Ten reasons why I’m pissed off at Pro Cycling
Posted July 28th, 2006 in Race, Dope
Simon Barnes gives his analysis of Pro Cycling. Sure he lashes out at the sport, but underneath the anger you sense a feeling of loss.
For the followers of the sport, three weeks of life have been invalidated; three weeks’ investment of time and energy and enthusiasm. For nothing. And it seems to me that the sport will never recover. The Tour de France increasingly looks like an event that is impossible without drugs. It seems that the drugging is institutionalised, accepted, ineradicable. As a result, the doings of its cyclists are less and less enthralling, for the fact is that people don’t actually want to watch sporting events contested by drug-users.
I feel that loss and invalidation too, but that’s just the half of it. As any reader of this blog will know by now I’ve been deeply cynical about the world of Pro Cycling and the doping issue from the beginning, but far from feeling vindicated or even ready to say I told you so - I’m just plain pissed off.
I’m pissed off at the cyclists who dope, because they have muddied the waters for those who do not.
I’m pissed off at the trainers, soigneurs and doctors who help the cyclists with doping. They are devoid of ethics.
I’m pissed off at the Teams and DS’s who condone doping or turn a blind eye to it just as long as the results keep coming.
I’m pissed off at the cyclists who don’t dope, know it goes on and don’t do anything about it, for them there is only this Burkean dictum: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
I’m pissed off at senior members of the cycling media who continue to report but do no investigation, who refuse to bite the hand that feeds it.
I’m pissed off at those fans who suspend belief at their hero de jour’s feet of clay despite logical evidence to the contrary.
I’m pissed off at the sponsors who continue to fund this debacle, they have no shame in their ability to whore themselves for the sake of a dollar.
I’m pissed off at all those great cyclists of the past who allowed this culture to infect the sport and develop further, their indictment is complete.
I’m pissed off at a culture and society that values winning at all costs over the joy of simple participation.
And lastly, I’m pissed off at myself, because when I looked at this years TdF podium finishers I allowed myself to believe again, I felt uplifted by the new faces and the hope that implied - here I thought, was a group of men on whose shoulders the sport would be well supported - I no longer feel that way.
Technorati Tags: cycling, tourdefrance, doping
What others have to say…
I agree with your points.
The thing that I feel compelled to point out is that fans follow sport no matter what. Baseball, football, basketball and every other sport in the world is full of rampant drug use and complicity in the teams/ governing bodies. It is a fact of life in sport and one we will have to live with. I’m in no means giving in, I think we have to fight doping tooth and nail. I’m just a bit of a realist- fans aren’t turning their backs on the sports/ teams and the teams/ organizations aren’t going to fight too hard if it impacts the bottom line- money. If the money goes away, then things will change, but the sponsors aren’t doing anything because they are getting exposure and in most sports outside of cycling, they just don’t seem to care.
Hi Phil,
I’m in Germany right now and it is on every news broadcast for the last few days. It is a huge story and a lot of people here think that professional cycling may find it hard to recover any credibility it may have possessed before this year. Time will tell, I guess.
Hiya DJ, I gathered that because one of the German networks may decide not to broadcast the TdF next year - interesting.
Dopn’t get me wrong Tim, I ain’t giving up either, pissed of though I am for the above reasons. It’s from this that we need to move forward from. I’m hoping this is the doping event we had to have.
It’s bloody heartbraking, isn’t it. I think it’s different to sports like baseball which are skill oriented. The thing about road cycling is that essentially anyone has the skills to do it. It should be a display of hard work, brains and valour. All that crap about honour in the peleton, people winning on their birthdays etc.
I just feel embarrassed to follow pro cycling now. What kind of sponsors would WANT to be involved? It just amazes me.
If the pro cycling circuit were being asked to keep to a schedule that was humanly possible, would doping still be quite so endemic?
Probably. As long as the money is big there will be a motivation to cheat.
[…] Spinopsys: As any reader of this blog will know by now I’ve been deeply cynical about the world of Pro Cycling and the doping issue from the beginning, but far from feeling vindicated or even ready to say I told you so - I’m just plain pissed off. […]
jesus. you people are goons.
Please explain Joseph.
Hey Philip, hello from Toronto. I think your last point was probably the one that really sums everything up. Where there’s $$$ there’s someone trying to figure out a sure way to get it. It’s really unfortunate that it touches the sport we love so dramatically, but really why should we be exempt? I gave up years ago believing that the sport was/could be clean. Now I still watch the pro’s do their thing and get excited to see them do battle. It doesn’t matter that they can achieve artificial levels of performance, they still suffer and they still race the same way we (try to) do on the weekend.
Keep riding.
Fletch
[…] Note: One year ago today I wrote this. Here it is again. Hopefully I won’t have to bring it up again this time next year. […]
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Heck yeah.
I’m pissed off at the politics of pro cycling, whether it’s an ‘involuntary leak’ to the media and the way it reports these leaks, the suits playing hardball with peoples’ lives, flawed testing procedures for drugs and illegal substances. On and on it goes.
Everyone involved in the sport at a pro level is guilty, because everyone knows that this crap goes on, and has been going on for a long time. I know lots of good, honest people who are involved in cycling and I know this stuff bothers them too, esp. when the stakes are so high for everyone.
I guess that’s the root of the problem — high stakes, human emotion, all that…
Still super disappointing, in the same way that you find out your best friend isn’t quite the person you expected…