Bouleversant, Ce Tour
It’s one thing for a major champion with an illustrious career to fall from his heights. The Jose Cansecos and Ben Johnsons of this world know that there is no sympathy for the wicked. We imagine them, bulky and pensive, sitting on their towers as the world spits bile on their names. But, it’s another thing for one of the little guys, an unknown, an extra, to be found guilty of doping and not put up a fight. Cristian Moreni, one of the Cofidis riders, was found to have abnormally high levels of testosterone in his urine sample from Stage 11 of this year’s Tour. He admitted use of the drug and was immediately taken away, while the rest of his team withdrew from the Tour de France.
While I had only shock at Vino’s drug use, shock and incredulity, the vilification of Moreni brings nothing but sadness. How pathetic can it be, for one of the riders at the bottom of the Tour, a real no name, to be caught for this? One can imagine the circumstance: a barely professional rider, who makes little money and has few prospects in the future, taking drugs just to stay in the Tour, to earn his bread and butter, before the desert years as an unemployed former-cyclist. It is an almost Dosteyoevskian context. That he came clean on his use so quickly, when he has everything to lose, is humbling. Morality aside, this is a sport which breaks grown men and women’s hearts.
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To all those who say that the sport itself is vile and full of drug-addicts, all I can say is that this is a sport that is trying more than any other sport to clean up its image. Unlike American football and baseball, where professional athletes are under less stringent analysis, cycling has a made a steady effort these last four years to clean up its riders. It is the valley of shadows for this dear sport but it is in this difficult moment when support is most needed. An event like the Tour de France has few equals for hubris, pathos, tragedy and heroic victory. Long live cycling and Vive le Tour de France!
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Hats up to Eric Boyer for one of the most lucid and moving comments of the Tour. Sagacity and subtleness, which is so unlike the other simple-headed dunderheads yapping about cycling these days.
Vino broke my heart. I’m indifferent about Rasmussen getting kicked out. This is almost as bad as the Festina saga.
I won’t share my views on doping in the sport, but I agree with you completely about lesser riders being made examples of.
Cycling is a beautiful sport. An undulating rhythm of tragedy, heroism, suffering and agony. For such a small sport, it is unfortunate that it is scrutinized so closely when, as you say, other sports lack the constant analysis.
I do believe that the riders should come clean, and the governing bodies should provide amnesty and invest in detection and education programs such as CSC and Slipstream. But whether I like him or not, or if I think he doped, Lance could do so much to help unite cycling and ensure that it stays clean. Like it or not, he is the most recognized figure in modern day cycling and could do so much, but he won’t because he has to protect the brand.
Until then, I will find comfort in my childhood memories of the sport agonizing as Lemond stumbles on the climb and gets hit from behind and Steve Bauer getting nicked at Roubaix.
Patrick said