Sick of Cycling

Or should I say all the doping talk in cycling. At first I wasn't too bothered by it, but now there's just too much dilly-dallying going on that's it's getting so ridiculous to the point where I don't even feel like defending the sport anymore.

If you're tested and you get caught, then you go bye-bye. No probation, no nothing, you're gone from the sport for however many years and those years are the same for whatever you test positive for. Positive for weed, 2 years. Positive for EPO, two years. Positive for cocaine, dos anos. Positive for tainted chinese herbal supplement, 2 FREAKIN' YEARS. If you get tested and you pass then keep on racing. None of this, just in case we're gonna save this sample so we can come back to it 10 years later and see what we can come up with.

Just like in police work, if you're a criminal, then you might get away with illegal activity for some period of time and you might evade detection, but eventually you will be caught, either by the police, or by some other jealous criminal who doesn't want you stepping in on their turf and the higher you're elevated the harder that fall will be.

I think what really blows my mind is how incredibly scientific everything is becoming as it relates to cycling. When you read these articles to find out if someone it guilty or not, it's never that simple. It's always how much is this value or that value and do those values match the values from the last samples we took where the values were suspicious. Then when you look at stuff from a scientific standpoint, if these number don't match, then it must not be true or you must be guilty. I hate hearing about lab values because racing doesn't take place in the lab. I mean why doesn't Cavendish ever test positive. He's been tested in the lab and it's been found that he shouldn't be as fast as he is, but he is, and he's never tested positive, and he wins. Contador is a rail, which is good for getting up mountains but how is he able to motor along the flats? I mean science would have me believe it's impossible for Contador to win a flat time trial because he's so small, but he has, and he hasn't tested positive for anything. I think until scientist get good enough to catch everyone no matter what they are taking, in any given format of cheating, don't come at me with science number telling me someone is cheating or has cheated when they aren't testing positive.

I think what really blows my mind is that I was watching football this weekend and very casually, as the starting line ups were being reviewed the commentator just states, "He won't be starting today because he's serving a 4 game suspension for taking a performance enhancing substance." No big presentation, no picture of the guys mug on the t.v., no attacking his character or manhood or calling him an a**hole or jerk on all the blogs, no interviewing all his teammates or snooping through his locker to find out what was going on. He'll miss a quarter of the season, and then he'll be right back on the field earning his paycheck just like everyone else. Why is that?

I have no tolerance for doping. In the end I feel like unless they get the DEA involved or some other international agency and start setting up big sting operations and start using undercover agents and wiretaps and night vision and confidential informants to catch all these people then it will continue. Until then I'll keep racing because I love it, and if some doper comes along and they happen to beat me because they are on the sauce and they don't get caught then I hope karma will take care of them.