Sunday 17 May 2009

Bike Pure and I support Drug Free Sport

And so it cam to pass that the ordinary rider in the street got pissed of with doping scum and decided to take a stand.

And it came to pass that good journalists writing for a famous and possibly weekly cycling magazine decided to draw a line in the cobbles and say enough enough. So through the afore said and possibly weekly cycling magazine and it's related possibly monthly cycling publication the 'I support drug free sport' campaign was launched. It was a great step, they immediately signed up a host of cyclists and athletes from other sports all was right in the world, we had the bastards on the run, didn't we?

And then as they sing on the terraces 'it all went quiet over there', for several months I was trying to buy more wrist bands from the web site only to be told, not in stock, not in stock, not in stock. When they were eventually back, there seemed to be a loss of impetus in the good fight. Still that is totally understandable, the jurnos, whilst passionate about the cause have real jobs, and I doubt the publisher has the desire to fund a serious campaign.

Still, a campaign was out there, a flag was raised and the line had been drawn.

Then along come Bike Pure, so what's different, well the name is slightly more catchy and the wrist bands are a different colour, but is that is? Well maybe not, due to the slightly different way the campaigns have been launched / run the lads at bike pure seem to have more time to donate to their version of the fight, there is a web presence (actually a very nice web presence - should a well known weekly cycling mag ever want a new site......), there are soon to be jerseys (great design) and lots of regular news. ISDFS on the other hand remains a line on the shop page of a mag website - no presence, no promotion it is very sad if you ask me.

We need all the anti doping campaigns we can get, we need to press the message to the dope using scum that sit and hide in team buses at the start of races that we as fans do care about a clean sport.
I don't care who's campaign was here first, I don't care who has the best wrist band. What I do care about is cycling and I want a clean sport that I can believe in, I've spent too long cheering riders that have been tainted, I've spent too much money traveling the world watching races that have now got question marks hanging over their results. I want to make, admittedly, a small statement, I want to draw my line in the cobbles, I'd quite like a nice jersey to wear on the chain gang as well. I'll support any campaign that opposes doping and I want the world to do the same.

So imagine my raised eyebrows when I was informed that a certain 'possibly weekly cycling publication' had dropped an article on the Bike Pure campaign. Why was this? Was it because the runes had said no? Was it because all doping had been eradicated from the sport? No it seems that it was because the Bike Pure campaign conflicted with the ISDFS campaign! For God sake, both campaign oppose the same thing surely they both demand promotion and publicising to the max?
But to refuse to cover an anti doping campaign because 'We were here first' is a bit toys out of the pram Schumacher isn't it?

Ah well, good luck to both campaigns, both demand your support, I hope a certain 'possibly weekly cycling publication' covers the bike pure campaign, it will spread the word and the word is indeed good. I hope they both sign up more athletes and I pray we get a clean sport.

.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done for a nice piece. Shame about Cycling Weakling not covering it. Go BIke Pure, go anti-doping...go the clean riders

Anonymous said...

great post and on the mark. i joined bike pure in september and great to watch it grow. the bands are the symbol for ALL cyclist working for a new start to cycle sport.

Brad.

Anonymous said...

But bikepure has suspect riders that sign up, such as the Barloworld riders who ride for Corti - another vilain in the cycling doping world, and of course Robbie Hunter who defended Floyd Landis.

Is this another smokescreen?

I am Onthebanking said...

I guess that any anti doping campaign will at some point have a doper sign up to 'cover' their tracks. Personally I don't think this detracts from the campaign.

If anything you could argue that it proves the campaign has got power and is gaining momentum.

Anonymous said...

I guess I'm just very cynical when I see another anti-doping campaign that seems to only involve bracelets and selling kits.

What are these guys really trying to do? To sign up riders on a website.. what else?

Anonymous said...

At least the Bike Pure people are trying to do something. It's easy for people to pour scorn on it but hey - what is anyone else doing?

It has my support anyway and it's a fairly good attempt from decent guys to help the sport. Some riders will always have a question mark over them but there are some top guys on their list. They've a nice looking jersey too!

All you do is add your name to their campaign to say you support it.