Somewhere in Europe a fat lady is singing.  17 out of 18 Pro Tour teams have taken their collective balls and gone home.  The Pro Tour idea had potemtial and may have worked if the UCI would have been open to actually listening to the concerns of the teams and sponsors but, the UCI seemed more intent on playing the bully and going forward with their ill conceived vision.  Good riddance.

Taking a page from the former Iraqi Information Ministers play book, Chief UCI chowderhead Pat McQuaid told Reuters that teams could face sanctions from the UCI “We’ll deal with that according to the regulations,” said McQuaid “Thay face exclusion from the international federation. It is something we are going to discuss.”

Living in oblivion.

I think WADA and the UCI are probably the only ones who were surprised by the Danish study that said the EPO test is less reliable than a coin toss. I really don’t know the answer to the doping problem. I know it will never go away but I am not so jaded that I think declaring a pharmaceutical free for all is right either.

I write with wonder about the giants of our sport. They represent an ideal that we all strive for. It is no secret that even Eddy doped. Does that make his achievements any less spectacular? I don’t think so. Doped or not you still have to do the work. You still have to have the desire. You still have to have the engine. Doping does not turn a mule into a thoroughbred. (Ask Joe Papp) I am not condoning doping in any way, shape, or form. To write off the entire sport because of a few, no I am not going to do that either. I know there are clean riders in the Pro Tour. I think the Slipstream model is a great step and the future of cycling. You can ride and win clean and they are proving it.

I think the responsibility to clean up the sport ultimately has to come from the riders themselves. They know who is and who is not clean. They should be putting the pressure on the cheaters to clean the fuck up or get out. If one of my coworkers was stealing from my paycheck you better believe that person would be dealt with and it would not involve a meeting with HR.