Wednesday 8 October 2008

Now is the time


for all good people to come to the aid of their sport.......

Someone at the IOC has suggested that cycling get the heave ho out of the Olympics, and you know what, I see his point. I mean cycling obviously has a doping problem, any fool can see that. But what of other sports? Do other sports monitor blood levels as strictly as we do and then use that data to target possible cheats? er no, they don't. Once again the fact that there is a comprehensive programme that catches cheats is used as a stick to do the beating with. How about the IOC insist on standardised testing procedures across all sports, across all nations and then see who's taking the piss and who's clean? Oh no, can't do that, some nations don't have the resources to monitor and test their athletes as fully as those in the developed world do they, so it could be seen as unfair, couldn't it? Well guess what, the IOC has a few quid (Dollars, Euros, Francs, whatever) in the bank, how about they use some of the megga money they are given every two years to finance comprehensive monitoring programmes across all sports, across all nations?
How many athletes were tested at the Olympics? You mean to tell me that they were all clean? Ha, ha, ha

Loss of Olympic status would effectively kill the sport at the top end in this and indeed many other countries, Aus, NZ, etc, countries with no big professional scene to support riders, countries where the Olympics are seen as the major event and are funded accordingly.

Uncle Pat - Attack dog of the UCI

In a weird twist of history Uncle Pat has gone on the attack, perhaps the first time a UCI pres has done this, he is reported to have said....

"It is completely unacceptable for Thomas Bach to be saying this. I don't like talking about other sports, but there are other sports with persistent problems. Instead of firing guns at cycling he should fire guns equally at them as well."

Well, good on ya Uncle Pat, at last someone with the balls to say something that might ruffle a few feathers. He's probably had to go and have a lie down after that, but still I'm impressed.
I still think the UCI should press for life bans and top that up with sanctions for national associations of countries where doping still takes place, it should be the UCI, WADA that decide how long bans are and who they are applied to, the current situation with some national associations having different perspectives from others is a face. Removing national teams from a years worth of World Championships might wake a few people up.

CN has an interesting quote from Sebastian Lang, I'll drop the quote in full (apologies to CN) cos I think it's important

"When it was announced that there was a new test for CERA, we were all happy. We sat on the bus and really celebrated, The whole team... except Stefan. He was suddenly very quiet and withdrawn. So we, other riders got together and discussed it. Finally we and the team management openly asked him whether there was something we should worry about." The response? "He just openly lied in our faces and said that everything was OK. Cheats must be caught and punished. All of them. Even when it is another heavy blow for cycling."

He joins a long list of those that will speak out, often with considerable anger against dopers. Time to move on? My arse it is.

I've just looked back at the last few entries, huuummmhh, hopefully in the next few days I'll actually have some bike racing to write about.

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