Doping in cycling...groundhog day

What an exciting 24 months of endless revelations, heartfelt tears, apologies, denials, accusations and...more doping. The sport of professional cycling is an irredeemable basket case. Lance Armstrong stands at the top of the pile but it is a very big pile made up of a very large number of similar, though less successful cheats.

When The Tour rolled around in July of 2013, I didn't watch a minute of it, didn't read about it, couldn't have cared less. I used to follow it like a religion but last year was the straw that broke this camel's back. Doping has always been in the peleton (Tom Simpson '66 etc etc) but it was just so confrontingly, pathetically and awfully, detailed that it simply put me off the whole sport. Chris Froom - supreme athlete, shining example of the new guard...or another in a long line of chronic cheats. Who knows, who cares?

 

The latest addition to the steaming pile of deception and denial, Michael Rogers has been caught doping and blamed...contaminated food. Sure it is a tried and tested theory but it didn't work for his colleague Alberto Contador. Why would he think that he'd have shot at making that lame duck fly?

While I am at it, am I the only person who thinks that it is completely bonkers that the 'Amgen Tour of California' is sponsored by the maker of EPO? Do any of the organisers appreciate the irony?

For the record, I still love riding my bike. Opposable thumbs and the bicycle - that about sums up the advantages of the human species for me. Art, science, putting a man on the moon etc - all nice, but bikes...and those thumbs...  

It's just a shame that the professional version of the sport that is meant to leverage off all that is possible on a bike is such a joke.