Just when I thought it couldn’t any worse, cycling’s image falls even further into the toilet.
Tour de France race officials have reported an abnormal ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in a urine sample from this year’s Tour winner Floyd Landis, an American from the Phonak team. A pending analysis of his “B” sample will either clear his name or strip him of his title. Should his “B” sample show the same results, he would be the first person to ever win the Tour only to lose the title.
While this is certainly bad news for Landis as well as for American cycling, the sport of cycling itself is the most damaged by these on going doping scandals.
It appears one can’t assume any professional cyclist to be clean. It seems that once or twice a year at least one of cycling’s biggest stars is caught doping. Many big names have fallen under scrutiny, including Tour favorites Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, both prohibited from racing this year because of the results of a doping investigation by Spanish police that barred nine riders from the Tour.
Doping is perhaps even more widespread in cycling than in baseball. Recent investigations and whistleblowers have shown that designer drugs and cutting-edge evasion techniques make it possible to stay one step ahead of authorities while doping, especially as testing methods generally lag one step behind the dopers themselves.
This leaves me wondering: Are there any clean heroes left in cycling?
With the multitude of names implicated in doping scandals over the past few years, I am inclined to say no. If Landis is guilty too, that would just be icing on the cake.
Perhaps Landis is innocent after all. He has taken a much more active role in denying the allegations against him than previous, confirmed dopers, who generally either decline to comment on the issue or quickly proclaim their innocence shortly before disappearing from public view.
Also, as various reporters have mentioned, testosterone is an odd thing for a cyclist to test positive for, especially during a race. Testosterone helps build muscle mass over a long period of time, not provide a quick fix to improve one’s chances of winning a race.
While it makes sense for a baseball player to take testosterone to build up big, bruising arms, cyclists are much more concerned with endurance than big muscles, and are more likely to use amphetamines, EPO, or a blood transfusion to gain the edge in a race.
It’s easy to make assumptions about Landis’ guilt or innocence, but until the official results come in I will hold my judgment and instead send this message to professional cyclists everywhere: Quit it! You cheaters are ruining my sport. Doping does nothing to improve the spectacle of cycling. Watching a mass sprint or grueling hilltop finish will always be captivating, so man up and prove you can win without the juice.
Donnelly is a University undergraduate majoring in journalism and Spanish and is a member of the Oregon cycling club.