Where to start...
Hi guys! I’m family of one of the riders so may be able to help out. I’ve been lucky to see many races and hear many race stories… a crazy sport indeed! Anyway, while there is doping in cycling, as in every sport, I honestly believe that as a whole Columbia is clean. Why? Firstly, part of the contract is that if any other team member is caught doping then the team as a whole folds. Secondly, the amount of times he gets randomly drug tested (at races and at home) is ridiculous (every rider must report their whereabouts 24/7, 365 days a year which means no changing plans last minute!). On this note, I think a major point we haven’t discussed is the issue of “random” drug testing. Cyclists in particular have (a) more individual drug tests than any other professional athlete, and more importantly, (b) its “random” testing “unlike most sports”. This alone accounts for why cycling has the worst reputation for doping; not just because there are more drugs in cycling than other sports per se but because there is more testing and its random. That put aside, do all riders dope? Nowadays, definitely not. He honestly believes that things have “slowly” changed for the better over the last decade and that less and less riders are doping due to (a) stricter doping penalties (e.g. what was once a slap on the wrist has now turned into a substantial jail term in several countries) and because (b) most young riders and the newbie sports directors believe that they can ride clean. In saying that, there still seems to be a slight divide (in cycling in general) between the old school and the newbies in which the former are more scared to ride clean (because they know no other way) than the latter (because they were introduced to cycling clean so have the confidence to ride clean); this is expected coming from a sport that heavily depended on drug use many years ago. So while doping has decreased and has the potential to continue to decrease, doping still appears to be prevalent due to the nature of doping controls (being tested so often and randomly) and because some of the old school riders are scared to change. But what about Columbia?? Well Columbia is predominately a new team with very confident young riders who solely ride for the “team”; they don’t care who wins as long as it’s a win. And, if you look at the TDF last year, it’s a good example that they weren’t doping. They wanted stage wins for Cav and the overall GC for Kim but they couldn’t have their cake and eat it too… unless they were doping of course! In the first week, they dominated the scene for Cav (4 stage wins) yet as soon as they got to the mountains Kim was immediately dropped (exactly as the team had predicted a few days earlier…). The team made this prediction because they knew Kim was clean and cuz the team had exhausted its effort for Cav they knew they would have nothing left. If they were doping, they would’ve had both stage wins and the overall GC. But it didn’t happen. And since then, yes they have dominated, but there’s enough riders on their team (27 males/12 girls) to rotate the rosters to afford each rider recovery time (in fact there’s too many good riders that they’re still struggling to pick the start list for the TDF which is only a week away!). Anyway, while there’s definitely still doping in cycling, as in every other sport, as a whole I would honestly like to believe that Columbia is a clean team. That said, bring on the TDF 2009!!
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