Nov 29, 2006
2007 Year of the Drug Suspension Comebacks
2006 was the craziest year for drugs in cycling ever. The craziness of Operation Puerto probably eclipsed anything that happened in 1998 with the Festina Affair. Now that Ivan Basso and several others are cleared of involvement from Operation Puerto for the time being the hot news is who is signing for whom.
Jan Ullrich is talking with sponsors and teams, while Tyler Hamilton has already signed with Tinkoff. “Il Bufalo” (Italian spelling) Gutierrez is signing with a small Italian team to get back to the Giro and similarly Santiago Botero is signing with a smalll Columbian team. Genevieve Jenson is getting ready to comeback. On top of all this the Tour de France will feature a prologue in London that could be won by David Millar the man who made 2006 his comeback year. Manolo Saiz may be back in the ProTour with the Astana team or some variation. The list goes on and on of riders who are making a comeback either from being cleared of involvement in Operation Puerto or having served their suspension and returning to cycling.
I am also going to assume that Floyd Landis will be cleared of the drug charges and return to the pro peloton in 2007. The botched record keeping and security of the French lab seem very questionable. Plus, the conviction Landis is facing has been turned over in the past, so it probably will not stick.
With all of these athletes coming back to the sport and the botched procedures and investigations it seems as though the “war on drugs” is an absolute failure. It certainly is, since very few have actually ever admitted to doping while some such as Jesper Skibby don’t regret their decision. Why should Skibby regret it? If everyone else was doing it and he has no long term ill effects then no harm done right? Attitudes such as those by Skibby are the reason why with all the power in the world WADA, the UCI the IOC and others will always be behind in the war on drugs. The point is not in the punishment and cracking down on the drug use. That is approaching the problem backwards since the culture of drug use is already there and new methods, drugs and procedures will always stay ahead of detection practices.
The only good news in the war on drugs is the work of teams such as T-Mobile and CSC to do their own detection and not allow riders to work with outside doctors. This will help cut down on the temptation for athletes to go for the performance enhancing drugs, but it is not a guarantee that doping will go away.
In the meantime I will be looking forward to an all out battle i the Tour de France between Ivan Basso, Floyd Landis, Jan Ullrich with David Millar holding the Yellow Jersey in the British stages. Hopefully no new Operation Puerto will ruin the fun.
I don’t think you should conflate Puerto cases with riders like Millar, Landis and Geanson, who were convicted or are currently being charged under legitimate means.
It’s kind of like comparing someone who’s just been relased without ever being chraged from Guantanamo to someone who just finished serving a federal prison term for murder.
Good point. I agree with not mixing the convicted vs non-convicted, but the current cycling atmosphere of guilty until proven innocent puts them on a similar level.