Lance, Team Sky and a man named Paul.

Cycling's leading lights must take the lead in cleaning up the sport

If Lance Armstrong didn't win the Tour de France between 1999 to 2005 then who did? Below is a graphic produced by By Alan Mclean, Archie TSE and Lisa Waananen for The New York Times that shows the top 10 finishers in the Tour de France from 1998 to 2011. Faces of riders with solid links to, or convictions of, doping are shown. It is an interesting chart but it is very conservative in who it links to doping. On checking the top tens for myself, I found many more of the riders had been on doping teams or been associated with doping directeur Sportifs and so the true chart would surely show far more riders than this one. 

Figuring out who is to be credited with winning all those tours is really of little consequence now, and I use it purely as a lead in. What is most important is that cycling makes progress in it's battle to become clean. Although the general assumption is that cycling, with the rise to prominence of clean teams like Team Sky, has turned a corner, some, including Paul Kimmage, still worry if enough is being done.

Paul Kimmage is the man to look for if you want to read more about doping in cycling. The award winning, anti-doping, sports journalist is the most vehement opposition to doping in cycling that i've come across. Kimmage, a former cycling pro himself, loves cycling. Where he differs from others is that he isn't willing to hold his tongue on doping 'for the good of the sport'. Kimmage, the author (Rough Ride, 2001) believes that cycling's governing body the UCI needs an overhaul and that people within cycling should be willing to talk about it. In the wake of  Lance Armstrong's fall from grace it is worth noting how few people from within cycling have chosen to pass comment on it.

Armstrong and Kimmage's famous confrontation at the 09 Tour of California

Team Sky are one of cycling's youngest teams having only been formed back in February 2009. However with the likes of Wiggins, Cavendish and Boasson Hagen in the team and cycling guru Dave Brailsford at the helm they are by a distance the number 1 ranked pro team in the world. Cycling is booming in Britain at the moment as a result of the successes of Team Sky and the GB track team and I am a massive fan of what they are doing.

Sky though are not above criticism and I agree with the sentiments of Kimmage and others, that Team Sky should be more vocal and transparent when it comes to doping. When Team Sky was launched they admirably had a zero tolerance approach to doping, refusing even to hire anyone with a suspicious past. They even rejected the chance to sign the now reformed and anti-doping advocate David Millar, despite the fact that he is British, world class and a personal friend of Dave Brailsford.

Team Sky at the 2012 Tour de France

If Team Sky have this anti-doping policy why didn't they use their dominance of this year's Tour de France to speak openly about doping? Why haven't Brailsford, Wiggins or Cavendish (my cycling hero) made any comments about Lance? Surely, if someone has disgraced your sport, lied to the world and denied clean riders the chance of winning to that extent you would express your pleasure at justice having been done.

Team Sky's refusal to address doping questions at the Tour de France can be justified, but was the wrong tactic. On the one occasion that doping was brought up Wiggins launched into a passionate rant

“I say they’re just fucking w*nkers. I cannot be doing with people like that,” said Wiggins. “It justifies their own bone-idleness because they can’t ever imagine applying themselves to do anything in their lives.

“It’s easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that sort of s**t, rather than get off their arses in their own lives and apply themselves and work hard at something and achieve something. And that’s ultimately it. C**ts.”

It's great that Brad is passionate about (not) doping but he could've used his position as race leader for good and banged the drum for clean cyclists. By choosing not to speak about an issue so pertinent to cycling he falls into the same trap as all the others, that of believing that cycling's doping problem can be swept under the carpet.

I'm not trying to stir up anti-Team Sky feeling, I just want to state that keeping quiet is not the answer to cycling's doping problems. They might argue that Top teams or stars from other sports don't have to preach to the media about these sorts of things. This is true, but the unfortunate reality is that cycling has been tainted by so many scandals in the past that surely clean riders have to play a part in cleaning it up and restoring its image.

The current crop of clean cyclists must have the guts to stand up for the good of the sport, it's millions of fans, themselves and their colleagues. I know that comes with the risk of upsetting their friends, colleagues and the UCI but in order to make the sport clean it would be worth it.


This is probably the last i'll write on this topic for a little while. If you want to read further here are links to some of the most interesting current articles.







Kimmage in Velonation speaking about Wiggins and Team Sky http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/12357/Kimmage-disappointed-in-Wiggins-and-Team-Sky-over-transparency.aspx#ixzz24rSnYHKx

The epic 7 hour interview between Kimmage and 2006 TDF Floyd Landis. This is the full transcript, so only read if you have a spare hour and a half. It provides a fascinating insight into Landis and all things doping 
http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/02/news/complete-transcript-paul-kimmages-interview-of-floyd-landis_158328

Kimmage on Lance http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/12721/Paul-Kimmage-Interview-Armstrong-the-UCI-and-the-true-winners-of-those-Tours.aspx

Video - Check out Armstrong vs Kimmage press conference at  http://vimeo.com/3214776. Available on other video sites also.