By Christian Johnson

Many people out there that have been avid cycling fans have decided to abandon keeping up with professional cycling because of this past year doping scandals. I do not know anybody personally but I have read many cycling publication journals where the readers voice their angst and just arrive at this opinion based off this. Maybe it is not true but people threaten it, so there has to be some validity to the idea of abandonment. I myself even felt the pang of emotional loss two days before the Tour de France began when Operation Puerto hit the news stand and there was the announcement that half of the stars of the peloton where not starting the race. Then the fire kept being fed after the race was over with the Floyd Landis mishap. A feeling of betrayal leaped into my heart of coal that suggested keeping up with this sport was more a disappointment than a bundle of joy it has been for the past many years. Though after a while I got over it and chalked up the situation as part of dealing with the sport. Doping happens all over the globe in almost every sport, cycling is just the most vulnerable sport to the press. The testing and the regulations on riders allow for a air of uncertainty. Their samples are taken and then lab technicians make decisions about the testing, their protocols are fulfilled and then procedures are carried out if a rider tests positive. But as of late the protocols and procedures seem to be constantly breached. Rumors leaked to the press would be one of those breached, ending in a result of the rider being tried by the press and public opinion before any real legal decision has been reached.

The riders have no protection against such evils, they have no organization that is looking out for their best legal interest. The UCI is suppose to act as a organization that would give riders some foundation though the UCI continues to be at the forefront of persecuting riders before legal justice can be ensued. There seems to be a lack of trust all around. Riders cannot trust their teams, teams cannot trust their riders, nobody can trust the UCI, nobody can trust the testing, riders cannot trust other riders and it goes on and on. There seems to be a lack of respect among the majority that are players in the sport at all levels.

Riders dope because they are under extreme pressure to perform at a certain level. No matter what the tests are there will always be some form of performance enhancing that will be deemed illegal. The drugs will always be out there whether we like it or not, and the suppliers will continue to make it available no matter what. The only way that cycling will exist without it is to cut straight to the source. That would mean making anything considered performance enhancing for athletes illegal, like recreational drugs are illegal from a governmental point of view. But how easy is it to get recreational drugs?? Not to hard according to my sources. So who regulates the sources? How do you really think they will ever? Passing tests will continue to be a matter of cloak and dagger concerning that of cycling. We can only hope that the teams will take the stance as they should, standing up for the rights of their riders and making the teams responsible for knowing what is in their riders bodily system. T-mobile and CSC have taken these stances. It might be the only way for cycling to really survive these dark times.