Rumor has it that Alberto Contador has no idea how that clenbuterol got in there. The testosterone, the dianabol, the EPO, the CERA, the artificially elevated red blood cell count, the horse aphrodisiacs and the stuff for various runny pustules from the DMSO shots, he can understand. But clenbuterol? Never touched the stuff. Must be a mistake. Who are you going to believe - me, or your lying eyes?
Anyhow, I have to wonder if there's another sport in the world that hates itself as much as cycling does. No other sport takes anti-doping as seriously, and no sport flagellates itself as badly when its policies work and dopers get caught. Steve Czaban summed it up nicely on drivetime sports radio this morning - "Phew. Good thing they don't test everybody right after the Superbowl." Yeah, no shit.
The interesting thing about this is the amount of the stuff Contador had in his system was about two orders of magnitude less than the amount considered cognizable by WADA. We're talking a trace of a trace here.
So did he dope? Maybe. Not that you could conclusively say so from the test.
Doesn't matter though. We're going to get years of recriminations, excuses, bogus sounding explanations, bombast from Dick Pound (who has now moved on but who still has a big mouth), Gallic shrugs from UCI, and whatever usual stuff the main players and organizations tee up.
The bottom line is that I like watching pro racing, but the only racers I have faith in are my fellow grass roots racers. I have faith in my local officials. I have faith in our scene, even though I know there's probably a few pig fucking cheaters among us. You guys I like, and have faith in, and respect. The pros? I like watching them do their thing but can no more impute good character to them, than I can to my dog. My dog is a good dog but he's just a dog; it's not in him to have good character. He just does what he does, so too do pro racers and all the corrupt personages in the pro cycling scene. The clean guys, I'm sure, are very clean. The dirty guys I'm very sure are dirty to the core. And me, I'm just tired of hearing it. I've heard all the excuses and justifications, and I've heard all the lies that can be told about doping.
Same old sterile debate, same old going nowhere cheating and seemingly half assed enforcement effort.
Doping in cycling is worse than a scandal these days: it's boring. Fuck these people. The lot of them. I'll watch them race, but damned if I'll care about them.
But you're only here for the tunes, right?
I think that's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?
5 comments:
Yep. I'm about to the point of: Let the fools have blood so chock-full of RBC's that it has the viscosity of 10W-40, (at least they won't bleed when half the peloton goes down)let them 'roid up and hGH until they have nuts the size of chckpeas and "bitch tits" (which can be avoided with the right cocktail) so through sheer power they can rupture a BB30 in the sprint to the finish. Let them amp up on amphetamines to keep them alert and give them energy. Forego all testing. Create records that can never be broken. Then, when the dust settles, and they all perish by age 24, all that will be left to race the Tour will be old fat guys.
You only believe in grass roots racers? Really? Maybe you ought to ask Joe Papp about that one. Your naivete surprises me.
Dr. Brett - I'm approaching your viewpoint. Not there yet.
Anon - you ever do amateur races? You think we're all doping and we still suck this bad? I'm sure some amateurs are doping but I'm also reasonably certain the numbers are pretty small. Every year some few guys make huge leaps forward or go dominate. Most of us don't. There'd be more people making leaps & bounds improvements all the time, but I don't see stuff like that locally. I do see some guys getting better over time, but I work out with a lot of them and they aren't doing anything magic, they are just working hard as hell. I can think of a couple friends who are strong racers, about whom I'd be willing to risk 50 lashes in a bet that they are clean. You can't look at all racers - pro and amateur - and assume all are dirty. Just because one guy robs a bank doesn't mean everybody walking in to us the ATM in the lobby is there to pull a heist.
jim, great choice in tunes!
I'm just going to stop trusting any dude under 55kg. My conscience is clear since many jockeys are just as bad as half the peleton in the '90s.
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