I didn’t want to do it—I really didn’t. I’ve tried to avoid this for a while
now, tried to keep my eye on the ball, as it were, writing about things I
thought were more currently relevant than everyone’s favorite Texan. It seems unavoidable though. I had hoped that this issue would pass,
like a minor sinus infection. I
wanted to just be able to move on, to get on with the sport I love, but alas I
have to look this thing in the face and deal with it. Here is my obligatory Lance post:
Yeah, we're not happy about it either Lance. |
I have never really been a “Lance guy,” if there is such a
thing. I have a propensity to root
for the underdog, making the whole of the Discovery/US Postal gang a little too
dominant for my liking. I decided
a long time ago that the circumstantial evidence surrounding the situation
meant that it was likely that there was some kind of doping going on.
But I’m not mad about the doping. I’m really not.
Doping is surely wrong, and should be punished, but what really gets me
depressed about the state of the situation is everything surrounding the
doping. The completely ubiquitous
nature of the doping culture is what is most surprising about this week’s
revelations.
As a naturally cynical person, I wish I could believe that the state of the doping culture in the peloton was not so complete. USADA's report confirms what I only scratched at in my most pessimistic moments.
When you get down to it, I don’t really think many people
care that their heroic Texan cheated his way to utter dominance in an era where
this was commonplace. I think what
is really crushing is just how unwilling he is to come clean. It is insulting. It is insulting to every fan that
trusted the sport was clean.
Still, in the face of overwhelming evidence, Lance rails against a total
hurricane of damning doubt. Like a
lie detector will save any shred of integrity that he still has with any
actual fan of cycling that is not living in complete denial.
It’s going to be painful, but the only real way out of this
going forward is complete honesty—on the UCI’s part, and on current riders’
parts. I’m not really interested
in what Mr. Armstrong has to say about it going forward. To be honest, Lance is the least
significant variable in this equation for cycling as it moves forward. The most pressing issue here is that
cycling still seems to have a culture that tolerates dishonesty.
McQuaid |
Take the UCI’s response: “The sport has moved on.” I’m not convinced it has. The UCI’s plight in all of this is more depressing than any
single rider. Who is worse: A rider who dopes in a culture where
it’s the norm, or the governing body who sanctions such a culture? Dick Pound, former president of WADA,said, “They can’t be so blind to not know this was going on.” I agree.
Former WADA leader, Dick Pound. |
This doesn’t just speak to the sports past. This is just as much about the current
state of cycling. The UCI lived in
a state of constant denial of any US Postal doping allegations, so how am I to
take Pat Mcquaid’s assertion that “the sport has moved on?”
So what about the current riders? Leipheimer said in the Wall Street Journal Thursday, “I am
sorry that I was forced to make the decisions I made.” And though throughout his statement
Levi does his best to own his decision to dope, I really hate that previous
sentence. “I am sorry that I was
forced…” David Zabriskie said in his statement, “I questioned, I resisted, but
in the end, I felt cornered and succumbed to the pressure.”
Lance and (former) friends |
To me this is such a huge shame. Time after time, scandal after scandal, everyone in this
sport passes the buck. I’m not
trying to say that these guys admitting to doping was a bad thing. I’m the one sitting here preaching
about honesty. I just want someone—anyone—involved
in this to come out and really own what he did. I want someone to say, “I doped because I wanted to win. Not
because someone forced me to, but because I wanted a leg up on the competition.” Everyone likes to play the victim here,
but they were miscast, and they’re doing a hack job to boot.
Look at a case like Christophe Bassons, who was literally
asked to leave the sport by none other than Lance Armstrong when he spoke out
about widespread doping in cycling.
Take Emma O’Reilly, Armstrong’s former masseuse, who he sued for a
million Euros when she spoke out about US Postal’s doping program to author
David Walsh. Think of all the
riders whose potential was wasted because they refused to dope in order to be
successful in cycling. These are
the real victims of cycling’s profuse dishonesty. Honest lives were ruined by people too small to face the
truth of their own moral failures.
There are times in my life where I feel as though I am
getting sick. I should probably go
to the doctor, but I really don’t feel like it. It is such a hassle.
“Maybe it will pass,” I think.
One week later I have a full-blown sinus infection complete with pink
eye.
Cycling has gone one step further. We are lying on a hospital bed with a serious case of
pneumonia and are still refusing treatment.
Maybe I’m jaded.
Maybe I’m over-reacting. Maybe
this sport is clean now, or we are at least on our way there. But maybe not. The tide may have turned, but it’s too
soon to say for sure. Only time
will tell how honest we all really are.
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