Soapbox

I know there are a few cycling fans amongst us:

Alberto Contador was found guilty today of doping by the UCI. 2010 TDF win removed amongst other wins and he'll be able to ride again after 6th august 2012.

Sad news and a severe punishment.....

Two yrs ban, from when tested and found to be doping I presume?

Able to compeate again in 6mts!!!

 Ban should have started from when found guilty, if not for life.

 A two yr ban is no disencentive to any young rider not to dope.

 Say your 24 yrs old, doping up to you eyeballs, you get caught. 2yr ban, so you are back in Pro. ranks at 27. May not mean your 'clean', youv'e found how to mask dope effects better. Even if clean, still back earning money from a sport you've helped everyone think is rife with drugs, weather it is or isn't, doesn't matter.

Any one found doping, unless by accident, likes of Alan Baxter, should be banned for life.

It doesn't matter what sport, ban them. MAY put people off using them.

I am also against doping, but let's not fool ourselves that it doesn't go on in Pro cycling. A good read is Paul Kimmages book, 'Rough Ride'

The amount found with Contador was so miniscule, that he has been made an example of.  A look back in recent TDF winners also had positive samples, Lance Armstrong a prime example and he got off Scot free.

Not just cycling neither. It is in a lot of sports. I heard a few things about other sports where successful competitors made themselves uncontactable for a period of time for anti-dopers. That in itself in some sports has the same penalty as being caught doping. One I remember hearing about now coaches rather successfully!! Clean or not I wonder.

Contador claimed it was in the meat he ate. So...miniscule amounts might suggest it a possibility so of course he'd try to claim that. It did not work and he got the ban. However he had been competing for 18 months. The two year ban acts retrospectively and the 18 months of results have been wiped. All his wins have gone to others. However what affect him being in the race has had is unclear. If he hadn't been able to race would the second placed person (now the winner) have been where he was in the race?? Kind of a butterfly flaps its wings and a hurricane happens on the other side of the planet. IF he hadn't been there would the race have happened differently. My view has always been he should have been suspended. Harsh but it is the way with some other sports I believe. It isjust where you draw the line and how seriously you take anti-doping. Messages and all that.

PS I think at some time a lot of big winners have been questioned. Lance is one of them. Who knows?? There was a big doping scheme in USA which caught Marion Jones and Dwayne Chambers I believe. That was highly sophisticated. So who's to say there wasn't more sophisticated doping schemes around yet to be found.

Some sports are further down the road than others of course. I do wonder what happens in football? You do hear of the rare case of cannabis use being caught but come off it, there must be more going on than those few cases. I mean the spoilt brats that some of them are and all the tales of mis-deeds in hotels (whether true or press elaboration) there is not more recreational drug use in footie??

At the end of the day does anyone really believe there is such a thing as a clean sport??

Its a shame that  it has dragged on for so liong, allowing him to compete in the 2011 Tour and that the "winner" of the 2010 tour now receives it retrospectively.

 Does anyone really believe that any of the top cyclists are clean. They just have a better team around them than those that get caught.  After all Armstrong has never claimed he didnt take drugs, only that he never failed a drugs test.

If you followed the tour on tv then you'd have seen them follow one of the teams and their drug testing regime. IIRC it was the one run by Bjarne Rijs (bad spelling, sorry). He is one of the tour's greats from a few years back BTW and either came second or won it once. Basically all their team are regularly tested by a World anti-doping approved lab. They kept meticulous records and samples or whatever the scheme was so they were traceable in their anti-doping.

I am not saying that team is guaranteed, 100% clean but what other sport can really compare with that level of anti-doping?? IIRC there were other teams copying that or thinking of doing so.

On top of that the French legal system has actually got severe penalties for posession of doping products and masking products. Certainly to a higher level than most other countries.

I just think this Contador and the past few years will take quite some time to get over for cycling. I think that it is no longer any dirtier than most other sports and is trying to get cleaner more than others too. I doubt there are any football teams who run a strict anti-doping test regime like Rijs's team does. If they did then I reckon there would be a few prima donna footballers with 2 year bans, if not for performance enhancing drugs then for performance damaging drugs (illegal ones like cannabis or others).

BTW I am a fan of cycling in case that is not obvious!!!