Jens Voigt is set to retire as we speak, having one final crack at a long break in some race in the Cycling backwater of the USA. Is it fair or fitting that he should go out like this, slipping out the back door with little fanfare, while others have been doing a farewell tour of all the big races, replete with fancy commemorative shoes and a song and dance? It’s probably apt that Jens is just doing what he’s always done: getting on with the job at hand and not saying too much. It’s almost like he’s been given the Golden Handshake, received his gold watch (well, another Trek), and gently herded out of the room, along with the elephant.
There’s no doubt that Jens is a hero to almost the entire cycling world; fans and contemporaries alike instantly warm to the big guy. He’s probably a great bloke to get on the beers with, keeping everyone entertained with his goofy German sense of humour (an oxymoron, I know) and regaling his enthralled audience with stories of that time he towed the peloton up the Galibier, dropping pure climbers like flies one by one. And because he’s a big, goofy, lovable German, no-one would even consider to question his morals or ethics when it comes to his role in the sport, and his considerable time in it. He’s Jens, he’s a bloody legend.
There’s always double standards applied when it comes to our Cycling heroes. Pantani: revered, matyred. Gunderson: condemned. Contador: forgiven, re-accepted. Valverde: despised. O’Grady, Rogers: well, they’re Australian, so even though they admitted/tested positive, no Aussie would ever cheat, right? They’re just lovable larrikins who got caught in the crossfire, and were unlucky or only “did it once”. Sir, your pig is fuelled and ready for take-off.
I’ve loved watching Jens going on crazy long breaks, laughed at the many soundbites he’s provided us, and he was even convinced to mouth our catchcry, although he probably had no clue as to what he was being cajoled into. He always has time for his fans, and that’s a sign of a true champion of the people. Imagine if Gunderson was a bit more humourous, if he’d cracked a few jokes instead of cracking skulls, if he’d told some part of his body to ‘shut up’ instead of telling other riders to do the same. Maybe he’d still be squeaky clean in the eyes of the fans, just like Jens.
While I respect a man who has ridden at the front of the peloton for 20 years and well into his 40s, and take inspiration from that, I can’t just sit here and digest every stock-standard quote that is rolled out. Jens came from one of the world’s most notorious doping programs in the East German system, but somehow wasn’t earmarked for the treatment. He rode professionally from 1997, the height of the EPO era, through Festina, through the Gunderson years, through the Landis/Rasmussen/Contador years. Yet he saw nothing. He rode on teams with more than a sprinkling of convicted and/or known dopers, yet he heard nothing. He rode under Directors Sportif who oversaw some of the biggest doping programs ever witnessed, yet he witnessed nothing himself. He continued to race at the same high level, and above, as the world’s best racers, well past the age when they threw in the towel, yet he wants us to believe he’s done it all on mineral water and sauerkraut.
While I love the guy, I’m not stupid, and neither are the cycling public. We don’t need to be treated like fools by every rider that ever rode in the Pro ranks, but we are, still. Even Gunderson has admitted he’d still be lying to us all, his family, children and cancer community if he hadn’t been outed. That’s the mentality of the Omérta in action. Jens is as old school as they come, and unfortunately he’s taking that mindset with him into retirement.
I wish Jens all the best, but I also wish he’d shown the same hardman qualities off the bike as he did on it, and spoken out about what he did actually see, hear and do. That would make him even more a legend.
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Nice one, Bretto! And thanks for this. I was just mulling over his career last week. "How can everyone be so thrilled over this. Isn't there at least a hint of suspicion?" Lots of good stuff here to think about. It just all seems a bit to cheery for me, especially after how badly folks have felt burned by former heroes they absolutely refused to even consider might not be telling the truth.
Cycling backwater. That is awesome.
wilburrox - I don't even like or follow baseball, but Cal Ripken has always rubbed me the wrong way. Not sure I even know why, just seems like a selfish cunt. So yeah, consider that streak and his era, now maybe I have a reason.
@Rom
+1
Well, dope or not, you would have hoped that, over the last twenty years, once the urge to go came over him, Jensie would have learned to wait a k or two.
Given his "everything seems funny to me" attitude about life, punctuated by his hilarious riff on beating Astana "and then, you know, smoke (fffftt!) all the way to Paris," it seems clear that our boy Jens doped. A lot. But it was the Mexican dope, dude, not the stuff in Spanish Meat. Back when I was trying to climb from Cat IV to Cat III, living in a group house with a bunch of bike messengers, the best way to train was to wake up, roll a bone, glue up some tires (sniff) and go out for a killer ride. That's how we got the legs to shut up.
In the Australian Football League (AFL) there is a team called Essendon currently mired in a sorry saga of doping that has so many similarities to cycling.
The AFL administration has its own McQuaid in Andrew Demetriou, a CEO who has left the sport in arguably its worst position ever in terms of drugs scandals, abysmal governance, fan disapproval, plummeting attendances, etc. yet he seemed to run it as his own fiefdom with a huge pay packet.
When the scandal broke, the AFL CEO directly contacted the club they were being investigated by the Federal Police. Warning the subject of an investiagtion and advising them of the police interest is a crime in most countries.
There is a player at the club called Dustin Fletcher who is similarly as old as Jens, still playing at an elite level where the physical demands of aerobic fitness and big body contact kill off men half his age. No one seems willing to question how or why this guy is still there, largely because he's by all accounts a nice guy. The excuse is that he "reads the play well". The odds of not doping while him being at a club under investigation for systematic and frankenstein-like medical programmes are not worth considering.
There are Doctor Fuentes and other assorted quacks running around, with nicknames like Dr Ageless.
There is an Omerta, with an ex senior Essendon player now well-paid commentator who came out early on claiming he and his team mates were merely given vitamins. Like LA, this man bullied a player who spoke out, with that player now run out of the sport (Kyle Reimers is their own version of Christophe Bassons).
A subservient media panders along, bullied by the perpetrators and golden haired hero. A major journo from New Limited has been outed as the mouthpiece of the dopers, in return for exclusives he has been casting doubt on WADA, the process and anyone else but the dopers themselves. A woman journalist who stood up to question this scandal has been called everything under the sun by the dopers and their lackeys (ala Betsy Andreu).
The main perpetrator is now back in charge, having been suspended for a year only to be sent by the club to do a MBA course in France at Fontainbleu.
Great post by the way.
@freddy
Not if that book is anything like Robbie McEwen's.
When he didn't win it was everyone else's fault. When he did win it was due to his awesome natural ability.
Not one word about how he won green jerseys while everyone around him doped. Not even much of a mention about how the spot came up on Radioshack riding with Lance.
It's a miracle!
Thanks, Super Sam. As someone who doesn't follow Aussie Rules, but keeps an eye on sports wide and broad, that is very interesting to know. I hate how cycling gets dragged through the mud as the dirtiest sport.
I also love ice hockey and I know if they started looking...a lot of those dudes would be very, very dirty. The game has gotten too fast and crazy for those guys to be just playing on ping pong training and Labatts.
@Superman Sam you forgot to mention the club & league taking legal action against ASADA claiming their investigation was illegal...sound familiar?
@wilburrox
Exactly my thoughts as well.
@freddy
Isn't this a given these days.... the book part...?