The demise of professional cycling

Are we seeing the demise of professional bicycle racing? It seems to
me as if the entire culture of professional bicycle racing is
permanently and pervasively polluted with performance-enhancing drugs,
despite the recent attempts to clean up the sport. I've been a fan
watching the TDF since the early 1980s with Greg Lemond, and I've
traveled to France to see the TDF in person, but the Landis incident
was the final straw that pushed me over the edge into suspecting that
the entire sport is guilty of doping, if not in deed, then by
association. I am extremely disheartened about the seemingly endless
ties of bicycling to drugs, e.g. Landis, Hamilton, Basso, Ullrich,
Festina, Pantani, Riis, etc. The stories are just never-ending, and
seem to be getting worse as Puerto expands. For the first time in 20+
years, I cannot bring myself to watch any of the major tours this
year, Giro/TDF/Vuelta/etc., because I cannot trust that the results
are clean. If longtime fans like myself are turning away from
watching cycling - its elegance and beauty as a sport - because they
believe many if not most of the athletes were/are cheating, then what
is the future of professional cycling?

I'd advocate freezing the sport for about 50 years, to abolish its
current drug culture, then starting back up from scratch, with
hopefully ironclad drug testing by that time.

Rick H

a écrit dans le message de news:
...

Are we seeing the demise of professional bicycle racing? It seems to
me as if the entire culture of professional bicycle racing is
permanently and pervasively polluted with performance-enhancing drugs,
despite the recent attempts to clean up the sport. I've been a fan
watching the TDF since the early 1980s with Greg Lemond, and I've
traveled to France to see the TDF in person, but the Landis incident
was the final straw that pushed me over the edge into suspecting that
the entire sport is guilty of doping, if not in deed, then by
association. I am extremely disheartened about the seemingly endless
ties of bicycling to drugs, e.g. Landis, Hamilton, Basso, Ullrich,
Festina, Pantani, Riis, etc. The stories are just never-ending, and
seem to be getting worse as Puerto expands. For the first time in 20+
years, I cannot bring myself to watch any of the major tours this
year, Giro/TDF/Vuelta/etc., because I cannot trust that the results
are clean. If longtime fans like myself are turning away from
watching cycling - its elegance and beauty as a sport - because they
believe many if not most of the athletes were/are cheating, then what
is the future of professional cycling?

I'd advocate freezing the sport for about 50 years, to abolish its
current drug culture, then starting back up from scratch, with
hopefully ironclad drug testing by that time.

Rick H


Agree, Rick.

How many true champions left the sport because they never accepted the
dopping ?
We never will know.
And the cheaters - those who accept drugs for money - want us to clap hands.

Sad, very sad

On May 1, 5:13 am, wrote:
Are we seeing the demise of professional bicycle racing? It seems to
me as if the entire culture of professional bicycle racing is
permanently and pervasively polluted with performance-enhancing drugs,
despite the recent attempts to clean up the sport. I've been a fan
watching the TDF since the early 1980s ...

It seems to me the difference from the 1980s (or whatever decade you
pick) and now is in how things are being reported in the media.

Media reports are what you're basing your conclusion on, right? If
they reported the whole thing in a different way, you'd likely reach a
different conclusion.

And actually, if you take the paragraph above and replace
"professional bicycle racing" with any other organized human endeavor,
and "performance-enhancing drugs" with another 'cheating' method ...
you can see that there is nothing unique to bike racing. (e.g, try
"politics" and "influence peddling")

wrote in message
ups.com...

Are we seeing the demise of professional bicycle racing? It seems to
me as if the entire culture of professional bicycle racing is
permanently and pervasively polluted with performance-enhancing drugs,
despite the recent attempts to clean up the sport. I've been a fan
watching the TDF since the early 1980s with Greg Lemond, and I've
traveled to France to see the TDF in person, but the Landis incident
was the final straw that pushed me over the edge into suspecting that
the entire sport is guilty of doping, if not in deed, then by
association. I am extremely disheartened about the seemingly endless
ties of bicycling to drugs, e.g. Landis, Hamilton, Basso, Ullrich,
Festina, Pantani, Riis, etc. The stories are just never-ending, and
seem to be getting worse as Puerto expands. For the first time in 20+
years, I cannot bring myself to watch any of the major tours this
year, Giro/TDF/Vuelta/etc., because I cannot trust that the results
are clean. If longtime fans like myself are turning away from
watching cycling - its elegance and beauty as a sport - because they
believe many if not most of the athletes were/are cheating, then what
is the future of professional cycling?

I'd advocate freezing the sport for about 50 years, to abolish its
current drug culture, then starting back up from scratch, with
hopefully ironclad drug testing by that time.

Rick H

Unfortunately, professional cycling is simply becoming irrelevant. Cheating
has always been part of the professional cycling circuit - what is happening
now is nothing new. What is new is that it is not being tolerated any
longer.

There is no other sport which places such incredible demands on its
athletes. If you want to watch a field going 25 mph over the weeks of a Tour
De France, drugs will be needed for the riders to get through it.

Doug Thomas

wrote in message
ups.com...

Are we seeing the demise of professional bicycle racing? It seems to
me as if the entire culture of professional bicycle racing is
permanently and pervasively polluted with performance-enhancing drugs,
despite the recent attempts to clean up the sport. I've been a fan
watching the TDF since the early 1980s with Greg Lemond, and I've
traveled to France to see the TDF in person, but the Landis incident
was the final straw that pushed me over the edge into suspecting that
the entire sport is guilty of doping, if not in deed, then by
association. I am extremely disheartened about the seemingly endless
ties of bicycling to drugs, e.g. Landis, Hamilton, Basso, Ullrich,
Festina, Pantani, Riis, etc. The stories are just never-ending, and
seem to be getting worse as Puerto expands. For the first time in 20+
years, I cannot bring myself to watch any of the major tours this
year, Giro/TDF/Vuelta/etc., because I cannot trust that the results
are clean. If longtime fans like myself are turning away from
watching cycling - its elegance and beauty as a sport - because they
believe many if not most of the athletes were/are cheating, then what
is the future of professional cycling?

I'd advocate freezing the sport for about 50 years, to abolish its
current drug culture, then starting back up from scratch, with
hopefully ironclad drug testing by that time.

Rick H


If you ask me, and no one has, a major part of the problem is that all of
the governing agencies of cycling have preoccupied themselves with drug
testing while, at the same time, waffling on what constitutes illegal blood
doping and what is "good" blood doping. For the life of me I could not
understand why, at the Japanese Olympic Games, IOC and UCI allowed coaches
and countries that could afford it to modify cyclists' quarters to
artificially simulate high altitude living conditions by pumping out a bunch
of air and forcing the athlete's bodies to produce more oxygen carrying
corpuscles than they would if the modifications hadn't been done. That was
clearly artificially modifying performance levels and the only difference
between that and outright blood doping is that it costs a hell of a lot more
money. Why was it allowed? It sent a clear message that SOME kinds of
artificial techniques are okay.

What the governing organizations need to do is put their heads together and
come up with a proactive list of rules for training standards that must be
followed. NO artificial means of enhancing performance through current or
future means. They need to set up a committee to review and approve new
training methods before athletes are involved. And coaches with the "win at
any cost" mentality need to be shipped off to Antarctica to train penguins.

And maybe it's time to resurrect a tradition of the ancient Olympic Games.
Any athlete caught cheating was required (even if it meant a lifetime of
debt) to pay for and erect a life-size statue of himself with his sins
carved in the plinth for all to see. The statues lined the walkway leading
to the sacred tunnel all athletes passed through on their way to the playing
field. It was shame that lasted for centuries, not just a two year
suspension and we're all friends again.

Caroline
Former USCF official

On 1 May 2007 02:13:11 -0700, wrote:


Are we seeing the demise of professional bicycle racing? It seems to
me as if the entire culture of professional bicycle racing is
permanently and pervasively polluted with performance-enhancing drugs,
despite the recent attempts to clean up the sport. I've been a fan
watching the TDF since the early 1980s with Greg Lemond, and I've
traveled to France to see the TDF in person, but the Landis incident
was the final straw that pushed me over the edge into suspecting that
the entire sport is guilty of doping, if not in deed, then by
association. I am extremely disheartened about the seemingly endless
ties of bicycling to drugs, e.g. Landis, Hamilton, Basso, Ullrich,
Festina, Pantani, Riis, etc. The stories are just never-ending, and
seem to be getting worse as Puerto expands. For the first time in 20+
years, I cannot bring myself to watch any of the major tours this
year, Giro/TDF/Vuelta/etc., because I cannot trust that the results
are clean. If longtime fans like myself are turning away from
watching cycling - its elegance and beauty as a sport - because they
believe many if not most of the athletes were/are cheating, then what
is the future of professional cycling?

I'd advocate freezing the sport for about 50 years, to abolish its
current drug culture, then starting back up from scratch, with
hopefully ironclad drug testing by that time.


Rick, do you have any problem with the continued, routine and generally accepted
doping that went on throughout the 20th Century. The doping was every bit as
rampant, if not more so, when you first started following the sport in the 80s.
What's changed? Does EPO offend you more than blood packing?

Ron

On Tue, 01 May 2007 09:32:32 -0500, Curtis L. Russell
wrote:

On 1 May 2007 02:13:11 -0700, wrote:


Are we seeing the demise of professional bicycle racing? It seems to
me as if the entire culture of professional bicycle racing is
permanently and pervasively polluted with performance-enhancing drugs,
despite the recent attempts to clean up the sport. I've been a fan
watching the TDF since the early 1980s with Greg Lemond, and I've
traveled to France to see the TDF in person, but the Landis incident
was the final straw that pushed me over the edge into suspecting that
the entire sport is guilty of doping, if not in deed, then by
association. I am extremely disheartened about the seemingly endless
ties of bicycling to drugs, e.g. Landis, Hamilton, Basso, Ullrich,
Festina, Pantani, Riis, etc. The stories are just never-ending, and
seem to be getting worse as Puerto expands. For the first time in 20+
years, I cannot bring myself to watch any of the major tours this
year, Giro/TDF/Vuelta/etc., because I cannot trust that the results
are clean. If longtime fans like myself are turning away from
watching cycling - its elegance and beauty as a sport - because they
believe many if not most of the athletes were/are cheating, then what
is the future of professional cycling?

I'd advocate freezing the sport for about 50 years, to abolish its
current drug culture, then starting back up from scratch, with
hopefully ironclad drug testing by that time.

Rick H

Grace and beauty? Which stages are those? We won't concede they
succeed all that well with all the podium girls.

And I started 'watching' (via print) in the Merckx days, and I
remember more than rumors. Even remember someone dying...

The individual stage winners win in a fight or a struggle and the
overall winner has come out of the grinder on top. That's why I watch
the Tours. I'm guessing that the riders that can perform their role on
one day and coast in as part of the train on another probably don't
need drugs to recover. I'm guessing that most of the guys that have to
ride near the front every day are doing something other than sleeping
late on the rest days to recover. Frankly, if it is pretty much the
same for all of that peer group, it doesn't effect my opinion of the
Tour.

OTOH, I admit to a long term corruption. Didn't take drugs myself,
other than the occasional beer, but one day I looked around the bay
and realized that if I turned in every soldier taking drugs to get
through 12 hour days, seven days a week, I wouldn't have anyone to get
the work done. I looked the other way then and have had practice
since. Since the alcoholics were on average the worst and they were
legal, it was easy. Best I remember they were all adults. Best I know,
so are the Tour racers.

When I was in the Army I saw a barracks drug bust. The ounce of pot was got. The
fistfull of white crosses ignored. I also remember a squad level mission to
escape the desert we were training in to get enough beer to keep the squad
leader functional.

And yes, everyone there was a grownup and the general outlook was that they
needed to take care of themselves, or not. What ****ed people off were things
that'd get someone else hurt.

Ron

On 1 May 2007 02:13:11 -0700, wrote:


Are we seeing the demise of professional bicycle racing? It seems to
me as if the entire culture of professional bicycle racing is
permanently and pervasively polluted with performance-enhancing drugs,
despite the recent attempts to clean up the sport. I've been a fan
watching the TDF since the early 1980s with Greg Lemond, and I've
traveled to France to see the TDF in person, but the Landis incident
was the final straw that pushed me over the edge into suspecting that
the entire sport is guilty of doping, if not in deed, then by
association. I am extremely disheartened about the seemingly endless
ties of bicycling to drugs, e.g. Landis, Hamilton, Basso, Ullrich,
Festina, Pantani, Riis, etc. The stories are just never-ending, and
seem to be getting worse as Puerto expands. For the first time in 20+
years, I cannot bring myself to watch any of the major tours this
year, Giro/TDF/Vuelta/etc., because I cannot trust that the results
are clean. If longtime fans like myself are turning away from
watching cycling - its elegance and beauty as a sport - because they
believe many if not most of the athletes were/are cheating, then what
is the future of professional cycling?

I'd advocate freezing the sport for about 50 years, to abolish its
current drug culture, then starting back up from scratch, with
hopefully ironclad drug testing by that time.

Rick H

Grace and beauty? Which stages are those? We won't concede they
succeed all that well with all the podium girls.

And I started 'watching' (via print) in the Merckx days, and I
remember more than rumors. Even remember someone dying...

The individual stage winners win in a fight or a struggle and the
overall winner has come out of the grinder on top. That's why I watch
the Tours. I'm guessing that the riders that can perform their role on
one day and coast in as part of the train on another probably don't
need drugs to recover. I'm guessing that most of the guys that have to
ride near the front every day are doing something other than sleeping
late on the rest days to recover. Frankly, if it is pretty much the
same for all of that peer group, it doesn't effect my opinion of the
Tour.

OTOH, I admit to a long term corruption. Didn't take drugs myself,
other than the occasional beer, but one day I looked around the bay
and realized that if I turned in every soldier taking drugs to get
through 12 hour days, seven days a week, I wouldn't have anyone to get
the work done. I looked the other way then and have had practice
since. Since the alcoholics were on average the worst and they were
legal, it was easy. Best I remember they were all adults. Best I know,
so are the Tour racers.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

On Tue, 01 May 2007 10:12:12 -0400, RonSonic
wrote:

And yes, everyone there was a grownup and the general outlook was that they
needed to take care of themselves, or not. What ****ed people off were things
that'd get someone else hurt.

And throwing up in the shower. Pretty much the last thing you need at
4:00am is yesterdays regurgitated beer and whiskey. 'Course everything
but the chunky stuff you could wash down the drain...

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

On Tue, 01 May 2007 13:27:16 GMT, "Caroline"
wrote:

It sent a clear message that SOME kinds of
artificial techniques are okay.

The reality is that almost all forms of training and nutrition for
sport are artificial. So if altitude rooms are OK, then they are not
cheating.

It's not complicated. If the substance is on the list relevant to the
sport, or illegal by law, then using it is cheating. If not, it's
not.


--
JT
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