You have to wonder what chance sport has:
Manuel Beltrán, who rides for the Liquigas team of Italy and who is a former teammate of Lance Armstrong’s on the Discovery Channel team, tested positive for EPO after the first stage of the race. Beltrán was withdrawn under the terms of a contract that all of the teams signed with the Tour organizer.This is not just a bleat about "oh how bad everything is these days" but a question every sportsman faces.
When weight training in Russia, one learnt who the steroids boys were [a high profile gym down the road where they were all Adonises with not an ounce of fat] and the "clean" trainers such as one at our place who always carried a certain "lining", shall we say.
He and I were chatting about competition and how he had to give it away because he just couldn't compete against the stoked up bodies in that field. No point competing if you're not going to win, they'd say. Ben Johnson would understand.
This blogger is most certainly not ant-sport - quite the opposite, in fact - and yet there doesn't seem a solution to this thing.
summary execution would work - none of those tedious appeals that way.
ReplyDeleteLe Tour is one of my favourite things and is the only thing we are watching on TV these days.
ReplyDeleteI saddens me terribly to see it tainted over and over again.
Riders I have followed for years are found to be doping, much to my disappointment. But still I watch and love it, despite the flaws.
Hard to know what to think though, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder if the anti doping authorities might as well try to stop the sea coming in.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the alternative is genetic enhancement - goalies 8 yards wide and 8 feet high perhaps???