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.
(more…)November 14, 2006
Flandis Fumbles… again
More ridiculous news from the cycling world. Floyd Landis came out this weekend with a tv special showing the cyclist, in his modest mansion, showing off his Tour de France shirt and blaming the lab for his doping results. Seriously, I find it unconvincing that his sole recourse is to blame an internationally reknowned lab which produced the same results, excessive testosterone, in BOTH blood samples.
Just to recap, Landis was found to have tested positive for testosterone during his infamous climb in the Morzine. The laboratory in question is the LNDD, le laboratoire national de dépistage du dopage, in Châtenay-Malabry, the same national laboratory which has tested all samples from the last few Tours de France. It is a internationally reknowned laboratory and is approved by both the Olympic and WADA. (World Anti-Doping Association) Landis, the Mormon, eeks Mennonnite, bike champion, was hailed briefly as a hero before being villified in both French and English press.
But, in yet another strange twist, the laboratory reported to the police last Tuesday that it had been victim to a hacking incident. Someone had hacked into their computer system and sent false emails to the major doping agencies in the world, the UCI, the WADA, the CIO, reporting that the laboratory had made a series of systematic errors. Apparently, the email was written in french and was riddled with both grammatical and spelling mistakes. The police have already tracked one of the perpertrators down and it turns out to be none other than someone close to (more…)
July 28, 2006
Say it ain’t so Flo
Did he cheat? Could be. Could be not. Couldn’t say for sure. Bad hip, legendary ride, Mennonite parents, nice guy. Somehow it doesn’t seem to add up. But then, neither did Tyler Hamilton. Still though, he must have known he’d be caught, if he had done it. So the question is: either Floyd Landis is the dumbest cheater in the history of sports, or he’s telling the truth? People are innocent until proven guilty, regardless of what the media thinks. Please, say it ain’t so Flo.
