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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@wiscot
Ha, I have absolutely no interest in American football at this point & have migrated away from my yahoo email because of the damn headlines & "news" they hit you with when you try to log-in but I did see a story on Bill Belicheck and how he didn't give any post-game interviews after losing. That.Is.Not.Classy.
That guy is an oddball. Sure, he wins, but everyone outside of New England seems to agree he's a huge prick job.
eightzero - Not sure where you are going with this. Hmm. I do know how I feel about investment bankers in NYC during that period of time & Dartmouth folks as well...
"I propose McQuaid be removed and that Hinault take over as President. LeMond can be VP and heir apparent. Then, in a few years, if Hinault decides he's worthy, LeMond can take over. What could go wrong?"
Oh boy, Frank. That is rich, very very rich. I feel as if I've read about this happening before. Is there a word that describes something that happened in the saddle that once again plays itself out in life twenty-five years later? Lexicon update coming...
@eightzero
Two words: Deep dish rims.
@farzani
I agree with you 100%. Its impossible to speak your mind about hardship and not have some portion of the audience automatically assume you're whining or complaining.
Her outstanding results speak for themselves in terms of how she dealt with the matter; to take that in one hand and take her statement in other and conclude she's whining makes no sense to me.
She's a badass!
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@Deakus
Just like everything else, the interwebs is the place unless its a major event.
http://www.womenscycling.net/ has many of the goods...
@wiscot
Yes, that is class. I'd like to see Vos be more vocal about doping. Even if she's doped in the past at Rabo, she should get clean and get vocal. She holds the most powerful position in her sport.
@brett
I wasn't citing this, what do you think I am? I journalist or a writer? No, I'm a hack who makes shit up.
Seriously, though, what I meant by that statement is that among doped riders all racing at ~50 hematocrit, it removes the human element of their talent physiology; donkeys and race horses then are all racing at a level consistent with one another. Which is a way of saying that its a very unlevel playing field as donkeys and race horses should not be on the same level...
@Deakus Keep an eye on ITV4 they're bound to exploit cycling's popularity right now. Eurosport can be handy, though you may have to pay for a cheap subscription. http://www.streamhunter.eu/other-live-streaming-video.html is worth checking out - it has allsorts if you can bear the adverts, looks like they have a stream for the Tour Down Under if you can't sleep! And I think last year the Giro was streamed through their website, or at least linked to a live stream...
@frank It wasnt a level playing field. The whole problem with using the number 50 was that guys who had a higher natural haematocrit level could only use a certain amount of EPO before they hit the magic 50. So it changed the dynamic of who was good and who wasnt. A fella with a 42 could take a shedload more EPO than a guy with a 48.
So it whilst the playing field might have been level (and anyway, if both teams spend equal times going both ways, who the fuck cares if a field isnt level?) it was a different field.
Hence the story of Vaughters - who had a natural level of something like 48 - being told by Bruyneel that he would never be a GC rider with such a high number. Up until that point Vaughters thought that having a high number was good - but then again he also thought shit clothes and sideburns were cool too.
@Marcus
Absolutely - that's exactly what I mean by turning donkeys into race horses (obviously not my phrase), or more accurately, removing the natural human element from the equation. In that sense, it's a level playing field in that everyone is at 50, regardless of how close you are to that naturally. Basically, it's a level playing field in the same way that Obi-Wan told Luke that him telling Luke that Vader murdered his father was true, from a certain point of view. (I hope someone has e sense to post the Merckxiwan Kenobi photo now...)
Before EPO, your natural levels were what made you an exceptional athlete; after EPO, it was your doctor, weight, and power.
LeMond had an interesting conversation with Armstrong on this, which I think may have been recorded, where LeMond tries to explain that his VO2 max was what made him remarkable. It made no difference to Pharmy, who was thinking in terms of constant blood levels. Different worlds.
What they need to do over at the UCI is say fuck the old stodgy bastards like McQueef and install Cooke in his place. Sounds like she doesn't have a price at which she'll sell out. Reading her retirement statement was great. I've heard many people give their parting thoughts over the years and mostly they're overly rosey chickenshit bloviations on how humble they were to work their combined with some patronizing "words of wisdom". I think it's often thought of as bad form to give a critical and biting parting shot on your way out. May be if it's selfish and petty but this is not the case with Cooke. People should listen to her, saying she should stop whigning is ludicrous.
Cooke's courage stands out and is made sweeter by her impecable palmares.
@frank
Why does that amuse me so? I don't even know what you are talking about. I just laughed so much Magnus has left the building.