Subscribe Hypocrisy is engrained in the sport
By Admin
Hypocrisy is engrained in the sport.Under the UCI rules, Pantani is not guilty of anything, except being sick. The drug was invented by an Italian scientist, Francesco Conconi, who remains the chairman of the scientific committee of the international cycling union (UCI): the body officially supposed to stamp out use of the drug. This is generally supposed to be a sign, although not a proof, that a rider has been taking the endurance-boosting wonder drug EPO. In an unfortunately timed article in its weekend magazine, the newspaper - highly dependent on the Tour to maintain its summer sales - declared the 1999 Tour in advance to be a "clear water" race where honesty and transparency would prevail.On the day of publication Pantani, the 1998 winner, was found by a random test in Italy to have a 52 per-cent volume of red cells in his blood, two per cent over the limit. The newspaper, Liberation, called yesterday for a one-year moratorium on all professional cycling events to allow a new beginning for a sport in which "the worst come first".This is not the view of the Tour organisers, two-thirds of French public opinion or of that great chronicler and arbiter of all things sporting in France, the daily sports newspaper L'Equipe. The book has topped the non-fiction best-sellers' list in France for two weeks.Against this background, there is a groundswell of opinion in France that the Doomsday Solution - the cancellation of this year's Tour - is the only sane and honourable course of action.
France's most popular rider, Richard Virenque, continues to deny ever having knowingly taken an illegal stimulant, despite pages of documentary evidence of his habits given to an investigating judge by his former trainer.The trainer, Willy Voet, has written an extraordinary book, Chain Massacre, which describes the omnipresence of drugs in cycling: not just for professional use on the road but also for recreational relaxation afterwards. One of France's top riders, Laurent Jalabert, has hardly set foot in the country since the new random testing rules were introduced on 1 January. Riders and officials from three of the leading French teams - Festina, Cofidis and Francaise des Jeux - are among those under investigation.Two leading Spanish teams, ONCE and Banesto, who withdrew from last year's race, are threatening not to come this year, because they disapprove of this "harassment" of riders. A score of people - riders, trainers, France's most senior cycling official, a quack doctor and a lawyer famed for defending cyclists on doping charges - have been placed under formal investigation. Most of the others, presumed to be obeying the rules, are turning in miserable performances, up to four kilometres an hour slower on average than last year.Two separate judicial inquiries are in progress in France into doping in cycling.
(At the time, he was just two stages from winning the Tour of Italy.) Yesterday, a second sample confirmed the result, and he was banned for 15 days.No less than 67 French professional riders - almost half the total - have provisionally failed the tougher, continuous tests introduced by the French cycling association this year. Marco Pantani, the winner of last year's Tour, a man who cultivated a cleaner-than-clean reputation, was ordered to "rest" at the weekend, when he was found to have a suspiciously and dangerously high level of red cells in his blood. In theory, any rider or team even suspected of using performance- enhancing drugs would be banned.Consider the facts. If the Tour organisers applied the "Caesar's Wife" rule that they announced with much fanfare last year, the world's greatest cycle race, the world's most watched live sporting event, could not take place.
But such is the power of money and public and media expectations that the 86th Tour would probably have to go ahead from 3 July, even if there were only a handful of riders who were not suspended, or in jail.Final entries for the Tour, and decisions on eligibility, must be made by next Wednesday. Doping scandals may be tripping over one another like cyclists as they sprint to a stage finish on a narrow village street. It would be the British equivalent of a summer without cricket, Wimbledon and the FA Cup final, all rolled into one. We are not quite there yet. A SUMMER without the Tour de France? For the French - for lovers of cycling throughout the world - it would be like a summer without sunshine, a summer without chilled white wine. "The title has come home," Inkster said.Scores, Digest, page 23.