Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Saturday, January 13, 2007

The Geek has posted several times regarding some of the mess that is professional cycling in Europe and I thought I post a few of my fence sitting ideas on the various topics that have been in the news:

Doping: I vacilate between the ultracynical position that everyone dopes and the less cynical but more pessimistic one that I'm not sure who does and doesn't so I can't trust anything. I know this sounds confusing but let's see if I can explain it. If everyone dopes then it's sort of a level playing field kind of thing (at least in my mind). Yes, success depends a bit on who has the best pharmacist but that's not unlike a cyclists success depending on who has the coach with the best training routines (Discovery and CSC) or who have the best bikes (CSC and the now defunct Phonak). Now, I'm not saying that doping is OK (I've written very clearly in the past condemning such things) but if everyone's doing it then we're back to everyone having the same access to all the tools and the results are at least valid in the sense of no one having an unfair advantage over anyone else (at least if you are willing to endanger your long term health). If everyone doesn't dope then I don't know who is and who isn't and so I can't really trust the results of any race. Did racer X when because he was better or because he was doped? I'm inclined towards the first position for a lot of reasons. There's so much evidence that Tyler and Ullrich doped that it's about undeniable in my mind. If doping adds 10-15% to one's performance it's hard to imagine Lance or Vino or Kloden being able to hang with Ullrich or Tyler in the Tour without some help. Let me give you an example of what I mean. I can ride a 40K TT in 58 minutes for an average of around 26 mph when in championship form. Assume that with a professional training schedule I could improve by 5-10% over that and with EPO/Human Growth Hormone I get another 10-15%. That puts me at around 31 mph and all of the sudden I'm in the good professional range. If Tyler's doing that then I can't imagine anyone beating him unless they're doping too. I believe Manzano's claims about the Kelme team are true and that they engaged in systematic doping over a lot of years. Sevilla and Botero's up and down performances are proof to me that there was a lot help going on. So...this leads me to...

Floyd: Did he or didn't he? I don't know. I believed Tyler when he said he didn't and look where that led. Honestly, I don't trust cyclists claims anymore. The problem is that we'll never be able to trust the results of the lab's tests either. They are deeply and seriously flawed from a scientific "chain of evidence" and reliability standpoint. Maybe they mishandled the samples and the results are false. Maybe they mishandled the samples but didn't compromise the results. We'll never know. I don't think he should be convicted but that doesn't mean I think he's clean. If the ratio's screwed up like the lab says that points to some new masking thing like the EPO powder to me. But I'm cynical. I also wouldn't put it past the French to do just about anything to make sure another American doesn't win the Tour. The doping labs had it out for Lance and I believe they'd be more than happy to transfer that animus to Floyd or George or Levi or Dave Z. if one of them actually had the termidity to win the Tour (which Floyd did). The lab system's pretty much broken from a justice point of view but I can't blame the system on anyone but the athletes who doped over and over and over again to win. Of course, that's because the competition became so much more than that and that's due to human nature and the corrupting influence of big money I suppose.

Dick Pound: For the readers of this blog who don't know who Dick Pound is, he's the head of the World Anti-Doping Association. He has a penchant for saying really inappropriate things about sports and doping. Why doesn't this guy have a Fox News nightly show like Bill O'Reilly? His opinions are worth about the same as O'Really?'s. He's absurd and should be fired. He's the only thing I can actually think of that's stupider than the Trump/Rosey pissing match. It's one thing for a nobody liek me with no power and authority to express my opinions about doping, it's another thing for the supposedly impartial head of the organization who tests and assigns blame and guilt in athletic dopign cases to say the same things.

UCI vs. the Grand Tour Organizers: If the UCI doesn't like what the Grand Tour Organizers are doing it should find other promoters to partner with and then help the new organizers offer more to the teams. The UCI needs to understand that the Tour de France will always be the "really big show" and that it holds most of the cards. What it needs to do is focus on the shorter stage races and the one-day events and get new promoters with new sponsors and offer teams more to ride in their race than in Paris-Nice or Paris-Tours. Once they do that the ASO will come back to the table and talk. Until then...while you may have good points you aren't going to have a whoel lot of clout. There's a little hypocrisy involved here. The UCI was all happy when the ASO decided to focus on globalization of the Tour and the sport. As the sport grew, so did the power of the ASO as it organized and promoted more events and those events attracted wealthier sponsors. They did the hard work and now they're reaping the benefits. For the UCI to now try to walk in and take over the show is a bit smarmy in some ways. I like the Pro Tour concept but biek racing is never going to be like NASCAR. In fact, NASCAR is moving int he direction of fewer gaurentted spots for teams and I see the UCI having to do the same thing if the Pro Tour is going to survive. I don't really think the issue is about the structure of the Pro Tour actually. If it was then a compromise would have been reached a lot sooner than this. It's abotu who gets to control the direction of big money cycling in Europe.

Well, there you have it and I've rambled on way too long. I won't rant about the the fans who feed the system by demanding super hard races that all but force the athletes to dope to survive them and then who condemn those athletes.

Peace out and thanks for enduring my rant.

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