Book Reviews: Racing Through the Dark, The Secret Race
I must admit to not having read most of the cycling memoirs in the Works. I may eventually but the local public library doesn’t carry any of them and never will so I’ll have to buy them or ask Frank to tote everything he has to Hawaii. I did get off my wallet and buy these two and it was money well spent. David Millar and Tyler Hamilton have produced two excellent cycling books, parallel stories in very general terms and times. The contrast of how two people in similar straits handle the truth and the divergent roads it puts them on is compelling.
Doping in professional cycling is still secretive enough that it is best told from someone all the way on the inside. Journalists will be lied to by cyclists. Federal grand juries do better at getting the truth but we usually don’t hear it. Cyclists who lived the lie and need to unburden themselves make a good conduit. I can’t begin to explain it as well as Tyler or David did; their inner world of professional cycling is nothing we hear much about. In the 1990s it was the wild west where the law was absent. Spanish “doctors”, syringes and mini-centrifuges ruled the day. It’s such a huge subject, too interwoven with passion and pressure, so much grey area. For a person like me who likes to talk about doping in black and white, I’ve learned how institutionalized and insidious it was (past tense, I hope). It’s not so simple. It’s tragic. To feed the young ambitious athlete into a system where there is no choice but to accept the drug system is criminal. When money is at stake and the UCI is complicit, as is team management, those are some criminals.
Racing Through the Dark-by David Millar. I’ll also admit to being a long time admirer of David Millar. He has always been well- spoken and not afraid to confront, two qualities I admire and personally lack, but they make a good writer. Millar is a military brat who found his cycling talent in the 10 mile British time trial club races. He ended up living his dream, riding on the Cofidis team, France’s well- funded but dysfunctional squad. He spent his first few years with Cofidis riding clean, yet watching how others “prepared”.
“In my youthful exuberance, I was telling anybody who would listen that I’d won in De Panne and broken the course record with a hematocrit of only 40 percent. I went to see Casagrande and his roommate, whom I refer to as L’Équipier (the teammate), so that I could show Casagrande the test results.
I stood there, a big grin on my face, expecting Casagrande to congratulate me and say something morale boosting. But he didn’t. After a pause, he handed the results back to me and then turned to speak to his roommate in Italian.
“Perché non é a cinquate?” Casagrande asked L’Équipier, puzzled, Why isn’t he at fifty?
No one talked about doping and no one talked about not doping. Eventually, after VDB self-destructed and Casagrande was busted, Millar became a team leader. And with that mantle came the responsibility to produce results, be a professional. And eventually he was implicated by a teammate, evidence was found, he was out of cycling, deeply in debt, and drinking his way to the bottom.
For some interesting video here is a recent Spanish documentary from the inner ring.
The Secret Race-by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle. Tyler Hamilton and I grew up in the same end of Massachusetts, he went to the same prep school @rob and I dropped out of, so I always felt slightly connected to him. So I was a fan boy and stood by his fantastic excuses for too long.
The whole wretched story of doping in cycling is right here. Tyler Hamilton cheated and lied for so long, it took until 2011 before he could tell his parents the truth. And despite his decade of lying, this book rings true. His reward was getting out from under the lie. I think he would have written the book for free just for the unburdening. He states many times the lightness of being after testimony and though he knows it’s very unlikely, hopes Lance can feel the same lightness that comes from telling the truth. This book is Tyler Hamilton’s story but it is closely linked to part of the Armstrong saga.
Like Millar, Hamilton was unaware of systemic drug use until he had joined the professional ranks. US Postal drugs were at first team- provided and paid for. Once you proved yourself as one of the best riders on the team, as someone who could help Lance win the Tour, you earned the right to use EPO. It is fascinating reading, it’s horrifying, it’s depressing. Most unsettling is Lance Armstrong’s behavior. There are many revelations regarding Armstrong’s psychotic need to win. I’ll share just this one.
Tyler was eased out of US Postal because he was too strong a rider and perceived as a threat to Armstrong. So Tyler left and signed with Phonak in 2004. There was a time trial up Mont Ventoux in the 2004 Dauphiné Libéré weeks before the Tour de France. Tyler beat Lance in the TT. Later during the Tour, Floyd Landis, who was still riding for US Postal rode along side Tyler.
“You need to know something”
I pulled in closer. Floyd’s Mennonite conscience was bothering him.
“Lance called the UCI on you,” he said. “He called Hien, after Ventoux. Said you guys and Mayo were on some new shit, told Hien to get on you. He knew they’d call call you in. He’s been talking shit nonstop. And I think it’s right that you know.”
This little story is amazing for many different reasons and the only good one is Floyd Landis telling it to Tyler. I’m guilty of saying some negative things about Floyd, mostly because he was such an idiot liar. But at a point, when he has nothing to gain and he has lost everything else and he starts telling the truth, he gains back my respect, just like Tyler Hamilton has.
I ended up reading these books one right after the other. As I said before, I recommend them both. David Millar is a better writer. He actually has more demons to battle than Hamilton so his story of redemption is inspiring. Tyler Hamilton’s story is more depraved (in a doping sense) but both books are important. A lot of people in cycling are now admitting to past deeds in very unspecific terms. These two authors are both shining lights into some dark corners and making the inevitability of drug use in cycling more human and understandable. Also, in reading these books back to back, it highlights the contrast in how these two people dealt with their fates.
Both had the bad luck to be nearly singled out as dopers when a large percent of the riders were dopers. Millar realized it was the doping that killed his passion for even riding a bike. He took no joy in his EPO-assisted victories, only a temporary satisfaction that the task at hand was completed. He decided to come clean and to become an advocate for clean racing and changing the corrupt system.
Hamilton could not admit to anyone but his wife (who already knew) that he had been a cheat. His lie was so crushing he couldn’t even see a way out. He then spent all his money and energy protecting the lie for years, for nothing, obviously. It was the threat of perjury in that finally broke open the dam. It’s a cruel lesson to learn; the truth will set you free, even if it takes forever.
@Leroy WRT point three, while I pretty much agree in principle that a doper this year won’t stop because of it next year, but something that I think has shifted is the cost/benefit ratio of doping has changed. It’s probably something we won’t be able to appreciate as a spectator, but I think this case will change how pros make their decisions over the course of their careers.
@Leroy That’s exactly what I mean; several times I’ve clearly explained that these latest revelations have opened my eyes to the WHOLE DOPING CULTURE.
I knew it existed but, like many people, had no idea of the extent of it.
To be crystal clear, I am outraged by the whole deal, not just Armstrong’s part in it.
I’m not blaming LA for the whole squalid doping morass by any means, and have never said so.
What I am blaming him for are the specifics of this case, which is really all I have to go on right now without testimony about other team leaders pressuring riders to dope or fuck off. You show me where Barry Bonds was using intimidation of witnesses, coercion into and enabling of drug use and I’ll tell him to fuck off too.
If you tell me Ullrich, Jalabert, Pantani or Uncle Tom Cobbleigh was doing the things we are reading about right now I’ll hate on them as well.
I’m not lauding anyone’s honesty, although I do respect it to some extent. I agree entirely that these guys have profited majorly from their sins, but better late than never, as my Uncle Anatole used to say.
I think you are underestimating how important the USADA “witch hunt” was in revealing what might have been whispered about but wasn’t known. It may even have been a personal crusade ( I tend to think it was) but that doesn’t negate what was dragged out kicking and screaming into the light. I too feel sad that cycling is being hurt like this, but it had to happen sometime and perhaps the biggest star in the sport had to be the one to fall to really open the floodgates. Whether or not it changes anything remains to be seen.
lastly, I think you are arguing very oddly, as you don’t seem able to take on board clear and unequivocal statements, and your own arguments seem to draw some very long bows, both about this Armstrong Affair and what people are saying about it.
My dander gets up when people argue at me without taking the time to actually read what I’ve said, and who draw inferences miles (sorry, kilometres) away from what I meant.
And because my dander is now officially up, I’ll say that it is you who are being condescending, as you try to educate us about the world. I may have had a massive blind spot about Lance, but I’m not a complete idiot and I’m well aware of the behaviour of sociopaths and megalomaniacs…
@Leroy
I see what you did there: you got out the broad brush. I don’t know what specifics you are thinking of for the others, but here is one example of what I am thinking of: after egg timer testified before the grand jury (not something he had a lot of choice about), LA sent some ominous and odious texts to Mrs. Eggtimer. Just my opinion, of course, but that sort of shit is stooping below gangster level.
@smithers
Best way to piss him off is chuck your Garmin in the back of your car…do his loop 2kph faster and post it!
@Leroy
I don’t have time right now, but of course I care about clean racing. Which is why I’ve always wanted to see LA brought to justice. He was a kingpin, no doubt. I just don’t think you understand the complexity of his involvement and influence, especially after Festina when the sport had a chance to change… he was instrumental in dragging it back to, or beyond, the bad days of the 90’s.
And to say that the ATOC and Levi is more important than the Tour and Lance? That’s a pretty, um, strange statement… and USADA failed us by doing their job and exposing this massive fraud? Come on, really?
Maybe I should’ve used ‘misconceptions’, because there are plenty of them in the beliefs outlined in your post.
@Oli sums it up pretty well.
@Oli
Fair enough… I think we basically agree on the root issues and just don’t see the finer points (such as whether or not it had to come out to move on) from the same perspective. You can get pissy if you like, but I’ve done nothing remotely condescending and done nothing but share my OPINION. Nowhere have I said that your opinion was wrong but you, as well as several others, have repeatedly questioned my opinion and forced me to defend and expound upon my position. If you disagree… cool, that’s every bit your right and you’ll notice it was probably 20 posts or so back that I pretty clearly said we don’t seem like we’re going to change one another’s minds so let’s just agree to disagree. You’re every bit as welcome to your opinion as I am to mine, let’s just leave it at that and move on with our different opinions.
@brett
First off… I’m not saying that the Tour is less important than the AToC. What I’m saying is when you proclaim to be out to clean up cycling “for the future of the sport” but don’t bother to test the biggest races currently falling under your jurisdiction, there’s an obvious conflict there. We saw ‘strange’ dominence by RS in the 2011 AToC, and USADA failed to conduct a single doping control there… That’s not a “misconception” that’s a fact. You can disagree with my opinions but, there’s no misconceptions anywhere in there. You say the USADA “exposed” this massive fraud… I say you’d have had to be a thick or a born fool to have not realized it was going on. We can go back and forth all day long and wind up calling each other assholes in seven different languages or we can be adults and realize that we have different opinions on this. Neither of us is more “right” than the other and, if you don’t like my opinion… Honestly, I don’t much give a shit… It’s my opinion and I’m every bit as entitled to it as you are to believe Lance is the devil himself.
…so, for the third time, how about we all just move on with our different opinons.
@Deakus So true… I saw him rage on someone in the comment section of one of his rides because they took his KOM but their HR clearly showed they were driving.
@Leroy
Do I detect a note of condescension?
@brett
Nope… no more than you detected “misnomers” earlier.
… just for the record, THAT was condescending.
@Leroy You have made some great points, but even if USADAs efforts were directed by a personal vendetta on Tygart’s part and they meant that resources were tied up that could have gone elsewhere, I still think it had to be done. I hate seeing cycling dragged through this, especially as it’s in large part due to a guy I’ve been a fan of for literally twenty years, but I still think that in the end the pain will be worth it.
I sure hope so, anyway…
Yes, I think you’ve all made some good points. I do agree with Oli that the USADA investigation had to be done. It’s like cutting out a cancerous growth: painful but necessary. Lance would have to agree with that. And by definition it focused on US Postal. But I feel its not enough: the UCI need to show leadership and grip this, hence my (admittedly rose tinted) view that a Truth and Reconcilliation approach is what’s needed: to allow riders to come forward, make admissions (instead of repeating more and more unlikely denials), with limited sanctions to help draw a line under it. I also don’t think sacking riders like levi for 10 year old misdemeanours helps, because it reinforces the behaviour of omertà : better to keep schtum and hope not to get caught than admit to doping and get a career ending ban…
But I also agree with much of what Leroy says: Lance didn’t start the fire, its been burning since the birth of pro-cycling and continued to burn after his retirement. Which isn’t in any way to excuse him, just to provide context. All the riders who doped: from Tommy Simpson in the 60’s with amphetamines through Merckx (who iirc had a three positive tests during his career) to the advent of EPO use in the early 90’s to Riis in ’96 and Ullrich in ’97 to Festina, Virenque, Pantani, Millar, all the riders in the Puerto affair, Contador, Frank Schleck: ALL those riders (and those who rode the Classics, the Giro and Vuelta and a hundred other races Lance never raced in and raced for teams that he wasn’t the leader of) they made a conscious positive *choice* to dope. So he’s maybe the worst example of a bully and a cheat, but unfortunately I seem him as only one of many in a sad and tawdry continuum that would have continued to thrive with or without him. And whilst, as I said above, I’m prepared to understand, forgive and move on, that broad context means I take with a pinch of salt all the “I had no choice” testimonies: they are understandable, but in my view too easy an explanation. Those guys need to own up and take personal responsibility for the choices they made. At the risk of repeating myself, that’s the path to atonement and redemption.
All just some of my own humble opinions!
But chaps. One thing. Lets argue and debate and agree to disagree. Or even disagree to disagree. But leave the name calling out of it, for Merckx’s sake! We’re not 8 year old girls in the playground anymore! That said, sometimes things just have to be taken outside. And whilst I’m an infrequent visitor these days, I’m sure there is a tried and tested protocol for dispute resolution between Velominati: a duel at dawn, armed with nothing more than mini-pumps and CO2 cannisters, clad only in bib shorts, with only blows to the head allowed until one or both is beaten to a bloody pulp: may the best man win!
lance was dirty since his first year with Motorola. I had no illusions of the 90s and Lance era peloton since reading Lance to Landis. Armstrong initiated the drug use in his own career. He was the guy that was looking for what the Euros were using to beat him. He was already a Tri champ and could not deal with being just another rider. There was nothing spetacluar about his physiology, he was never seen as a tour contender, his henchmen and handlers went on about his post cancer weight loss, blah, blah – all false if you do the research. Under Johan, an equally corrupt douchebag and coached by CC an other corrupt dicklicker, he excelled as a science experiment in pharmacology and transfusions. Read the earlier crap on him again. And to have guys like Danielson and david z, forced to dope, to get with the program or else is thretening a man’s income and livelihood. complete douchery. to not see that a young athlete being threatened into doping by the team captain and sports director as serious threat to said youbg athlete it myopic at best and ignorant at the worst. the z man tried to fake doping for christ sake and danielson would avoid the needles or just forget, but johan and lance would never forget! and kept tabs on all of the team, keeping them silent as a result too. i have no illusions to la and jb’s ability to ensure a guy that was not a team player would get sorted out. ask tyler how he got caught.
And as for the whole systemic description, that’s exactly what I thought that team was doing. only a few other teams had that type of cash after festina
Rant done
Staying out of the above wang-slanging contest; here is a story an employee at my LBS told me today: he had a buddy who freaking loved (LOVED!) Lance. Guy bought the “limited edition Lance-just-won-the tour Madone” at like “10 grand each”. This poor guy goes on to decorate his living room with these collectible madones investing (wasting, perhaps better now) 10’s of thousands of dollars on the bikes/the living room display. Worst part though…he named his oldest son Lance….ouch.
@Leroy
You are on – justice will be done ( yeee haaaa ) : only a matter of time before UCI officials past and present testify against him in return for amnesty of their own from impending fallout – their testimony combined with forensic analysis of the financial transactions involving Ferrari etc….. he’ll get his just desserts and will be made an example of.
@graham d.m.
Ouch does not describe it! I was a fan after win 3. But sometime after then, maybe when LeMan started to be “crazy,” I was starting to have my doubts. I still wanted to see an american reach 5, so I watched and cheered, but after that it was enough for me. When Landis screwed up his own program and got caught, the writing was on the wall. I am happy my first born was not a boy. I held one of those gold leaf madones in my hands. It was being built for NHL enforcer and all around nice guy, George Leroque. It was nice, but now, Trek is dead to me.
This article is a couple of years old, but may give some insight on young Phinney:
http://www.statesman.com/news/sports/phinney-americas-next-great-cyclist/nRwTH/
@smithers
I’m curious what exactly you think he would be charged with? Doping in sports is not a criminal offense in the US so that’s out… Neither is buying doping products or “training advice”… and, as far as I’m aware, anything that isn’t criminalized under US law isn’t covered in any of the US extradition treaties so even if a foreign court took the extraordinary step of convicting him, he’s safe as long as he doesn’t willingly travel to that country again. He would essentially have to be charged with fraud or witness intimdation, which are difficult to prove at best and he would almost certainly have the legal firepower to beat down any charges… Particularly given that the Feds already dropped one such case. I expect he’ll see (and likely lose) civil cases from companies like SCA and possibly some individuals as well but I just don’t see criminal charges, however well-deserved they may be, as being likely.
If you really want to take me up on the bet though, shoot me an email at troy.browning@gmail.com and we’ll sort out the specifics.
@niksch
Nice find, that was a good read.
@Leroy
I think the talk of prosecution surrounds possible charges of purgery. Lance had at one point claimed (under oath) that he had no ongoing professional relationship with Ferrari (the doping doctor). Payments tracked from his bank accounts clearly lay a paper and funding trail to Ferraris company. As such he knowingly lied under oath. I suspect the reason he refused to defend the charges from the USADA under abitration is that the whole process would yet again be under oath and he would like have to continue to purger himself or admit he had already done so….this approach feels a bit like getting Al Capone on tax charges but it will be interesting to see how it unfolds…
@Deakus
Interesting… I was not aware of that. I think the same thing about that the reason behind refusing to fight the charges, opening himself up to purjury charges. Hmmm… I may be out $100 sometime soon, lol.
Wow… Looks like the really sad part of the fallout from this is now beginning… Rabobank is pulling it’s sponsorship of all pro cycling, men’s & women’s.
“Rabobank has come to this decision following publication of the report from the American doping authority USADA last week. This report speaks volumes. Bert Bruggink, member of the Managing Board: “It is with pain in our heart, but for the bank this is an inevitable decision. We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport. We are not confident that this will change for the better in the foreseeable future.”
@Leroy
Whoops… broken link. Here it is http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rabobank-to-end-its-sponsorship-of-professional-cycling-teams
@Leroy Fuck Pharmstrong. Fuck Brooneel. Fuck Ferrari. Fuck all the other cheating bastards. And most of all fuck the U C Fucking I, at best asleep at the wheel, at worst complicit. We should expect more such announcements, fewer sponsors, more teams folding – and, worst of all, more self-serving pompous insincerity from Useless Cunts International.
@G’phant That’s the problem. COTHO, and his dirty little chums are in the past but the fucktards running the UCI remain firmly in place and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any immediate change. You’d have more chance of getting Macbeth from a monkey than a coherent anti doping strategy from McQuaid and Co.
The whole sport needs a massive shake up both in terms of how it’s run and how the money works. As long as you’ve got riders killing themselves for a pittance and teams getting the vast majority of their income from sponsorship there’ll be doping. Spread the TV money around, bring some equality into the structure with some salary caps. It’s not the whole answer but it’s getting there.
@G’phant
No need to go on a profanity laced tirade toward me over Rabobank’s decision…
Only time will tell if any of your boys are well and truly “fucked” but, the fact is, the people who are “fucked” right now are the riders losing their sponsors. But isn’t that just wonderful for the sport!!! Your cute nicknames and buckets of rage don’t change the reality that… Lance is still sitting on millions, ditto for Johan, ditto for Ferrari, ditto for the UCI… but the riders racing right now, while presumably staying clean, who are left looking for work are the ones paying the cost for the inquiry right now. Is your hate for Lance really so strong that it’s outweighed your love of cycling to the point that you really think “more such announcements, fewer sponsors, more teams folding” is in any way, shape, or form a good thing???
Gesink, Mollema, Kelderman, Bos, Boom, Kruijswijk, Matthews, Breschel, Renshaw, and even the ladies squad including Vos… None of them associated with Lance or USPS or with ties to doping but all of them now with their jobs on the line. This is exactly why I’ve been of the opinion that none of this “needed” to come out for the “good” of the sport…
To each his own though… carry on cheering your “victory” if that’s what you see this to be.
@Chris
Maybe this part…
“What, will these hands ne’er be clean? … Here’s the smell of the blood still: All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”
@ChrisO
Foul whisperings are abroad. Unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
@the Engine
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell;Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,Yet grace must still look so.
@Leroy Wow, you’ve been debating this issue the whole time and you didn’t even know about this? Man oh man, talk about fighting blind…
@Leroy
Shame one of the best looking kits of the moment leaves the peloton
@Leroy
Sound a little like Dastardly Dan right now.
@Dan_R
I happily unloaded my madone a month ago. I know they cut ties with LA, but for me the association will still be there.
@Leroy
His name was already mud. Primus “My name is mud” song here. Hunting down Lance is* hunting down doping — dope.
@Chris
This, and more lasting team structures. Right now, there are two separate money flows. On one side, sponsors, teams, riders. On the other side, race organizers and TV rights. There’s a lot more money on one side than the other. The UCI is in the middle. Getting new UCI management would help, but it wouldn’t fix this fundamental disconnect.
@Oli
Didn’t know what? That Raboboank intended to pull their sponsorship at some point in the future? What are you talking about?
@unversio
No shit his name was already “mud”… that’s why this whole thing isn’t hunting down doping near as much as it hunting down Lance. If you can’t see the flaw in proclaiming you’re out to stop doping but conducting ZERO doping controls at the races under your control, then you’re too stupid for me to even bother debating with you “dope”…..
@Oli Are you talking about me saying that I hand’t realized that Lance had lied under oath?? That’s far from “fighting blind” and doesn’t change any of my arguments… I knew he LIED, I just hadn’t realized that he’d already lied UNDER OATH.
Though re-reading what it’s stated he claimed under oath, that’s actually a fiarly impossible to prove lie… He’s claiming that, as of the moment of his testimony, whenever that occured, he didn’t have an ongoing relationship. Under a legal standard, they would have to prove through money payments that they’d been incontact basically on the day of his testimony. Payments a month later don’t prove that there was an intent to conduct and continue a relationship as of his testimony.
@ChrisO, @the Engine, @Deakus
I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
This must have been written with Pharmstrong in mind. To be fair, though, it’s not far off the current train of thought echoing around the empty spaces at UCI HQ.
@Leroy
Well. First I would like to commend you on your debating skills. Secondly, I do not have any races currently under my control. Thirdly, I will admit that I am conducting ZERO controls on doping. I’m the dope.
@Leroy
I think you can look at this from a couple directions though. Yes this is terrible for the near term of the sport and completely unfair to the riders left out in the cold by Rabobank who (the riders, not RB) are presumably not responsible for the state of the sport. However, in the long term this may be the beginning of actions that decimate the UCI and the established corrupt leadership in the sport. If you believe that the UCI is corrupt its not a stretch to believe the sponsors are complicit. Look at Nike for at least implications of this. I know JV made some talk about breaking from the UCI and going his own way. If only a couple more sponsors head for the door it puts the next couple of seasons in jeopardy, paving the way for a UCI implosion. Terrible for the season, maybe not terrible for the sport.
I think I would have preferred to see Rabobank hold this over the head of UCI to force some change, but this may be the only way forward. Time will tell. Very conflicted.
@razmaspaz
A couple of points: (1) Rabo is still paying for this year; they don’t want their name in the sport anymore, however. The riders are not out in the cold immediately. But their withdrawal is representative of the biggest problem in the sport — there is a huge overhang of headline risk to sponsors from years of rampant doping, even if it’s better now. As Hinault said recently, this should have been cleaned up years ago. If I ran a business, I wouldn’t want to be buying this risk with my ad dollars.
(2) I read Rabo’s statement as a veiled indictment of the current leadership of the sport: “We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport. We are not confident that this will change for the better in the foreseeable future.”
@Nate
No doubt about #2.
@Nate
I realize these are the real stakeholders that cycling answers to. Promoters and rights buyers have yet to lift a real finger on this. The promoters make all their money from the broadcast rights so until the promoters feel the pinch from reduced royalties they won’t push on UCI for anything. I hope that Rabobank signals a move of the team sponsors towards a vote of no confidence in UCI. If nobody shows up to race in UCI races because there is nobody to sponsor the athletes, the UCI dies.
As for #1, I was not aware they were paying for 2013. That’s reassuring. I was aware they would continue to sponsor amateur cycling at some levels. The point is that the exit of a sponsor of this magnitude will cause second looks by every single sponsor from Movistar to Bissell. It is a calculated move though as it could be spun as Rabobank walking away at the first sign of a challenge, rather than stepping up and leading thru the muck. Successfully carrying the torch through something like that can say a great deal about what a bank could do for its investors and partners in business, but the risk may not be worth the payoff.
@Leroy mate you are still fighting blind. Go read LA’s SCA testimony (your comments are uninformed until you have read at least this document). But to save you time I willtell you the really provable perjurous statement from him – he clearly, very clearly, couldnthave been clearer, stated that he had never taken PEDs. And that might be what screws him. By the by, they showed the footage of this testimony on Australian TV last Monday (google four corners lance Armstrong and you can probably get it online) – whilst Lance was a world beating cyclist, I think he is an even better liar. He was very impressive.
Dunno whether US authorities will take action – everyday people make bullshit statements under oath that are later proven false – and if they do, not sure he would go to jail if found guilty.
Dunno whether you guys know but our vice president of Cycling Australia, Stephen Hodge, resigned yesterdaybecause he doped when racing (he was a super domestique on teams like ONCE – for riders like JaJa). now this fella hadn’t been caught by anyone but justtendered his resignation because of mistakes he had made 20 years ago. An admirable gesture from a real gentleman – Australian cyclingswill be poorer for his absence.
@Marcus
Man, it’s a shame. I don’t believe this is the correct model. I think Vaughters was wise in keeping riders and staff with a history. Nearly everyone has a history if they were a veteran pro. Sky and Oz are going to lose too many good people this way, if everyone is honest.
@Leroy
Mate, what part of my post made you think it was a tirade “at” you, or that I thought innocent riders, sponsors and teams leaving the sport is a good thing? It was only “addressed” to you because you had posted the news of Rabobank’s announcement. The point, to be very clear, is that Pharmstrong, Brooneel, Ferrari, the other cheaters and UCI have fucked things up for everyone else, riders and fans alike – that the result will be less sponsorship and more folded teams, and worst of all more pompous uselessness from the UCI. I would’ve thought it was pretty obvious (e.g. the phrase ‘worst of all’) that I don’t think that’s a good thing. That, in fact, my point is really very similar to yours, inasmuch as it is a lament (well ok, rage) against the damage done to the sport by the cheaters (and those who seem insufficiently interested in rooting them out).
But to your suggestion that it would be better for it not to come out: I do not agree. Just because Pharmy has gone doesn’t mean everything is good. Getting that egregious prick Brooneel out of the sport and away from poisoning more young men’s and women’s souls is worth it alone. Not to mention the far greater corrosive damage that would have been caused by a perpetuation of the knowledge that the bastards had got away with it. Not to mention the, to me, moral offensiveness of hoping that evil doesn’t get it’s comeuppance.
Finally, although my initial post was not a tirade at you, here’s a comment that is: if you don”t like the profanity and you don’t like the cute names, that’s your call. But it’s what we do here, quite a lot. And if we had had to choose between sweary name games and being condescending, I rather think we would choose the sweary name games.
@G’phanfiat the very least this business has brought you back see form. Something we hadn’t seen since you were calling yourself Good Geoff or was it Jeff?
@Marcus
Perjury is a really serious business – look at Marion Jones : 6 months jail for lying under oath ( several times ) and in a far less conspicuous or serious context. There is precedent for the case. And I cant see how the Dallas DA armed with all the evidence ( no, Troy – not proof : evidence ) and the sworn testimony of dozens of witnesses could not convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that LA lied under oath in his 2005 videotaped deposition. Either this or get LA to admit to taking PEDs – then it’s all over. Also – with all the publicity, how can the DA be seen to do nothing in the face of such overwhelming evidence.
@Marcus form v substance. Like a cycling team, the name changes but the substance remains the same. Except, of course, I have no substance.
@smithers whilst I make no claims as to knowledge of US legal intricacies or law courts generally (I was a finance lawyer -never went near a court) – I would posit that Marion Jones lying to two separate grand juries (ie. She lied in a criminal investigation) was a far greater offence than Lancy bullshitting a lawyer in a civil deposition… But i think lance would be better served in the short term by doing less triathlon training and more “how to make a shiv out of a bar of soap” practice.
But then again Lancealready knows how to get disparate nationalities such as Belgies, Colombians and Spaniards workingThor him – so he would probably be Top Dog pretty quick.