First off, cycling needs a different term for what it would like to convene. To equate cycling’s past with South Africa’s and Liberia’s dark histories is just wrong. Maybe the “I was a lying dick” tribunal. When I hear riders I admire say the past is the past, let’s look forward, I now assume they cheated. Cipo, Bugno, Faboo. Do I care? That has become harder to answer over time but yes, I still do care. Should I be surprised? No, I should be surprised if they were clean, like Jens, from East Germany. That actually does surprise me. If I was a “clean” rider, like Jens or Stuart O’Grady, I’d be rather pissed off about the missed opportunities. I would be damn angry rather than mildly surprised. They wouldn’t be lying to me too, would they?
Gianni Bugno seemed to take little pleasure in some of his greatest victories. When he beat Museeuw in the 1994 Ronde van Vlaanderen he looked a little guilty to me. If there ever was call for some Italian chest thumping and end-zone dancing I would think that might have been the day. Yet he seemed to want some privacy and there was no blinding smile a top the podium. Even back in 1994 the thought flickered in my head that my man, Gianni Bugno, didn’t just beat Museeuw on cunning alone.
Professional cycling is a brutally hard sport. It’s hard enough that drugs have been associated with it since men have been racing each other over unholy distances. I’d rather have cycling known for that than have cycling known as The Liars Club. As cycling fans we have been lied to by most everyone involved with the sport. I’m sick of being lied to much more than I’m sick to know Cipo was doped to the gills during the best season of his career. Let’s get this over with. Let us get to the Truth. It might even be fun reading. You did what how many times? Are you that stupid? Wow, that really resets the perfect amount of dumb meter doesn’t it?
If cycling does completely air its dirty past it will be a first. I don’t see American football or baseball ever addressing their doping issues. If it wasn’t such a hard damn sport doping wouldn’t be such a temptation: bike racing, horse racing and syringes. If it was just money that corrupted sports every golfer would be doing something besides drinking alcohol at the 19th hole. And fat bastards named Fuzzy or Daly wouldn’t be stubbing out their cigarettes on their caddie’s hat before teeing off. Will it ever happen? Not if the present UCI has anything to say about it. A lot of people who are involved in cycling above the level of the riders don’t want the dirty laundry snapping in the breeze.
Reconciliation…let’s call it freedom from legal prosecution. The reconciliation is going to happen between riders and fans in the cafés not in court. I don’t believe it will be a big deal, we still love cycling, I still love Bugno and Cipo. Nothing will have changed except everyone will know the truth. What will the record books look like after the smoke clears? Maybe nothing different, maybe that’s part of all this. Yes, Cipo finally won Milan-San Remo sprinting against other racers who were not clean either. He was the best of them that day.
Cipo, you worry too much. The tifosi won’t turn on you. Has the pope been roughed up yet? No? You are good then.
All right, enough talk, let’s look at some Spring Classic action, 1994, the Ronde van Vlaanderen
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View Comments
@James
Exactly! Never let your Italian lawyer cover your Italian ass. I would have preferred your senario.
@Rob
I guess you have all seen this
http://www.cyclingtips.com.au/2013/02/the-future-of-blood-doping-epo-gene-doping/
Maybe we should be greatful these guys are willing to take these risks and enjoy the superman stuff, hell maybe they are trailblazers for all of us, willing human guinea pigs, you can retire to Asia and hook up with quality HGH out of china, get your eyesight back, get fit healthy, all for very little, it's a bit like the horsemeat scandal in the UK, they just wanna know its horsemeat not beef!
so tell us what you're into let's see whatcha got, just how far can you go? I'd pay to see that.
I'll admit the constant doping issues had led me to move away from cycling a few years a go and I could have left it behind for good but a strange thing happened. I was surfing the web one day when I found a link to some "rules", which were good, and a home page of a funny website that appeared to be full of people who rode their bike for their personal sake rather than anything else. That resonated with me and I've not looked back.
I still follow the pro game but cycling is now about me and my stead, not if someone I'll never meet, who is doing things on a bike that are alien to me, went quicker than a bunch of other people on any given day. I'll enjoy watching but it is now not cycling to me, cycling is me driving myself on a wet Sunday morning when the only thing I'm trying to escape from is the cold. VLVV
@Ron
If you are going black then go Lizard Skin DSP...it is like an armchair for the hands...stunning...otherworldly...unfortunately the bastards have not made white one that can stay clean so for white tape I am sticking with Microtex..
@Deakus
+1 The Stealth Bomber is wearing black DSP and its fantastic. #2 will be upgraded at the next re-wrap. Shame they don't do white, but black suits my needs perfectly for now.
Ah, Berlusconi! He might be the most Randy Man south of 170cms, aside, of course, from Prince...
I'm glad some more voices have chimed in on this. I still don't know how to feel sometimes, and it even changes from day to day. Angry? Dejected? So What? Reading what some of the respected Followers and Keepers have to say has been phô for my soul. Keep the conversation flowing!
Deakus - I tried out some a cheapo version of that rubberized tape, on my cx bike of course, and I actually really like it. I'm sure the Lizard Skin stuff is super nice, just gotta decide if it would look the part of a truly classy road steed.
@frank
You know what's funny about that shifter, is I don't have the other one, I don't have any of the hard wear to attach it to the shifter bosses, and I don't remember ever having a non-Ergo setup on any bike I've owned. I don't know where that shifter came from.
@Yannersan x100. i echo your sentiments to a T. and @rob. i dont have the gift of writing like others so best i can do is +1 when it reverberates with me.
@Ron the glossy is some stiff tape. it wraps nicely and can look the business, but the edges eat up my hands on longer rides. logo tape i just dont care for. finishing tape with company name is fine, but i hate seeing it splashed up and down the bars. that's just me though.
@Yannersan
Yeah baby, that's just what we are talking about. I live so many time zones away from everything that I rarely watch races as they unfold, which is the only way to watch racing. One thing about this sport is we can rides bikes about as nice as a pro rides, look as sharp (almost), we can ride the same routes, we can have more fun and drink more beer than them. It's perfect.
Having just said all that. Do I want to stream the Giro to my flat screen TV and waste some unholy amount of the month of May watching Ryder defend? Fuck yes.