CPimages/AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
Another Tour, another doping scandal. Or scandals, I should say. First up was Michael Rasmussen, the Danish cyclist for team Rabobank who currently wears the yellow jersey as race leader, and may very well wear it all the way onto the Champs Elysees, assuming his blood and urine tests during the Tour remain negative. He's been in the lead since winning Stage 8 in the Alps, but was hit with news that he was dropped from the Danish national cycling team after it was revealed that he had failed to update them on his whereabouts for possible unannounced drug testing on two occasions. He also failed to inform the international governing body of cycling, UCI, a couple of times, as well. So simple math says he's done this four times. Three strikes and you're supposed to be out, but technically he had to have been in violation three times to one governing body, which explains why he's still in contention in the Tour de France.
Soon after this news broke, Rasmussen tried to compare himself to Lance Armstrong, saying he has yet to test positive for anything and that the press was just after a story because he has the yellow jersey. I guess that's true, except that Lance never failed to disclose where he was at any time. For a professional cyclist, how hard could that be? And to forget to do this four times? In this scrutinizing environment? Hmmmm.
And to throw even more doubt on Rasmussen's credibility, some amateur mountain biker came out at about the same time claiming he inadvertently got tangled up in almost transporting doping products for Rasmussen back in 2002.
Today, brought even more shame to the world of cycling (if you can even pile on any more). I mentioned in an earlier post how Alexander Vinokourov (pictured above), a scarily aggressive rider from Kazakhstan who was the odds on favorite to win the Tour coming in, was all but out of the race after a nasty crash that left him pretty banged up and in all sorts of pain. Out of nowhere, though, he managed to handily win the individual time trial last Saturday and Stage 15 in the Pyrenees both in inspiring fashion. Like Floyd Landis last year after his remarkable ride in the mountains, though, "Vino" reportedly tested positive for evidence of a banned blood transfusion from his sample after the time trial.
The timing of the positive test in some ways seems to make sense, but I can't shake the feeling that we'll be hearing more about the flawed testing procedures used for cycling. In a sport that's reeling from scandals, you'd think the athletes would be plain scared away from any sort of doping right now, especially high profile contenders like these. It doesn't make any sense to me, but then again, winning at any cost never did in the first place.
The Tour wraps up this Sunday. I fear this year's winner will be marked with an asterix, as well.
Soon after this news broke, Rasmussen tried to compare himself to Lance Armstrong, saying he has yet to test positive for anything and that the press was just after a story because he has the yellow jersey. I guess that's true, except that Lance never failed to disclose where he was at any time. For a professional cyclist, how hard could that be? And to forget to do this four times? In this scrutinizing environment? Hmmmm.
And to throw even more doubt on Rasmussen's credibility, some amateur mountain biker came out at about the same time claiming he inadvertently got tangled up in almost transporting doping products for Rasmussen back in 2002.
Today, brought even more shame to the world of cycling (if you can even pile on any more). I mentioned in an earlier post how Alexander Vinokourov (pictured above), a scarily aggressive rider from Kazakhstan who was the odds on favorite to win the Tour coming in, was all but out of the race after a nasty crash that left him pretty banged up and in all sorts of pain. Out of nowhere, though, he managed to handily win the individual time trial last Saturday and Stage 15 in the Pyrenees both in inspiring fashion. Like Floyd Landis last year after his remarkable ride in the mountains, though, "Vino" reportedly tested positive for evidence of a banned blood transfusion from his sample after the time trial.
The timing of the positive test in some ways seems to make sense, but I can't shake the feeling that we'll be hearing more about the flawed testing procedures used for cycling. In a sport that's reeling from scandals, you'd think the athletes would be plain scared away from any sort of doping right now, especially high profile contenders like these. It doesn't make any sense to me, but then again, winning at any cost never did in the first place.
The Tour wraps up this Sunday. I fear this year's winner will be marked with an asterix, as well.
1 comment:
You bring up a good point that I have thought of myself. Why in the world would you take the chance of getting caught when you know they are looking to catch people? You would think they would be scared away from doping right now, which lends some merit to the fact that they might not be cheating - only some though.
Post a Comment