Letters to the Editor
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The other bit of doping news that everyone's ignoring
I have no idea if Landis is doping, but would be surprised. Whether this proves untrue or not, the fact that this is a headline around the world amplifies the perceived doping problem in cycling.
"Five Astaná riders who were forced out of the 2006 Tour de France because of alleged links to a blood doping investigation have been formally cleared by Spanish courts."
But there's another story about doping in cycling that came out yesterday that's just as important if not more so:
http://velonews.com/race/int/articles/10588.0.html
Nobody outside of a Spanish invstigative team has seen all of the details of the Operation Puerto investigation, and the prosecutors have shared only the most incriminating details. But nothing conclusive has been publicly presented. So I have to wonder if maybe these are just the first 5 of a long, long list of people who are going to be cleared. I could be wrong, of course, because I only know what's been released.
Cycling's problems with being a percieved hotbed of drugs are, to a great degree, of their own making. I'm not saying there aren't drugs in cycling because there most likely are. Maybe even as many as there are in Football. But rather than dealing with it in a judicious way, the UCI deals with it in a scandalous way. As a result Ullrich and Basso are out of the tour, Vino's out by virtue of losing his team, and Landis is on the front page before he's convicted of anything.
Makes you appreciate the principle of innocent until proven guilty.