There’s a photo of the federal Sport Minister Kate Lundy smiling in front of the Olympic rings. She is about to embark on a Tygart-like doping investigation into Australian cycling.
The extreme underlighting gives her expression a malicious gleam and the rings are looking like handcuffs: “I firmly believe the nature of investigations, and testing and so forth, will ultimately expose what’s looking like a very disappointing history, so the sooner it’s cleaned up the better”.
Earlier this week a former UCI expert in doping detection, the Australian Michael Ashenden, denigrated Cycling Australia on its appointment of Matt White as men’s road coordinator and for its general laxity on doping.
He was definitely on to something because the organisation’s Vice-President Stephen Hodge has now also confessed to drug taking during his career.
In hindsight Hodge’s admission is no great surprise considering he was a teammate of Neil Stephens and fellow domestique for for the all conquering ONCE team that was managed by Manolo Saiz. Saiz would later be arrested during Operacion Puerto.
The talk has been about general classification riders doping but the domestiques had good reason to indulge in the practice, being less talented and having to work harder than their leaders. During the nineties, the deaths of several lesser known cyclists, while they slept, have been attributed to blood thickening EPO.
Even before Hodge made his confession Lundy had announced that ASADA and the Australian Crime Commission would begin to work together to investigate allegations of doping.
We’re all hoping that our modern Tour heroes like Brad McGee, Stuart O’Grady, Robbie McEwen and, of course, our only Tour winner Cadel Evans remain pure.
The prospect of an amnesty was raised by CA and ASADA, but has since been shot down by Lundy.
She wants those involved to come out and presumably be punished without leniency for the good of the sport: “If people have something to confess they ought to do it. If it’s not approached in that way then a cloud will forever hang over the sport. “What I’m talking about is a process through which the sport of cycling cleanses itself”.
She is encouraging Orica-GreenEDGE to follow the example of Britain’s Team Sky which is making its entire squad sign declarations that they have never doped.
The question is: will other guilty riders want to cleanse themselves and ruin their careers? I think an amnesty is the best way to get at the truth about the extent of doping in our ranks however by doing that you instantly dilute the seriousness of the practice.
It’s essentially unfair to provide lenient sentences for current dopers but more serious ones for future transgressors.
If the words of young Jack Bobridge are anything to go by, however, the future looks bright: “As the old speak out, the young pay the price. Get rid of them, move on and do what we love, ride bikes!”
Barry Martin
Guest
Andrew I am very sad to say that you are incredible naive, the only way you can possible believe anything a professional cyclist says, is when they are under oath or when they are admitting their own guilt (even then I am not so sure you can rely on the detail). If you want a hero to look up to please don't look to professional sportsman, professional sport only distils out the cheats and the criminals, all the hero left sport along time ago when the money came. I think society as a whole really struggles with a problem where the solution involves turning back time, the situation is made worse by the administration viewing it's role to cover up and to maintain the image (and their salary), good honest inspirational people and heroes very rarely exist let alone thrive in these corrupt and toxic environments, there is no oxygen. The saying eagles cannot soar while surrounded by turkeys definitely applies here. Cadel, Mick, Stuart OGrady, Alan Davis, Simon Gerrans, Baden Cooke etc are not eagles, and are all guilty due to the company that they keep.
sittingbison
Guest
What Brailsford is doing with TeanSKY is ludicrous, misinformed, an basically a PR job trying to cover up Skys own failed modus operandi of never employing people with a doping past, or doctors from within the sport. Geert Leinders employment has already been swept under the carpet, never to be spoken of again. Brailsford is enforcing omerta, plain and simple - if you admit to doping you will be sacked. Yet they have known dopers Yates and Sutton on the staff. Knees, Thomas, Rogers and Sioutsou are all maxed out on the "suspicion index". And what about Fabio? Ne'er a peep about him. For Lundy to laud what Sky are doing shows she had no understanding of the problem.
Russ
Guest
Andrew, there are already plenty of laws in place to prosecute people for the distribution and sale of drugs. They could be more punitive on users, but the benefits of that approach are dubious at best. What is surprising is how rarely drugs violations seem to initiate some sort of investigation into the team doctors. Not that I'd expect Australian authorities to find much - would any team run drugs through customs for the TDU? The UCI could do worse than implement a three strikes policy for team doctors if cyclists are found doping under them. Incentivise them to not only quit doping those under their care, but to monitor them, because their job is at stake if they are using someone outside the team.
Moses
Roar Rookie
Perhaps not entirely; Rabobank says it will honour its contracts for next season, and the World Tour team will continue to race, albeit not under the Rabobank name: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rabobank-to-become-white-label-team
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
Some of us were already at that point long before this latest fracas.
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
Rabbitz and Prof, Will be interesting to see if increasing the investigative powers of ASADA will eventually lead to doping becoming a criminal act as it is in some European countries.
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
Poor Bobridge is now without a team after Rabobank decided to leave the sport. David Millar wrote an interesting letter to them: http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/news/40367/Millar-asks-Rabobank-to-rethink-decision-in-open-letter
Andrew Sutherland
Roar Guru
Jeez Campbell that's a bit harsh! All the riders - proven dopers included - seem to think Cadel is clean. Perhaps it's his tortured expressions. Yes, it is interesting times.
ChrisW
Guest
Its to the point now where you question if anyone is clean.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
Rabbitz, thanks for succinctly explaining what I was trying to say!
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
As the good Prof has said, what on earth has this to do with the gubbermint? If it is criminal activity the the Justice system needs to act. If it is about funding then the Govt should pull funding anyway - these are professional sports. If they can't make it (commercially) on their own then they should be allowed to fail. Taxpayer funds should not be used to prop up unprofitable business models for professional sports.
Campbell Watts
Guest
Jeez Andrew, Did you write this after a big night out or something? Reads like a google cut-and-paste year 12 report. I'm not even sure what point this article is trying to deliver. Will be interesting to see what other fall-out occurs in Australian cycling as this drug scandal pans out - who else will be implicated? And why is Cadel impervious to TDF drug suspicions? Interesting times
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
Is Kate Lundy talking about legal prosecutions for people who were dealing with illegal drugs? If so, hand it over to the Federal police. If she is making veiled threats about funding cutbacks because the government doesn't like drug-use being known, leave it to the bureaucrats to to trim the budget. In either case, the government should have known about this stuff years ago, and done something then. Otherwise, I'm not sure why the government is involved in what is a private-enterprise problem. It's not as if the country of Australia owns Australian competitive cycling. I don't think the Government wishes to take over the administration of the sport of cycling. Enough taxpayers' dollars have already been wasted.