I hate to say it but professional cycling is in a state of disarray today. I thought that this day would never come but it has and it did. There are even talks of eliminating it from the Olympics completely.
While I don’t agree that performance enhancing drugs should be a part of the race, I also say that I don’t agree with the performance of the people in lab coats and the drug tests that they do . What I’m trying to say is that, in conjunction with the overhauling of the the doping culture in the sport, the World Anti-Doping Agency should look hard at its method and ask themselves why they are as controversial as the athletes that tests positive. They should start with Dick Pound, their attention-seeking president.
Stoppage of the Tour de France has been asked by so many media quarters in Europe, which I think is a fair enough request from the European journos who know a thing or two about cycling better than some other guys beyond the pond. But for some US writers, who probably can’t differentiate between a “col” and “cool”, and dripping with arrogance, says that the tour should fold up it tent this year. If the Tour is that dirty and should take a yearlong hiatus, then why not the NBA and its game fixing scandal? Or how about MLB and Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Gambi, et al? Or how about the USA itself, the biggest market of drugs, why can’t it just annul 2008 and resurface back in 2009 and be a drug free country?
Stoppage of the race doesn’t mean that the sport will be clean the next time it comes around. While annulment in marriage may work for the couple, it won’t work well for the kids and their families. The same thing will also happen to the sport that feeds not only the egos of their star riders but also the cooks, the masseurs, the wrenches and all else down the cycling food chain.
Yes, cycling needs a crackdown of monumental proportions but stopping the race is not the answer to the problem. Standing up, facing it and solving the problem is the best thing to do.
It may be easier said than done but it must be done.