A reflective essay on the 2007 Tour de France doping allegations and ejections.
Doping has and will forever exist in all competitive sports. Regardless of the consequences, there will always be someone who is willing to cheat to win. Cycling is a particularly hard sport, and while the results of doping on performance can be minute – that 3-5% gain can be the difference between first and last place.
I would wager that almost every major tour ever won in the history of the sport, has not been a clean win. From Amphetamines in the first half of the century, to Anabolic Steroids and Hormones through the 60's and 70's, Blood Doping since the 80's (1984 Olympics) and whatever new methods for unethical performance gain that we have yet to see.
The last two yellow jerseys (Landis, Rasmussen) have been confirmed dopers. Armstrong has never been confirmed, but there is some evidence (sworn oath testimonies from Frankie Andreu) against him. Not to mention that Armstrong has stood atop the podium, winning over confirmed dopers from 2000-2005 (Basso, Ulrich, Rumsas, Vinkourov). Then we have; Pantani in 1998 – doping, Ulrich in 1997 – doping, Riis in 1996 – doping. Can we assume that we can keep going down the years? Indurain, Lemond, Delgado, Roche, Hinault, Fignon, etc? And these are the just the winners, there are dozens of other confirmed dopers who have finished high on the general classification, or won stages. Still not sure? There have been at least 100 premature deaths of international cyclists over the last decade that were heart-attack related. Heart attacks have been linked to abuse of EPO.
With such a deep history of doping in our sport, the cycling world is dirty from the top down. What do ex-pros do when they finally hang up their wheels? They become coaches, team managers, race organizers and board members of national & international cycling federations. And the cycle of dopers nurturing new dopers continues, sinking the sport further and further into the mud.
Article was last edited on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 @ 3:33 PM
