Tour du Dopage 2008
It’s happened yet again. A third rider, and one who has won two stages so far, has tested positive for EPO. Yet again. Just like last year’s race; read what I wrote about the race then, and it seems that nothing has changed.
I remain stunned that these riders keep taking EPO and don’t think they’ll get caught; after all, France is at the forefront in testing for such things, and they should know that they’ll test positive.
The Tour comes by my home on Sunday. I’m torn between standing on the road with a big sign saying “F*ck you”, or just ignoring it. It’s a shame; it’s a grand race, but I think it’s over for me.
I don’t know if the story of Geneviève Jeanson made the news in much of the rest of the world, but here in Québec, it was a big deal. When she first admitted to doping, everyone was shocked and dumped on her. But when she told her story, another side came out: the exploitation of children by doctors and trainers and teams. In order to bolster their reputation, they con their young athletes (often at 14, 15 years-old) into taking these drugs. Once the child realizes what is going on, it is too late, they are already caught in the machine.
So in the end, I feel sorry for these people. They take the fall for something everybody else does, and that they did not really choose to do.
So if I were you, I’d go out and cheer. You never know, there might be one or two riders who are clean and who deserve those cheers. Heck, I’d cheer louder at the end of the pack!
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- É -
Yes, I do feel sorry for the clean ones. They get drawn into a system where
they have no choice. Heck, the Tour de France is one hell of a race – I’ve
driven up many of the mountains they ride up, and even that is tough!
The real problem is that – and I think everyone involved in the sport knows it
- the whole system has lived with doping for decades. They need to stop the
Tour one year, stop all big races, get everyone clean, and then tell them
they’ll be banned for life if they get caught. As it stands, they get short bans,
which is no big deal.
I do have respect for the "little guys" at the back of the peloton who bust
their asses trying just to make it to the end.
Kirk
Kirk,
Actually, I feel sorry for the "dirty" ones, too. They’re caught in an infernal machine where their talent and other people’s greed are on a collision course. As for "getting clean", it will never happen as long as there is so much money involved. There will always be trainers willing to risk being banned for life in exchange for a few winning years, the athletes be damned. And the athletes, well, they’re kids. It’s hard for them to resist the will of their elders.
Another solution would be to bring it all into the open: Team Pfizer, Team Balco, etc. See which drug c*cktail produces the best results. I’m sure the military could use the research! Go Team DARPA!
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- É -
I refer the rt. Honorable Gentleman to the answer I gave last year.
I’m neither surprised nor shocked at the number of riders failing dope tests. 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 in 2006. 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.
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. What does matter is that the workers in cycling sport are being coerced into doing things to their bodies whose consequences nobody can predict or leaving the sport, and that’s something where change is hugely overdue.
I don’t sense that the majority of cycling fans think the sport is being ruined by doping. Every year a few riders out of the majority who dope get caught, and they are ritually derided, even booed (and remember the painted "VIRENQUE = EPO" and massive syringe graffiti on the roads back in the 90s?) but then they do their penance and are rehabilitated. Most tifosi take an equally cynical attitude to doping. Don’t forget that it’s been there since Day 1. Have a look at the interview with the Pélissier brothers that Albert Londres did back in the 1900s where they emptied out their musette bags and showed him the arsenal of chemicals they used to be able to tackle the murderous courses set by Henri Desgranges. Cycling’s never been clean and the fans largely don’t care.
Dare I say that the moralizing started when the Americans began to get involved in numbers, about ten years ago? And the hypocritical thing is that the American riders are by far the most subtle and accomplished dopers. The American attitude reminds me of Claude Rains in Casablanca, who loudly announces that he is shocked, shocked that gambling is occurring in Rick’s Bar while pocketing his winnings.
Yep, it hasn’t changed since last year, has it? A shame… And we say this every
year.
Kirk
Well, I’m uncharacteristically postmodernist about this. I think that doping
should be legal and extensively documented. We should publish
the test results alongside the stage results and let the ASO decide. The fans
could even join in – “My guy got Green with only EPO while your guy needed
HGH to come fifth!”.
This has been suggested – let them use these substances, but under strict
control, so they all have the same "advantage", but with a doctor ensuring that
it’s safe. But how long before even that would get out of hand?
Kirk
I’m going to be completely honest: I don’t understand why people bother
watching competitions like Tour de France etc. To me these "competitions" are
mostly "look, we are best at cheating" competitions …
To be fair, it’s a grueling competition, and even the losers bust their asses for
three weeks. It can be very spectacular, and they go through a wonderfully
beautiful terrain.
You have to see it "live" to understand, though. The number of people who line
the roads for hours is impressive. Granted, most of those people are simply
there because the Tour comes through their town, but where I live, in the Alps,
the number who come especially for the Tour, in campers, is astounding.
Kirk