What a Tour de France this year's has been! From the first week on there were great moments nearly each day: Team Garmin-Cervélo won the team time trail and four stages in all; Thomas Voeckler earned the yellow jersey midway through the race—like in 2004—but this time defended it through the Pyrenees and the Alps until the last day in the mountains with just two stages to go in the Tour; last year's winner Alberto Contador lost the Tour early but won over some of us cynical fans with his never-give-up attacks in the mountains the final week; and Cadel Evans won the general classification—finally, after two runner-up finishes in previous years—with tough, smart riding from both him and his teammates.
A common opinion among cycling fans this year is that the pro peloton is cleaning up. Cyclists are less doped—so the opinion goes—and looking more human as they crest alpine summits out of breath and as they finish mountain stages with slumped shoulders. I for one think the peloton is cleaner but still plenty dirty—average speeds remain suspicious—but I think the sport is different now than a few years ago, like in 2006 when Floyd Landis broke away solo in the mountains 120 km out to win stage 17 by over five minutes—and not even looking tired doing it.
It's been a few year's since I concluded most of the pro peloton dopes and most of these respected athletes are liars. (See here.) But even so I thought doping wasn't a big deal. Sure, doping isn't something any normal, sane individual would do, but professional athletes have a different mindset than us normal, sane individuals, and that difference includes taking bigger risks with their long-term health to achieve short-term gain. I thought the ubiquity of doping in cycling makes the sport fair in its own twisted way, as though when everyone is cheating then no one is cheating. But this year's Tour makes me think otherwise.
Many people—and I'm one of them—think Thomas Voeckler's defense of the yellow jersey this year would have ended much sooner if the climbers were as dirty as in years past. Also, clean team Garmin-Cervélo wouldn't have won the team time trial if they were chasing the times of teams with systematic doping programs like in past years. These events and others, with yesteryears' scandal-free, middle-tier cyclists now competing nearer to the top, changes the sport for the better, not just for the sake of cleanliness but because it's more interesting. Doping makes the race more predictable. It also removes the romanticism of the suffering the Tour imparts on its riders.
Sure, maybe Voeckler does dope. Maybe some guys on Garmin-Cervélo do. But even if they are dirty, their level of dirtiness is now enough to matter. That's new. And the race is more interesting as a result. I for one hope that the gap between doping technology and anti-doping technology continues to narrow.
2 comments:
It'll be interesting to see if we notice doping slowly seeping it's way back into the sport.
Also, this year is the the year of the pitcher in MLB, right? Same thing?
Chad— Yes, indeed. Offense stats in MLB are down going on several years now. How long will this trend continue? And will we begin seeing more human-looking NFL players?
As for pro cycling, the direct cause for decreased doping—continuing with the assumption it has decreased—is that the anti-doping tests are more advanced and are closing the gap with the doping techniques. But the real cause, in my opinion, is that for the first time in over two decades, doping is now perceived as being bad for the sport. Sponsors don't want their name tied to a scandal.
This is a change from previous years, like the years of Team Postal. Let's suppose Lance doped. Lance's dope-inspired victories at the TDF opened the American market for pro cycling. Look on the roads any given weekend; you see a lot of guys riding Treks, wearing Oakleys and yellow armbands, and so on. Even companies that weren't sponsors of Team Postal, like Cervélo, are doing well for themselves with this new, freely spending market. Lance made himself and many others in the business very rich. And Lance wasn't the first; Jan Ullrich accomplished a similar result in Germany after winning the TDF in 1997. It's no wonder there has been an omertà about doping in the sport.
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