Cycling is hard; I’m not leaking any trade secrets with that statement, but it feels good to say it anyway. No Cyclist avoids suffering, but of those who venture into our world, there are some who seek to limit it while others choose to embrace it. Then we have a handful of characters who consider playing Whack-a-Mole with the Man with the Hammer to be good sport, particularly when playing the part of Mole.
In the current climate, it’s impossible not to consider the impact doping has on our sport. I, for one, have happily watched professional bike racing and delighted in the spectacle for close to thirty years, aware to varying degrees that doping is part and parcel of that spectacle I enjoy so much. In the last decade, I’ve gone so far as to assume most – if not all – riders are doping; a regrettable situation but one which has done little to temper my enthusiasm for the sport. After all, when all the riders are doing it, then surely what we’re watching is a level playing field of willing participants who understand how the game is played. Cheaters cheating cheaters hardly seems like cheating.
It’s all beautifully romantic so long as all the riders are doping. This is not the case, however; there are those who are racing clean against dopers. These riders are truly being cheated out of a livelihood by a culture which not only turns a blind eye to cheating, but who ostracize those who don’t. These riders who refuse to dope have few voices and last week, the sport lost one of the most forward of these with the retirement of Nicole Cooke.
Nicole has been a force in Women’s Cycling since turning Pro in 2002. A powerful rouleur, she excelled in every terrain and in any race format, but was nigh unbeatable in uphill finishes, taking a total of three La Fléche Wallonne Féminine titles, each of which required such a large laying of The V that it brought her to collapse. I was aware of her as much as anyone can be with the state of the coverage of Women’s Cycling, but she became one of my favorite riders after reading a piece in Rouleur about my favorite hub manufacturer, Royce. In the article, Royce’s Cliff Polton described being at a trade show when a young girl better described as a ball of loosely-contained energy bounded up on his booth and started asking about bottom bracket axles and wondering aloud if he could help her achieve her goal of becoming the wolds most dominant female cyclist.
Given what I understand of her personality, I get the feeling it was more like executing a plan than achieving a goal.
Cooke raced at the top of her sport for thirteen years; she scaled the heights of achievement with wins in every major race on the calendar including the Ronde van Vlaanderen voor Vrouwen, La Fleche, the Giro d’Italia Femminile and Grand Boucle (women’s Tour de France), the Olympic Road Race, and the World Championship Road Race. What’s more, she accomplished it while remaining staunchly anti-doping to the point that she faced sackings for refusing doping products.
Anyone who is a fan of Cycling should read Nicole’s retirement statement – I could never do it justice here. My personal hopes for the Pharmstrong Legacy is that it yields a a blood letting in the UCI and that the energy it spends on covering up its own corruption goes instead into promoting Women’s Cycling.
I’m sad to see Nicole go. Yet, for a rider who thrived in the hardest conditions and who unyieldingly stuck to her principles, I find it very fitting that the final two wins of her career came in Stages V of the Giro Femminile and Energiewacht Tour, respectively. Bravo, Nicole.
Here is the finale of her last Giro stage win:
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@seemunkee
I do not have that. I will have to get that one for when I am blessed by The Docs That Be to return to riding. I wonder if I can trade any of my old WCP COTHO tdf DVD'sfor it?
@Buck Rogers
@frank
That is gold.
@DerHoggz
That's a very good question. I have no clue. I suppose one thing would be to wander into a Lulu store and asking the clerks about the team and asking what we can do.
@the Engine
Presumably served together?
@Chris
That's what Tirreno-Adriatico is for.
@Chris you clearly haven't seen the TDU too often. That stage marked a departure from previous years where pretty much all but one stage was a sprint-fest.
So I guess by your thinking previous years have been even more anti-V?
@Marcus
Yeah but fortunately the organizers were smart enough to pay the COTHO gazillions of dollars over the past few years to try to add interest to the world's most boring pro cycling race. Money obviously well spent, eh?
No wonder it is run in January when there is fuck-all other racing worth watching or else it would have been a one-off race.
Bring on MSR!
@Buck Rogers really? The TDU got great value from Armstrong. He boosted the race both here and elsewhere.
Whilst the race certainly doesn't have the cols or cobbles I think it has it's place as a season opener with a bit of spark.
I think the TDU at least has the Tour of Qatar beat on the boredom front.
Oh yes and I am sure there would be a really positive reaction from the pros if there were a few 250k 4000m ascent stages.
watch the Willunga stage. You might enjoy it
@Marcus
Ah yes, the Tour of Qatar. Well if we are comparing the ugliest two races on the pro circuit, yeah, it's a toss up between the two. Both fuckin boring beyond belief. And I have watched the Willunga Stage the past few years and it beats watching rerun WCP DVD's, but not by much.
Actually I am just sooo bored at work right now I wondered how easy it would be to set anyone off. Not too hard I guess.