DOPERS SUCK!!

Well with the "Tour"only weeks away the eyes of the world are again focused on the truly corinthian spirit of the great sport of cycling. In my dreams! As ever the biggest stories around in cycling at the moment revolve around not "who can do what?" But "who has taken what?" With the string of my former cycling heroes that have fallen foul of doping (either proven or heavily suspected) I find it hard to assume the innocent of any rider now. How sad is that?

Now, I like to think of myself as a reasonably pragmatic person, so drug taking in professional sport was always a tricky area for me.

On one hand, I’m a pretty honest kind of a guy who abhors cheating in anything. I played rugby for many years and whilst I often pushed the rules as far as I could get away with and did ascribe to the general philosophy that “if the referee doesn’t blow his whistle then no rule has been broken”, this is a very different philosophy to that of someone going out intending to break the rules (and the spirit) of the game. So doping from this point of view is easy to denounce. These are guys that knowing that they are breaking the rules of the sport, are breaking them anyway with the sole intention of gaining an advantage over their more honest peers and that’s fairly low behavior!

On the other hand, in professional sport these guys are not (as I was when I played rugby, and am now when I cycle) really playing the game for fun. This is their job! It is what pays their bills and supports their families. As such they have a commitment to themselves, their employers and their families to be the best at what they do as they can be. Especially as their performance is so easy to measure, in terms of time/distance/results and that these metrics dictate how much they get paid (or even if they get paid). I am a scientist and I chose to work in science because (i) I enjoy it and (ii) I’m reasonably good at it – the same reasons most professional sportsmen/women are doing what they are. Now fortunately for me there are not really any performance enhancing drugs for scientists – but what if there were and they were illegal? Would I take them? Honestly I don’t know – it would probably depend on the circumstances. If my performance was suffering and my position was being threatened by other younger scientists who I knew were taking the drugs would I allow myself to lose my job rather than take the drugs? And if I knew that the best scientists in my field were taking these drugs would I not feel that I had to take them as well in order to compete? Bearing in mind that the alternative would be a second rate career and financial hardship that would impact not just me (and my whiter than white conscience) but also my wife and kids! A hard choice and not one I think it is easy to castigate someone for falling foul of.

O.K. so there are two sides to the story – isn’t that a shock! But in the end I have come to the conclusion that as the title suggests DOPERS SUCK. My epiphany can last summer visiting family in the UK. Just so happens that one of my nephews has gotten the biking bug, specifically road cycling, and I was psyched about the prospect of a few days riding with him. We ride three days on the trot and there are several times when I am just desperately trying to stay on his wheel – the guy can ride! He is fourteen! And kicks ass!

On the last day of my visit I am talking to my nephew’s dad about cycling and how good my nephew is. I mention that with the right coaching he really could be a very good cyclist, perhaps even “professional good”. My brother-in-law says “yes I know, but I am trying not to encourage it too much”. I am aghast! Why not, he loves cycling and appears to have a real talent. Then my brother-in–law drops the bomb “because if he goes into cycling seriously there will inevitably be the temptation and pressure to take drugs – and I don’t want him put in that situation”. THAT SUCKS, and I know he is right. So that’s what really gets me about the drug taking in sport in general and cycling in particular. Not only is it robbing the current clean cyclists of a fair chance, and robbing the spectators of a genuine sport but it is stealing the future from a whole generation of future cyclists who can’t pursue their dreams without compromising their health, ethics or their chances of success. DOPING SUCKS, DOPERS SUCK and the only suitable punishment for willful use of performance enhancing drugs (we are not talking trace levels of stimulants in cold medicines here) is a life long ban from ALL professional sports. Yeah David Millar if I had my way sonny you would never be allowed near a bike again! Whinging Scottish git!