python said:
clearly the 60 minutes did not play some softball...it was a very well put together piece with the single focus - assisted, wide-spread well-organized cheating by the sports biggest name.
I can see TH being a bit disappointed by that, as he maybe wanted to tell
his story more than tell on others, or use him to finger one rider in particular, obvious as that angle was, rather than the sport in general.
It's nice to see how sobering a sworn testimony with teeth is though.
And that from our pov it can seem pathetic that that is needed to get to a certain degree of truthiness. From a more human angle I can see how a small lie can get so big so quickly, that there seems no other way to deal with it than keep marching forwards with it, right up until the point that your hand is forced. I certainly won't be throwing stones, but at the same time I don't think it shows anything in particular by opening up to 60 mins now. Last chance saloon had been and gone, he came forward at the time when it would cost him, and this option would cost him less.
Glad it is out in the open, I hope he now faces a world in which he can move forwards again on a path that has
real worth to him. This obviously hasn't been it, and having dreamt so hard about it when he faced the choice, the point where he is now can only be seen as tragic. Hopefully that is a lesson for youngsters who are facing similar choices.
I am sure we will get more of his own story through other routes over the coming months.
It's also pretty obvious how impossible for most the choice is/was, between taking
the only realistic option, or giving up on the sport you have given up all for. I suspect it has corrupted not just the naturally inclined to cheating, and we have those too, of course, but some pretty decent normal blokes as well.
Which is why, to me, the real culprits are those whose only job was to oversee the sport, who had full control over the exact playing area that riders had to operate in. People who didn't have to make the choice between doping or giving up, but made that the dilemma pretty every skilled rider had to face at some point. The folk who made US Postal the standard, or kept it as the standard, that others needed to beat.
I have seen Festina amongst others, and this is what came after. I am hoping that this time, the outcome will be different. I have learned to wait and see.
Surely now is not a sentiment that I allow too close to my hopes and expectations.
I hope, for the sake of those youngsters mentioned earlier, that those responsible between them can come up with a real option b in our sport: don't do it, and we will make sure you can still win, and live the dream.
Surely....