Tyler Hamilton’s win in La Doyenne in 2003 was one of the highlights in what was generally a fantastic season. A great Spring campaign, a great Giro, a great Tour, a great Fall; unpredictable races, and closely-fought battles littered the events. But, with the luxury of 20-20 hindsight and a quick cross-reference of results listings to doping scandals, it’s safe to assume that season landed smack in the middle of an era of jet-fueled racing that rivals the 1990’s in their indulgence.
It’s a tough time to be a cyclist. Death, doping scandals, corruption in the organizing bodies of the sport. We test our athletes more than any other sport, but the tests are flawed and incomplete, and rumors persist that teams and riders pay off not just the labs to surpress positive tests, but also the UCI. Hamilton’s confession on 60 Minutes this week is the latest in an unsettling chain of events that keep peeling back more layers of the onion. I was a big fan of Tyler’s and part of me even believed in his innocence. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy – much too nice a guy to get involved in cheating. But there he was on television, talking openly about the magnitude of drugs-taking within the USPS team.
On the other hand, I’ve never been a fan of Armstrong’s. I find him to be arrogent, controlling, manipulative. His Tour wins were too formulaic; in sharp contrast to his fight with cancer, his racing showed no element of humanism. I have taken it for granted that his wins came with considerable assistance from a carefully planned and executed doping regimen. But these beliefs were woven together by a thread of doubt, and the possibility always existed that his were clean wins.
Hearing Hamilton talk of the seemingly nonchalant attitude towards doping at USPS and, in particular, by Armstrong, is surprising not in the content of the message, but in how hard the message hit. I expected the words. I had read them. I have even written many of them myself. But there was always a tangible element of speculation about them. For me, that element is now gone, and it feels strange to say the least.
Even as someone who generally accepts that doping is commonplace in the peloton, it hurts me every time another allegation of doping comes out. It takes me days to recover from it. But even if the worst happens, if Professional Cycling as we know it today falls apart, cycling will continue. Because cycling is more than watching others race bikes. It’s about racing or riding the bike yourself. It’s about overcoming your own limitations. It’s about the rider and the machine working together. It’s about cleaning, caring for, thinking about your bike. It’s about taking photos of it so you can look at it when you’re away.
Cycling rides through a storm today, but we will always have the bike. We will always have la Vie Velominatus.
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While I may disagree with elements of what you say, I can't fault the sentiment. Great work, Frank.
Very well put. Cycling will endure.
BTW, I would be very surprised to see Bruyneel on American soil anytime soon - at least willingly...
True dat. And we can have it all too. Like this morning I went for a hilly ride with my brother and I was riding my bike and talking about pro cycling and bike gear then pushing hard and imagining I was like tapping out a tempo for Cadel or someone, then dissing the dopers and talking more cycling shit and it was fucking great!
Good perspective. I love cycling and refuse to abandon this love because of doping scandals These riders are revealing to us the beauty the drama and the challenge of cycling Without them there won't be desire in us.
I've been on the fence with Armstrongs credibility. Floyd coming out about it was blown off by most people. Hamilton's interview came across as pretty believable to me. The real nail in the coffin for me will be if Hincapie did in fact describe the same scenario in his deposition with the grand jury. I don't think George has anything to gain. He would have everything to lose.
Absolutely true. While we enjoy watching the racers blaze over the cols of Europe, part of that love is the visceral empathy we have for their suffering. When I am in the mountains in a car, and I see a cyclist blaze by on the descent or pedal squares against the unrelenting force of gravity, I feel jealously and a pang of sorrow I could not share their joys. The pang has nothing to do with being PRO; the pang is purely love. It's the love spending idle time planning your next big ride; the love of rivulets of sweat running down clean legs; the love and need for the pain to wash away trivialities. Surely such a love will persist long after Armstrong is old and Hamilton is forgotten.
My only worry and sadness is how the potential fallout will affect Livestrong, which truly does wonderful work. I fear the American public will allow their misplaced self-righteousness to slay an organization that has provided hope and, more importantly, heaps of money for research.
How apropos that it is raining cats and dogs right now.
Well written, I didnt get to see the 60 minutes interview and I cant say I really want to. Hamilton came clean got the load off his chest dobbed in some old boys with out substantial proof and will walk away a broken man who may have ounce of dignity left.
Why not lag on the guys still riding who are doping? We know you guys doped in the past - the cycling public should be more critical of that fact and the riders committing the crimes. We need to rub it out of cycling today and chasing retired cyclists who doped 10 years ago wont help the sport move forward.
I watch every race and tour in the hope that everyone is clean and we dont see a DQ 6 months down the track and our beautiful sport take another step backwards.
Focus on the now people! RIP Tondo, read that great article on cyclingnews today from vaughters back in Feb 2011 HERE didnt hear to much about the guys he blew the whistle on but its guy like him that the sport needs.
Does taking drugs really matter ?
We idolise riders of the 60s and 70s - somehow we ignore the fact that they were doing it too. Merckx tested postive three times.
I feel sorry for people who were genuinely clean. They have been cheated and deserve better. But not even changing placings helps when doped riders have affected the outcome of races and stages.
If we learn anything from the Lanceina Affair I hope it is that just as we are never going to suppress drugs in society we are never going to do it in sport.
While the argument against banning recreational drugs has some validity in terms of damage to health and potentially harm to others, it doesn't apply in a tightly controlled medical environment.
In fact by banning PEDs we increase the risk to the riders who take it in uncontrolled ways.
So hunt Armstrong down (I'm not a fan of his BTW) and burn Contador at the stake (see what I did there) but I'd like to see some realistic thoughts from the many crowing commentators and tweeters about how they think this is not going to keep happening for the next 10 years or more.
And if the extent of those thoughts is that now we've caught Lance we'll enforce it and everyone will stop because it's wrong then they need to get away from their keyboards a little more.
Get real - people murder, steal and mug with a much higher chance of being caught and a clearer sense of wrong-doing than just somehow being cheats, and does the threat of prison or the example of the many people being caught stop them ?
Why would this be different when the harm to others and wrongdoing is less obvious - some would say non-existent - and the rewards much greater.
It's always happened, it will continue happening - we need a reality check not a blood check.
IMO, the constant doping scandals are a calamity to the cycling community. There comes a time to fight for every non-PED, clean-legged rider, that has already taken grief on the road or in the office for the many issues "the kit" (or other rules) seem to spawn in the eyes of the general public. Who is willing to fight that fight? It continues to appear that the team leaders, team managers, and the governing bodies are not. And at times it seems that the French, especially their media, will do anything they can to kill the "Superbowl" (used without permission) of the Grand Tours?
We certainly don't need our luminaries providing all this additional free ammunition to the red-neck, lift-kit driving Diesel pickup dude on the country road we are already sharing. I have always just made the assumption that the shotgun in that window rack was already loaded!
I really just want to ride ...