Comments on: Tour de France or Tour du dopage? http://www.mcelhearn.com/2007/07/26/tour-de-france-or-tour-du-dopage/ Writings about more than just Macs, by Kirk McElhearn Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:24:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: spride http://www.mcelhearn.com/2007/07/26/tour-de-france-or-tour-du-dopage/#comment-613 spride Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:00:52 +0000 http://www.mcelhearn.com/wordpress/?p=276#comment-613 I'm neither surprised nor shocked. Riding the modern Tour, let alone winning it, is impossible without chemical help. The ASO is committed to the Tour- as-Spectacle, so there is profound resistance to altering the course to make it feasible without drugs. For every sop such as the extra rest day in 07 there's a murderous kink like the team time trial up Mont Ventoux of last year. All the other classics are more or less the same. The level of superhuman excellence needed to be a pro rider and make a living at it dictates that the riders will need superhuman assistance. Whilst the race organizers persist in setting courses that only the doped can conquer, doping will be inevitable and universal.e the few deaths each season from EPO or bad vitamins and carry on. Cynically, I don't think doping matters much in terms of sportsmanship, for the simple reason that everybody's already doping. It's a level playing field, albeit a toxic one. I’m neither surprised nor shocked. Riding the modern Tour, let alone winning
it, is impossible without chemical help. The ASO is committed to the Tour-
as-Spectacle, so there is profound resistance to altering the course to make
it feasible without drugs. For every sop such as the extra rest day in 07
there’s a murderous kink like the team time trial up Mont Ventoux of last
year. All the other classics are more or less the same. The level of
superhuman excellence needed to be a pro rider and make a living at it
dictates that the riders will need superhuman assistance. Whilst the race
organizers persist in setting courses that only the doped can conquer,
doping will be inevitable and universal.e the few deaths each season from
EPO or bad vitamins and carry on.

Cynically, I don’t think doping matters much in terms of sportsmanship, for
the simple reason that everybody’s already doping. It’s a level playing field,
albeit a toxic one.

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