Grandillusion said:
Netserk said:
Trust the riders? With what (that they are riders)? I don't get why I would need to trust them. Cycling is still cycling, independent on me trusting the riders.
Parents may care (a lot) about what their children do, but for many parents, the love for their child is (largely) independent on those actions. It really isn't that hard a concept to grasp.
Trust that they're not jacked up to the gills with notoriously effective performance enhancing drugs maybe? What does 'cycling is cycling' mean? It's the sort of thing I've been hearing from Theresa May about Brexit, utterly vapid.
I'm not talking about cycling for recreation, we're discussing competitive professional road racing. It could be a magnificent thing, if only one could believe that what you're seeing is genuine. But it's not, it's a charade. How can you be satisfied with, nay obsessed and excited about, something which isn't real? That's what I mean. And it's possible to cure the sick patient with anger and focus, but the fans can't be bothered because the charade is so wonderfully entertaining.
I hear your frustration, but why pick on a sport that's had a history and culture of doping since the days of "Anquetil's Cocktail." Oxygen-vector doping didn't start nor end with Armstrong either, as some fans still believe this. And if you think this is the "new, clean era" of cycling, that would also be misleading and a classic case of "disinformation." The CIRC report from last year tells us a culture of doping still exists but that it's been primarily pushed underground. It also mentions that doping doctors are still being used as a resource. This may outrage some cycling fans while other fans may not be that surprised and continue to watch and enjoy the sport for what it's worth.
And cycling always seems to be the punching bag when doping is prevelant in other endurance sports, and may be more worse than cycling right now. For example, I follow track & field and road running pretty closely, and I can tell you that over the last several years so many performances are being questioned and the issue of doping is front & center. In Rio, three (3) World records were set in two distance events & one sprint, and many are suspicious of those performances. And when you factor in that the Kenyans, arguably the world's best distance runners, have had over *40* doping positives in the last several years, and the fact that they're not part of the ABP (no WADA-accredited labs are in the area), virtually every impressive performance by them is questioned nowadays (also at Rio a Kenyan coach was sent home for attempting to pass a sample for one of his top runners at a drug control...Lol) And sadly, running just had it's "Festina affair" last June when world-renowned coach Jama Aden (coach of several world class runners & one world record holder) was found with a large cache of EPO & steriods at a training camp in Spain. Imagine that.
This is about as egregious as it gets for competitive T&F and road running. So talk about a charade...doped up Kenyans flying around the track & roads (and we all thought only those dreaded Russians were doping...Lol). So, it isn't just cycling as PEDs are everywhere (there's even a doping XC sking thread with it's many problems). Some people will continue to be entertained...because we don't know who's doped and who isn't, and the reality may be that everyone is using PEDs from to extent or another. It may be as Riis once said back in his day that doping is the "normal preparation for a professional cyclist." Everyone has a choice and no one is being forced to watch or support these sports. If the governing bodies & WADA can't clean it up and ensure a clean field, then that's their problem...not mine. The UCI could implement a lifetime ban for a first offense (i.e., zero tolerance). They could eliminate these ridiculous TUEs that they know are being used for the primary purpose of performance enhancement. The IOC could have banned the Kenyans from Rio for their doping history and non-compliance with WADA. None of this is occurring...why? Perhaps frustrated and angry fans should blame the hierarchy. Even the Grand old game of golf has a doping problem that surpasses cycling. Golf? Can't be...now that's funny:
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/golf-surpasses-cycling-and-athletics-for-drug-findings-1.2301094