Archive for Doping
June 12, 2007 · Filed under Cycling, Doping
The UCI is meeting Wednesday with the 20 Pro Tour cycling teams to discuss and release the names of the riders it 
considers implicated in Operation Puerto. In other words, Wednesday will be the day we find out who is and who is not allowed to start the Tour de France. The list is rumored to contain over 50 names. It is also being speculated that they will take the unprecedented step of not allowing Erik Zabel to start nor to allow Rolf Aldag or Bjarne Riis to act as Director Sportif based on their admissions to have used drugs in the 90’s.
The fight against doping in cycling has recently seemed to be a little more level-headed, but at the same time, it continues to be very odd who is and who is not considered to be implicated in the case. It will be very interesting to see what comes out of the meeting and which names are released.
My big question is whether Valverde or Vino will be on the list. They strike me as obvious candidates, but they have so far been almost entirely ignored. We’ll see.
Correction: It appears the UCI is not meeting with the Pro Tour Teams until Tuesday, June 19; the June 13th meeting seems to have been between the teams themselves. They decided that any team not upholding the Pro Tour Ethics Code (i.e. suspend and not associated with any rider involved in a doping investigation, in particular Operation Puerto) will be excluded from the Pro Tour Team’s Association. This could spell trouble for Caisse d’Epargne, Saunier Duval and Discovery Channel.
Second Correction: It appears the UCI did not provide any information regarding Puerto and no new riders will be implicated. In fact, they say they only received 1,000 of the 6,000 pages from Spain and they did not contain any new information. However, Discovery Chanel did resign from the Pro Tour Team’s Association. Apparently, Johan Bruyneel did storm out of the meeting in a style modeled after the Bush Administration. Nice to see the influence that working for an American company is having on Bruyneel.
More of an Overcast-with-Chances-of-Rain-Wednesday than a Black Wednesday, then.
May 25, 2007 · Filed under Cycling, Doping
What a shocking week in cycling. About a half dozen riders and two team doctors have admitted to doping at Team Telekom 
(which later became T-Mobile) during the 90’s. Among the riders who have admitted using drugs are cycling icons Erik Zabel and Bjarne Riis.
So far, the admissions have culminated with Riis admitting that he used EPO during the 1996 Tour de France - which he won. (Riis was rumored to be nicknamed “Mr. Sixty” due to his high hematocrit count, which becomes dangerous when above 50.) We will have to wait and see if this ends up with anyone losing their titles: Riis could lose his yellow jersey (overall winner), and Zabel his green jersey (points winner).
Interestingly, if you look at the results of the ‘96 Tour, more than half the riders in the top 10 have admitted to drug use or have been very closely tied to it:
- Bjarne Riis - admitted drug usage during the ‘96 Tour
- Jan Ullrich - no admitted drug use, but his DNA matched blood found in Operation Puerto
- Richard Virenque - admitted drug use after the ‘98 Festina Affair
- Laurent Dufaux - admitted drug use after the ‘98 Festina Affair
- Luc Leblanc - admitted drug use after the ‘98 Festina Affair
- Fernando Escartin - admitted drug use
Perhaps most surprising about the admissions is that many of the riders were not star riders looking for the extra edge to win; they were riders of the domestique category: a caliber of riders who’s role it is not to win races, but to serve the team in other ways, such as setting tempo at the front of the peleton, chasing down breakaways, or to protect their team leader during a race. Rolf Aldag, who was an excellent domestique, said that during the ‘95 season, was was in awe as he would routinely get dropped by the peleton during races. He simply couldn’t keep up with the pace - let alone serve his duty as domestique. He turned to drug use in order to be able to continue in his profession. It seems the speed of the races increased so dramatically during the 90’s that just to keep up, riders had to dope. Drug use was wide-spread and riders were not simply doping to win, but to handle the speeds.
Read the rest of this post »
May 3, 2007 · Filed under Cycling, Doping
We’re huge pro cycling fans. Michelle and I both get very involved with particular riders; for Michelle her favorites have been Jan Ullrich and Marco Pantani; for me, it’s been Ullrich, Pantani, and Ivan Basso. It seems we’re bent on loving riders who eventually get wound up in some sort of doping mess, and it’s getting really frustrating.
Cycling is arguably the most difficult sport in the world; a three week Grand Tour is no small thing; four to eight hours in the 
saddle day-in, day-out, and over some of the biggest mountains you can find. But it’s not just the three Grand Tours that are hard; Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders combine 240+ km races with some of the roughest cobblestones you can find and, in the case of Flanders, some of the steepest hills you can imagine.
Our frustration with doping in cycling is not so much because of the doping itself, but the way it’s being handled and treated by the press, the various cycling and doping governing bodies, and the teams themselves. Ideally, cycling should be a clean sport - I don’t think anyone is arguing about that. But we should also be realistic and recognize that doping has been a major part of the sport since the beginning. Especially in Europe, cyclists are brought up on a doping regimen from the amateur ranks all the way up through the pro ranks. And, upon retirement, many pros become Director Sportifs. It is no small wonder then, that there is organized, systematic doping throughout most of the pro teams.
Read the rest of this post »
« Previous posts
