MMDA says less flooding in Metro this year

1996 Tour de France champion Bjarne Riis came out last week saying that he used EPO from 1993 to 1998, including the year when he won the Tour de France. This after five of his 8 teammates owed up doping the tour that year. The team included Erik Zabel, who tearfully admitted that he had lied for 11 years. But another teammate, Jan Ullrich, runner-up that year, held on that he raced immaculately in spite the authorities matching his DNA with blood confiscated in Spain.

I think it would be safe to say that most cyclists from 2005 down did dope. EPO was first used by the peloton in the late 1980’s. I think the Dutch were the first to use the drug. Because there were no study of the effect of the new drug, lots of young, healthy Dutch riders were dropping dead at the age 30 from heart attack. The effect of EPO is that it makes the blood “syrupy”, slowing blood flow and predisposes arteries to clog.

In 1991, the number one team in the world, the Dutch-based PDM team, quit en masse after “food poisoning” hit the team. However, there were whispers that the team had injected themselves with tainted EPO. Since there was no test at that time for the drug, it was a happy time for everyone, especially if the team had a big budget.

The use of EPO probably reached its peak at the turn of the century, when “clean” cyclists swear that the races were run at two speeds: a slow speed for the clean ones and a higher speed for the dirty ones. Observers at that time said that it was just jealousy considering that the legal medicine was now a part of the cycling team. Little did the public know that these doctors were actually hired so as not to overdose the riders.

In hindsight, the UCI didn’t do its job well. It was more concerned about “modialisation” of the sport and hiding its head in the sand rather than meeting the doping problem head on. But in fairness to the UCI, who would have thought that this problem would metastasize as the cancer as it is today? And without any precedence, how could they tackle the problem? Even Major League Baseball, who has a potential problem when Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s hallowed record of 755 home runs in the next few months, doesn’t have a clue about solving the problem.

With “mondialisation” a failure and the rise of the popularity of the Tour (directly related to EPO), the UCI was ill-prepared when the doping problem cropped up. In fact, cycling was a holdout when it was asked to be a signatory of the anti-doping stance written by the IOC.

My point here is that, doping in cycling wasn’t a rider created problem- the UCI, race organizers, team management, sponsors- all have a part of the blame whether they admit it or not. But if the UCI continues its witch hunt (they don’t have the goods to put the dopers away) and don’t put closure on this problem, the sport will have no place to go but to the dogs.

I would suggest that the UCI, with the collaboration of the race organizers and WADA, give a 6-month window of amnesty to all riders who would ‘fess up and give them a 12 month sentence instead of the current 4-year ban. If they are found to have doped after the grace period, then they should kick these dopers out of the sport for good.

I hope the UCI is familiar with the Truth Commission in South Africa.

Weekend Musings

Pro boxing or the UFC? Sweet science or mixed martial arts? De la Hoya vs. Mayweather or the Iceman Lidell vs. Rampage Jackson? Every UFC match keeps me literally on the edge of my seat……The NBA conference Finals are a stinker! I’d rather watch my HS basketball intrams than the Pistons-Cavs and the Spurs-Jazz.......I would like to ask this question to all (Gov) Fr. Ed Panlilio fans out there: is there any higher calling than the saving of the souls of men... Belated Happy Birthday’s to my brother-in-law, Atty. Opel Montalbo and my good friend, Roy Zapata of CITE!