Truth and Reconciliation
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
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47lDLGkewvY[/youtube]
Still hangs proudly on my wall in a frame.
Reminds me: I need to respond to the letter I got from the FBI and tell them, no, I wasn’t victim of a crime and don’t want my money back from Floyd.
Waiting for my money back from COTHO though.
Nice work, Gianni! As more comes out I find myself not knowing how to feel, which is a bit odd since I knew there was a lot of doping going on. I guess maybe though I didn’t quite realize it would be just about everyone. And you’re right, it’s getting old hearing them say they don’t want to talk about the past.
I also don’t know how I feel about the idea that the fans pushed them too it. Going faster than really fucking fast isn’t necessarily that much more impressive than just going really fucking fast.
Add Ryder to that list. He got very, very quiet as teammates came out and the Chicken (with whom he trained) finally confessed. Compare the press and interviews he’s given since the Giro with other GT champions over the past few years.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, as Gianni mentioned, too many riders stood atop podiums and looked nonplussed when they should have been crazy with happiness. Guilty conscience? I think so. Just read David Millar’s book. Well worth a read. Honest, frank and doesn’t spare himself. One wee bit of omerta creeps in with a ride referred to as L”Equipier, but he eloquently describes the metal anguish he went through. Alas, not so many riders have Millar’s intellect and conscience and doped without hesitation – and will remain silent. You really get the impression that telling the truth has set him free. How many others will do the same?
Im still in two minds with regards to all of this, on one hand it appears that majority where pumped full to the gills and possibly still are, therefore its a level playing field, therefore the best still one, but on the other hand its cheating and if I were racing clean then I would be mightily pissed off and looking for heads to punch. So where does this leave the likes of Jens and Stewey O who have won and particularly Stewey who smashed an awesome Paris Roubaix , should I therefore question those efforts also, similarly big Jens powering on the front for hours on end ?
Is it because of Lances methods that he differs in peoples opinions rather than say Cipo or the pirate ??
Gianni it is refreshing to listen to people unload there mind, and yes lets get back to good old racing. In my opinion some where along the line, from the top to the bottom they were led off the path of restraint. Sports are just saturated with these types of programs and have been for years. It is bred in to us from a young age to do the best we can and never give anything less. I mean really from the drink the Kool-Aid people to eat my snicker bar.This is entertainment after all so lets give the people what they want. Now inject corporation and shareholders into the mix and the fun begins. Nice ending with the spring classic by the way. I love to see them battle day in and day out, loaded or unloaded. It’s an adrenaline bootser to say the least.
@Barracuda
It is, in my mind, certainly the methods that make the difference. I’m not as mad that Lance doped, as I am that he is a giant douche, who bullied and threatened all who stood in his way.
@Barracuda
If anyone believes those two are/were clean then they’ve got rocks in their head. They are both using their ‘Mr Nice Guy’ personas to try and keep the fans hoodwinked. They make me sick, listening to their drivel.
@graham d.m.
Yes, this.
@Sauterelle Just checking, was getting confused
@eightzero
Ha! The Floyd Fairness Fund. F’ing beautiful. Thank god Tyler didn’t have ” get to know my chimera fund”, I was dumb enough to listen to that crap. Who knows, I might have sent in some money. Luckily I’m a cheap yankee bastid.
@Steampunk
Oh man, wash your mouth out with Canadian Club. Bad Steamy! Why should I defend him? I don’t know him. I shouldn’t defend any of them, for the Tyler/chimera reason mentioned above…But I will anyway only because he is racing for Garmin. Shut up Gianni, listen to yourself. Don’t you ever learn, FFS? Bad Gianni, sit, dowwwwnnnnn. Bad, bad, Gianni
@brett unfortunately, i agree with you. And that makes me feel sicker than dubious doping denials.
Did you read Cuddles’ latest interview after the Tour of Oman, where he said he hopes he comes back a better rider after his break. “Guys like Lance Armstrong and Laurent Jalabert came back as better riders after they took a break. I hope the same happens to me.”
WTF was he thinking with that one??
Sounds like a roo might be loose in the top paddock again.
@Steampunk
Add Ryder to that list. He got very, very quiet as teammates came out and the Chicken (with whom he trained) finally confessed. Compare the press and interviews he’s given since the Giro with other GT champions over the past few years.
Now a guy is guilty basis how he reacts?
@wiscot
So, if you are not doing backflips, chugging champagne, and dry humping the podium girls you are on the juice? How about the guys that choose to keep it classy and act like they’ve been there before? I hate the guilty until proven innocent our sport has taken. How to fix it? Not a fucking clue…maybe public stoning?
@ Tobin : I always thought there were a couple of reasons for not celebrating, 1st as you mentioned above they are pro’s 2nd the fact that they just rode 150 – 200k all out with a 40+km avg was the other. Might be a little naive on my part but after all it is my delusion.
Okay, so I try to resist talking about doping & also inserting myself. It’s such a darn complex situation.
But, I have two real parts of this whole mess that I don’t understand.
The “everyone was doing it” claim. Were they? Or, were some at the top doing it Big Time and Real Deal and the rest of them were taking amphetamines & bourbon. Surely totally different ball games. And again, if some at the top were on full-on doping regimes how level was the field? Maybe the good were better and some donkeys got sorta good, with the rest remaining as domestiques which they’d have been even clean.
I completely don’t understand the “fans wanted this and pushed me to dope.” Really? The average goddman fan, especially a COTHO-file has no fucking clue what they’re doing on the bike. 220 km might as well be 20 km. At the high level of any damn sport, the average person has no fucking clue how insane what they are doing actually is. Who demanded they set new PRs up Alpe d’Huez? Not me.
Fucking Merckx. While this is a very well written article (it is, truly), I’m sick to fucking death about talking about the doping right now. Yes, I realize that it has to be dealt with. But I really want to talk more about proper bar tape and is it gonna be a cold and wet P-R this year.
Rant over…………..
@brett
Thanks, just checking my “blind spot”.
@scaler911
Yeah, I started to write about Het Volk this Saturday but my heart wasn’t in it. Somehow this is still the Cardiff Giant in the room and I can’t leave it. Hearing Cipo’s half-assed lawyer got me all into a frenzy. Cipo, why do you lie to me?
The problem the Velominatus has is that of knowing too much. We know that driving the front at 44kph into the wind for an hour is not normal ( thanks Tyler ). But we represent maybe 5% of the earning potential of guys like Stuey and Jens. They’re not giving it all up for us. They’re cuddling up to the blinded/adoring/all-trusting majority. And this shows contempt for the whole. Waiting until retirement to fess up is weak, greedy and grossly indulgent.
FWIW I have no moral high ground. If I was on the pro peloton in the 90’s I’d have been juiced to the eyeballs. Drugs and me used to get along fine. A little too well really. I can imagine EPO feels great. It sure seems to work OK. If you offered me a shot on KT14 I’d probably go for it. I could give it up anytime…
@scaler911
Cycling and cycling fans are fucking weird because the conversation around doping has been going on for years – while good hearted, honest, genuine people like yourself are disgusted with the situation, people with blackened, filthy souls like me, have a part of us that fucking loves this shit. Yes, it’s a part of me I wish wasn’t there, and yes, the sport would be much, much better off if it was clean, but all this stuff, to the part of me that loves the spectacle of the fall, is like catnip and heroin shot straight into the emotionicles. And not surprisingly, cycling journalists have learnt how to scratch that itch, for those cycling fans who are that way inclined.
In Australia at the moment, the major sports (Footy, Aussie rules and whatever) are having their own doping strife. It lasted a week and has fallen off the radar as far as the public is concerned. No-one gives a shit about drugs in other sports the way cyclists are horrifically fascinated by drugs in cycling.
Not Stuey, no. That would be the end for me! For a start he grew up in South Australia, the only drugs there are red wine varieties. And if PEDs are really enhancing his red hair would have turned bonde and his freckles would have merged to become golden tanned skin.
…blonde…
@HeinrichHauslersHairstyle
Like Leffe?
BTW the photo caption is very good. A++1
Clearly Bugno is dazed and disoriented by the outragously garish cops jackets and matching slug moustashes.
@minion Is your local a titty bar? Not for the naked chicks but just for the all round seediness of the place?
@scaler911
No. Gloriously sunny. The previous Saturday, however, will feature rain, sleet and a block headwind. The local farmers will have spent the week preceding that spreading muck in the adjacent fields. @frank has organised it, last year wasn’t “real” enough.
“I still love Bugno and Cipo. Nothing will have changed except everyone will know the truth.”
This is truth, nothing will change. There will still be cheats as we are finding out in other sports. For me it’s not that I love Cipo or Kelly, Merckx… It’s that I love their style on the bike. They are doing something formidable and beautiful that I know and love doing myself.
I do not know them as persons only their images and results. The persons do not really interest me because they are for the most part just jocks without much depth. Not their fault, there is no time to develop a skill or an intellect on the bike. Some I have wanted to meet either because they seem to be interesting, Hampsten, Fignon, even the Badger because he is such a character!
Bottom line, lets know what is going on and then we can judge if we still care that average speeds are beyond human abilities and does that matter in what is, after all, just a game.
@the Engine
ah yes, Leffe. My first Euro hangover courtesy of Leffe and frites in Ypres.
@HeinrichHauslersHairstyle what color was his hair at Gan???
@Chris
I’m there the second weekend so that’s when the blizzard will happen.
Will be rocking my kilt so should be ok…
There is an element of “rubbernecking” here, we keep writing about it, so there is a market for people to continue to bang on about it.
Let’s put it this way, in my mind I have already decided that they all doped….probably up until 2009. I don’t really care if some of them say they did not, in my mind they all did, they were all complicit even if they were not stuffing the sherbert up their own noses. I am not interested in riders bleating about how their careers were cheated. If it were a banker crying over the fact that he sold out a load of peoples pensions because he would have been sacked otherwise…would he receive the same sympathy…I think not.
By concluding this I have already moved on. The shadows have faded and the past can bloody well stay where it is. Truth and Reconciliation…O please…this will just end up as a “who can be most contrite” competition….it won’t get you to the truth.
Anyone doping now should be made to ride a Grand Tour on a Raleigh Chopper with a dunces hat on wearing a mankini. This is the definitive way of stopping it happening. Those who doped have to live with their own conciences, COTHO has shown crocodile tears, others have seemed genuine….it does not really matter in the end…
They were all doped up, or they were quiet about those who were, either way the guilt is the same. I feel sadness for those who died from doping because all life should be held as sacred but I certainly do not blame others for it. We are all adults, grow a pair and pick your career, don’t follow along and bleat about it after the fact….
Yellow Fizik bar tape. Picked up a box and all i can say is itbwill put the screws to Rule #8.
Ooops, that was for @scaler911. Reply button not working or im just incompetent. Likely the latter
@graham d.m.
exactly!
@Gianni
No matter what he says, Cipo is never going to call you the next morning.
@Gianni & @Tobin:
Re. Ryder Hesjedal:
No, he’s dubious based on his history and the people he trained with. Signed in 2002 to Rabobank’s espoirs team. Rode for US Postal and then Phonak. Wasn’t there also a recent case of doping in the BC MTB world, too?
My coping mechanism has been to work on the naïve premise that doping is less advantageous in the Classics than in Grand Tours, where recovery is everything. We can all bury ourselves for one day and can afford an extra kg of weight in ways that are not possible in multi-stage events. Which is not to paint everyone with the same broad brush, but rather to want to believe in the Gilberts, Hushovds, Boonens, Cancellaras. These guys will kill themselves for one day. Then my season takes a hiatus at the end of April and reconvenes in the fall. I love watching the Giro, Tour, and Vuelta, but I feel much less invested in them.
But, of course, there’s also this:
@Rob
It’s still a big mess & even those who race at the top don’t really know what to do.
Bassons says the media & fans need to focus on the human interest aspects of it, that new doping products will always keep coming along and it can’t be stopped. On the other side, JV says you need to test more and more and more. Two quite different perspectives.
Bassons:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/christophe-bassons-where-the-war-on-drugs-is-going-wrong
JV:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/how-to-get-doping-out-of-sports.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
@Rob
You are wise Robbie-san. And yes, as you say, I love their style, not them personally as I will never become friends with them. I just lose it occasionally.
@roger
yeah, let’s move back to the bar tape issues. Did you get the new stuff with a bit of foam underneath? Frank is rather foamed up over it.
@Steampunk Yeah, I mean, there is no way that Boonen has EVER doped, at least not in competition (he says while crying into his shirt as all of his heroes come crashing down around him).
@Gianni I didnt know they had some with foam. I saw the regular microtex and the packing that has gel inserts. nothing I ride requires the gel so went with the tried and true. have a box of white standing by at the ready, just in case it looks like the headset vomited all over the bars.
regarding winning and podium behavior: there isn’t a scenario my fragile state of being could handle. win and be casually deliberate, and everyone expects you feel guilty and only time will flush out the truth of being a doper. win and celebrate like crazy, and people will do everything they can to accuse you of doping, be it the case or not. this could be a childhood issue though, as i’ve never handled doubt very well. my teachers were catholic nuns, and one accused me of ordering white milk in the morning, but taking a chocolate milk during lunch. i went off the rails, and was that close to being thrown out of school. that was over milk, i couldnt imagine how bonkers i’d go over doping allegations.
@roger
fizik tape mit foam. It looks like a nice product. Those silicone pads are too stiff to do much. I have them on Merlin but I never say “thanks baby jesus, for protecting my hands”.
Nuns you say? How did that work out? Off the rails over unspilled milk. I don’t blame you at all.
@Marcus on the Pantone Colour scale his hair at Gan was YELLOW…
@scaler911
Then let’s talk digging deep to find new Record cassette deals. A straight block at 125.00 with free shipping and lockring.
I call an item like that at that price — “Buried Treasure”
@Buck Rogers
For some reason, I see this when I think of you and the thought of Boonen doping…
@Steampunk – the sad truth is you are probably right, which makes me even more angry…
@roger & @Gianni:
Re. yellow bar tape: This guest has taken up residence in my garage. Beautiful steel frame. I would never have thought to go yellow, but I think it looks very, very sharp:
@Steampunk love your coping mechanism – 1994 Fleche Wallone notwithstanding.
@Tobin
I’m not suggesting that riders freak out on the podium, what I’m saying is that for a professional cyclist to win a classic or stage of a grand tour (for most, a major highlight of their career) and show little emotion or happiness is IMHO suspect. Even an exhausted rider should be able to look happy. Too many looked too glum as if they has something on their conscience. Am I casting a wide net? Sure, but look at the podium pix and the list of juicers.
Something really crazy with all of this as well, especially early on during the Rocket Fuel Era, was how much of it was a crapshoot. I know guys had doctors, but did they all? I doubt it. I think I’d have been very, very scared to try some of these methods. I guess that’s why they say the Stakes is High.