide open. This action and the recent DOJ action is so small and childish. It is time to balance the act. Keep an eye on the riders, but go after the sponsors for the insane schedules and go after the organizers for the sequential climbs and insane time trials.
