White Punks on Dope

While I would rather presume the innocence of those named, since in this case the media seems to be primarily reporting factual events (i.e. riders being suspended by their teams), I am going to assume that those who have had a chance to judge the evidence first hand have good reason to believe the allegations are true. Never mind that these same team owners would know what is going on anyway. The suspensions indicate to me that when the facts do come out in court, the scope of the problem will be far reaching; rather than the usual post-bust damage control, the teams are scurrying now to save their very existence in the future.

As such, there are two things that I find striking about the latest doping "scandal." For starters, this appears to be confirmation that the use of illegal drugs in pro cycling remains widespread, despite what the UCI et al will have you believe is a rigorous testing program. Considering that all of the riders named have submitted numerous negative tests over the past few years, one can only conclude that the testing program is a joke. Either everyone involved gets paid off to conceal the truth about the mega-stars, or the testing methods are just plain ineffective. The significance of this is that the main argument used by those who contend that the sport is clean centers around the ratio of the large number of tests to the small number of positive results. Riders who have been the subject of doping rumors always point out the number of times they have tested clean. USA Cycling uses this same kind of information to portray US cycling as nearly drug-free. Well, if these recents allegations mean anything, then the testing programs, and any rider's negative tests, mean absolutely nothing. Implementing a corrupt testing program is far worse than having no program at all, as now even the innocent have lost all means of proving they are so. This represents a crime far worse than the doping itself, which only steals a victory from the first clean rider. Corruption of the testing system has taken away the credibility of the innocent.

Reinforcing this opinon, the way this all came to light stands out like a beacon in the night. I've said before that doping would only be curtailed when those involved start getting arrested. No one should be surprised that these revelations did NOT come from anyone inside the sport. Somehow, the UCI, WADA, the ASO, and all the teams involved failed to know that any of these riders were doping, until a judicial authority, completely outside the sport, investigated and made the charges against the doctors involved. Are we to believe that NOBODY knew what was going on? Of course not. But NOBODY (except, I guess, Jesus Manzano) came forward to expose it. Manzano, and everyone else who ever "ratted" was ostracized and made out to be a crackpot by everyone in the sport.

Is anyone clean? Of course, there has to be someone honest. Are there clean riders who knew what was going on, but chose to remain silent, making their living in peace, rather than trying to fight the system? Yes, I'll bet there are. Today they are paying the price for being involved in a sport where drug use appears to be institutional. The denials of the problem must end. Even the clean will forever be under a veil of suspicion. It is wrong. This is NOT, however, a dark day for cycling. The rottenness of those involved had to be exposed, and hopefully now it will continue, eradicating the dope issue.

I don't support the denial of due process, nor the presumption of guilt. If there were not so many teams and people at the top of the sport being named, I would not even comment on this until all the evidence had been considered by a reputable panel and judgement passed. As it stands though, it seems safe to assume the problem is as big as anyone (me at least) ever imagined. Bear in mind that the riders suspended today (Ullrich, at least) reportedly were being disciplined for lying to their employers, something we all might get a similar fate for. Maybe it will come out that this entire deal was an elaborate fabrication designed to discredit the sport. At this point though, I kinda doubt it.