That thread was super dumb.
Things are really quite simple in my opinion. Doping was nearly universal at one point, nobody disputes this, not even people in the pro cycling world. The theory is that this changed due to constant pressure from antidoping tests, police investigations and media attention that made the pro cycling world realize that it needed to change. Ok, sure, I certainly agree that this pressure definitely had an effect on the peloton and it helped curb the worst doping excesses. The arms race between doping and antidoping is not static after all. So far so good.
Now, we haven't had a high-profile doping case in years, no one of note has been busted, the biopassport was killed dead after the Kreuziger case, Froome was cleared because oh no what if we lose the trial, and the media focus on doping has all but disappeared since its peak in the immediate aftermath of the Armstrong affair. So that external pressure which made cycling change, quite obviously, doesn't exist anymore.
So why wouldn't doping have gone back to being as prevalent as ever, in the absence of both a relatively efficient (emphasis on 'relatively') antidoping system but ALSO of external pressures affecting the culture of the sport? Basically, in the abscene of any of the moderating influences that historically curbed doping?
Sure, you can conceivably change the culture of a sport, place or institution, and it will be somewhat resistant to changing external pressures. If all young riders reach the peloton thinking that doping is super icky, many of them won't dope. But there's little reason to think the cultural shift was ever that deep in the first place, and at any rate antidoping pressures have been largely nonexistent for years now so how long would it have taken for the doping culture to reassert itself due to the simple fact that dopers would be massively successful and completely safe? To me it's pretty obvious that the window of antidoping closed many years ago and that we're back to doping being as bad as it's ever been.
I don't even get that worked up about it anymore. Caring makes sense when change looks like a real possibility, but no one in the pro cycling world wants change now. So whatever, enjoy the circus. Just don't do so over-the-top stuff that you completely shatter my suspension of disbelief (looking at you, Wout).
Things are really quite simple in my opinion. Doping was nearly universal at one point, nobody disputes this, not even people in the pro cycling world. The theory is that this changed due to constant pressure from antidoping tests, police investigations and media attention that made the pro cycling world realize that it needed to change. Ok, sure, I certainly agree that this pressure definitely had an effect on the peloton and it helped curb the worst doping excesses. The arms race between doping and antidoping is not static after all. So far so good.
Now, we haven't had a high-profile doping case in years, no one of note has been busted, the biopassport was killed dead after the Kreuziger case, Froome was cleared because oh no what if we lose the trial, and the media focus on doping has all but disappeared since its peak in the immediate aftermath of the Armstrong affair. So that external pressure which made cycling change, quite obviously, doesn't exist anymore.
So why wouldn't doping have gone back to being as prevalent as ever, in the absence of both a relatively efficient (emphasis on 'relatively') antidoping system but ALSO of external pressures affecting the culture of the sport? Basically, in the abscene of any of the moderating influences that historically curbed doping?
Sure, you can conceivably change the culture of a sport, place or institution, and it will be somewhat resistant to changing external pressures. If all young riders reach the peloton thinking that doping is super icky, many of them won't dope. But there's little reason to think the cultural shift was ever that deep in the first place, and at any rate antidoping pressures have been largely nonexistent for years now so how long would it have taken for the doping culture to reassert itself due to the simple fact that dopers would be massively successful and completely safe? To me it's pretty obvious that the window of antidoping closed many years ago and that we're back to doping being as bad as it's ever been.
I don't even get that worked up about it anymore. Caring makes sense when change looks like a real possibility, but no one in the pro cycling world wants change now. So whatever, enjoy the circus. Just don't do so over-the-top stuff that you completely shatter my suspension of disbelief (looking at you, Wout).
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