Thursday, August 25, 2005
A Voice of Reason
Granted, it is tucked in at the very end of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung’s article of Lance’s threatened legal actainst L’Equipe, but at least it is in print. Christiane Ayotte, Director of the [Inter?] National Doping Lab in Montreal – home of the World Anti-Doping Agency – notes the ethical problem involved:
Samples, which are for the sake of research analyzed anonymously, must also remain anonymous.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Ullrich's Lost Maillots Jaunes
Not entirely surprising, but Germany’s leading boulevard rag Die Bild adds a new twist to the Armstrong doping allegation. According to their logic, Jan Ullrich should be awarded the Tour victories in 2000 and 2001 (and 2003?) because had Lance’s doping come to light in ’99, there would have followed a long-term ban from competition. Bild goes on to note that the prize money from the 2004 Tour has not yet been disbursed, because of the host of doping allegations against Armstrong.
It should go without saying that if Bild were the only news competition, Fox News not only would sweep the Pulitzers, but get the award for Excellence in Journalism hands down every year. Still, if you are talking about declassification six years after the fact, why not extend it to its logical (or illogical) conclusions like this.
For its part, Radsport-News.com – one of the best cycling news sites in German or any other language for that matter – wryly notes in its original story on the issue that “Ullrich probably would not be too happy about a retroactive investigation of his urine tests from the 1997 Tour de France.”
It should go without saying that if Bild were the only news competition, Fox News not only would sweep the Pulitzers, but get the award for Excellence in Journalism hands down every year. Still, if you are talking about declassification six years after the fact, why not extend it to its logical (or illogical) conclusions like this.
For its part, Radsport-News.com – one of the best cycling news sites in German or any other language for that matter – wryly notes in its original story on the issue that “Ullrich probably would not be too happy about a retroactive investigation of his urine tests from the 1997 Tour de France.”
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Lance Armstrong – Six-time Tour Champion?
Surprise, surprise – L’Equipe is reporting they have definitve proof that Lance Armstrong was on EPO when he won the Tour. In 1999.
A French medical lab is claiming that the traces of EPO were discovered in urine samples taken during the 1999 Tour, though there were no official urine tests for EPO at the time. Such tests were first introduced at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. (The hematacrit testing was introduced in 1997, but that test does not distinguish between natural and artifical EPO.)
Jean-Marie Leblanc, director of the Tour de France told the French sports daily that he was “disappointed” by Lance, and that he would follow the lead of the UCI in deciding on a sanction. Ominously, he did not rule out declassification of Lance’s win. (That would give the 1999 Tour to Alex Zülle, one of the protagonists of the 1998 Festina EPO scandals.)
Lance of course denies any wrong doing. But rather then look into the merits of the case, Leblanc’s response is intriguing. Leblanc has quite often been in the vanguard of anti-doping efforts, and to his credit the Soceite du Tour de France has often advocated stronger anti-doping measures, only to see them rolled back by the UCI.
But Lebalnc’s suggestion here that doping could be punished, even six years after the fact seems unlikely to help protect the sports (or the Tour’s) integrity. “Sanctions” are certainly unlikely in this case as even L’Equipe’s article notes the science is not foolproof nor were normal testing precautions – e.g., a b-probe – taken. But if Leblanc’s logic is accepted, a very large “Provisional” should be added to ever results listing in cycling’s books. Even the ProTour series leader board should carry the provisio “Riders are credited with the following points until proven otherwise through scientific investigation.”
Leblanc clearly believes he has the integrity of the Tour at heart. But in reality he would be not only making riders prove they were clean even beyond the approved testing, but also help to grow the seed of doubt already in many cycling fans’ minds. “Wait until next year” will be replaced with “Wait until science advances enough to prove that your boy was doped, so my boy will be awarded the Tour even if he’s sitting in a nursing home when it happens.”
If you can’t prove a doping allegation by the end of the cycling season – or at least the end of the year – it is not worth opening the can of worms by suggesting declassification is an appropriate sanction.
On the other hand, maybe it would be enlightening to see similar results for Pantani, Ullrich, Riis, Indurain, Lemond, Delgado, Roche, Fignon, and Hinault. Something tells me, though, the French lab would stop with Roche.
A French medical lab is claiming that the traces of EPO were discovered in urine samples taken during the 1999 Tour, though there were no official urine tests for EPO at the time. Such tests were first introduced at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. (The hematacrit testing was introduced in 1997, but that test does not distinguish between natural and artifical EPO.)
Jean-Marie Leblanc, director of the Tour de France told the French sports daily that he was “disappointed” by Lance, and that he would follow the lead of the UCI in deciding on a sanction. Ominously, he did not rule out declassification of Lance’s win. (That would give the 1999 Tour to Alex Zülle, one of the protagonists of the 1998 Festina EPO scandals.)
Lance of course denies any wrong doing. But rather then look into the merits of the case, Leblanc’s response is intriguing. Leblanc has quite often been in the vanguard of anti-doping efforts, and to his credit the Soceite du Tour de France has often advocated stronger anti-doping measures, only to see them rolled back by the UCI.
But Lebalnc’s suggestion here that doping could be punished, even six years after the fact seems unlikely to help protect the sports (or the Tour’s) integrity. “Sanctions” are certainly unlikely in this case as even L’Equipe’s article notes the science is not foolproof nor were normal testing precautions – e.g., a b-probe – taken. But if Leblanc’s logic is accepted, a very large “Provisional” should be added to ever results listing in cycling’s books. Even the ProTour series leader board should carry the provisio “Riders are credited with the following points until proven otherwise through scientific investigation.”
Leblanc clearly believes he has the integrity of the Tour at heart. But in reality he would be not only making riders prove they were clean even beyond the approved testing, but also help to grow the seed of doubt already in many cycling fans’ minds. “Wait until next year” will be replaced with “Wait until science advances enough to prove that your boy was doped, so my boy will be awarded the Tour even if he’s sitting in a nursing home when it happens.”
If you can’t prove a doping allegation by the end of the cycling season – or at least the end of the year – it is not worth opening the can of worms by suggesting declassification is an appropriate sanction.
On the other hand, maybe it would be enlightening to see similar results for Pantani, Ullrich, Riis, Indurain, Lemond, Delgado, Roche, Fignon, and Hinault. Something tells me, though, the French lab would stop with Roche.
Monday, August 22, 2005
A Season to Forget
Sunday was supposed to be Jan Ullrich and T-Mobile’s day. The Deutschland Tour was heading to the home territory of Jan Ullrich in the Black Forest, and the T-Mobile captain was expected to use the day and Monday’s time trial as the anvil of his D-Tour victory.
Rather, as has been so often the case this year for T-Mobile, the day ended up being one of frustration, failed expectations, and excuses. Not to deny that the weather in Germany for the D-Tour – and for this stage in particular – has been anything in atrocious, or certainly it is not helping Ullrich’s lingering health issues. But the D-Tour, like the entire season for the premier German team, has been nothing but an unmitigated disaster.
Granted, the short history of the D-Tour has not been dominated by the Bonn-based T-Mobile or its previous Deutsche Telekom incarnations. That distinction belongs to the German National Championships, which long had the flavor of an intra-club training race than a national competition. In fact, given that the winning rider was seemingly determined by T-Mobile’s internal politics, the flavor was much more of a post-Tour de France criterium than a legitimately contested race.
But this year one can mark the nadir of the T-Mobile nightmare at the German national championships. Six-time Tour points competion winner Erik Zabel, still smarting by his team’s decision to leave him off the Tour squad, lost the final sprint to an unheralded rider from an even less heralded third-tier squad. Adding insult to injury, team management in the immediate aftermath of the race said publicly that the result served only to confirm their decision to not take Zabel to France.
Infighting more than results on the road have characterized T-Mobile’s season, which began with Kloeden demanding the team leave Zabel off the Tour squad and replace him with someone capable of supporting Kloeden (and Ullrich? Or Vino?) in his overall ambitions in Paris. The horrific start to the season – Vino’s classy win at La Doyenne was their first victory of the season – only added to the bad atmosphere. But the tragic drama was not yet done unfolding. During the opening mountain stages in the Tour, after Vinokourov attacked Lance and got a gap, it was his own teammate Kloeden who countered and brought the race – including Lance – back up to the Kazakh.
The season stands in stark contrast to the days when Deutsche Telekom first entered professional cycling, taking over the title sponsorship of the Stuttgart team in 1991. Perhaps, though, the most significant year was 1993, when Olaf Ludwig – one of the many German legionnaires the team coaxed back to ride for the German super squad – placed second in four Tour stages, but did not manage a single win. After that result, Ludwig came to the realization he no longer could compete at the highest levels, and instead turned his efforts to bringing along the newest talent the team had signed – a young rider from Unna named Erik Zabel. Ludwig’s tutelage paid almost immediate dividends with Zabel winning two stages (including one on his birthday) in his first Tour.
Bjarne Riis’ arrival in the squad in 1996 in many ways ushered in the halcyon days. A bona fide overall Tour rider, he led the team to victory in cycling’s most important race, and perhaps more importantly for the squad, his young (German) lieutenant Jan Ullrich seemed capable of winning for himself an at-the-time inconceivable seven Tours.
And while Telekom did emerge as something of a powerhouse – particularly at the Tour and Milan-San Remo – Ullrich’s entrance also seemingly brought about the salad days’ demise. From the beginning, the young prodigy wreaked havoc on the internal dynamics of the team. Initially it was owing to squabbles between the team management and Ullrich’s junior coach (who accompanied to rider to Bonn, but had no official capacity within the team). As a result of the intense interest Ullrich generated in German cycling, a number of other German teams emerged, unfortunately, all too often with the borrowed business plan of Le Groupement. Coast was one of these, and when they lured Ullrich away from T-Mobile, Rudy Pevenage bid an acrimonious adieu to his longtime associate Wlater Goodefroot (directeur sportif at Telekom) to accompany Ullrich. (An uneasy détente between the two was effected in order to complete Ullrich’s return to the squad.)
Always conscious of the German rival teams – especially the more durable and successful Gerolsteiner – the management at Telekom found themselves pressured into making personnel decisions against their better judgment. The signing of Robert Bartko after the 2000 Syndey Olympics was one example. Despite Telekom’s view that he was a season or two away from a pro career on the road, they snapped up the track star after Ullrich’s defection to Coast. Perhaps this also led to Telekom’s summary dismissal of many of its more loyal riders after they got a bit long in the tooth. And in a bizarre and ugly incident during the Giro d’Italia this year, T-Mobile criticized eventual winner Paolo Savoldelli for ingratitude after he left following an unhappy two years with the German team.
Unsurprisingly, both Vinokourov – the most successful rider this year – and Erik Zabel – the most successful rider in the team’s history – are leaving after this season. Zabel rejected the offer to follow in Ludwig’s footsteps and ride one more year before taking a management job. Instead he and Alessandro Pettachi will head up an Italo-German team pimping milk from Bremen’s creameries.
Also leaving, however, is Walter Goodefroot. His retirement had been planned for some time, but certainly could come at no better point. Ok, well, maybe he would have preferred to have hung it up last year before the messiness of this disastrous season. Fortunately, T-Mobile has also seen fit to already try and script a storybook ending to this tale. Goodeforoot’s replacement as top dog in change of the cycling team will be Olaf Ludwig, the same man who once turned the squad around. Certainly the squad’s sponsors and its legion fans are hoping he’ll have the same touch needed to develop young talents like Matthais Kessler and Stephan Schreck – and give T-Mobile its second re-birth.
Rather, as has been so often the case this year for T-Mobile, the day ended up being one of frustration, failed expectations, and excuses. Not to deny that the weather in Germany for the D-Tour – and for this stage in particular – has been anything in atrocious, or certainly it is not helping Ullrich’s lingering health issues. But the D-Tour, like the entire season for the premier German team, has been nothing but an unmitigated disaster.
Granted, the short history of the D-Tour has not been dominated by the Bonn-based T-Mobile or its previous Deutsche Telekom incarnations. That distinction belongs to the German National Championships, which long had the flavor of an intra-club training race than a national competition. In fact, given that the winning rider was seemingly determined by T-Mobile’s internal politics, the flavor was much more of a post-Tour de France criterium than a legitimately contested race.
But this year one can mark the nadir of the T-Mobile nightmare at the German national championships. Six-time Tour points competion winner Erik Zabel, still smarting by his team’s decision to leave him off the Tour squad, lost the final sprint to an unheralded rider from an even less heralded third-tier squad. Adding insult to injury, team management in the immediate aftermath of the race said publicly that the result served only to confirm their decision to not take Zabel to France.
Infighting more than results on the road have characterized T-Mobile’s season, which began with Kloeden demanding the team leave Zabel off the Tour squad and replace him with someone capable of supporting Kloeden (and Ullrich? Or Vino?) in his overall ambitions in Paris. The horrific start to the season – Vino’s classy win at La Doyenne was their first victory of the season – only added to the bad atmosphere. But the tragic drama was not yet done unfolding. During the opening mountain stages in the Tour, after Vinokourov attacked Lance and got a gap, it was his own teammate Kloeden who countered and brought the race – including Lance – back up to the Kazakh.
The season stands in stark contrast to the days when Deutsche Telekom first entered professional cycling, taking over the title sponsorship of the Stuttgart team in 1991. Perhaps, though, the most significant year was 1993, when Olaf Ludwig – one of the many German legionnaires the team coaxed back to ride for the German super squad – placed second in four Tour stages, but did not manage a single win. After that result, Ludwig came to the realization he no longer could compete at the highest levels, and instead turned his efforts to bringing along the newest talent the team had signed – a young rider from Unna named Erik Zabel. Ludwig’s tutelage paid almost immediate dividends with Zabel winning two stages (including one on his birthday) in his first Tour.
Bjarne Riis’ arrival in the squad in 1996 in many ways ushered in the halcyon days. A bona fide overall Tour rider, he led the team to victory in cycling’s most important race, and perhaps more importantly for the squad, his young (German) lieutenant Jan Ullrich seemed capable of winning for himself an at-the-time inconceivable seven Tours.
And while Telekom did emerge as something of a powerhouse – particularly at the Tour and Milan-San Remo – Ullrich’s entrance also seemingly brought about the salad days’ demise. From the beginning, the young prodigy wreaked havoc on the internal dynamics of the team. Initially it was owing to squabbles between the team management and Ullrich’s junior coach (who accompanied to rider to Bonn, but had no official capacity within the team). As a result of the intense interest Ullrich generated in German cycling, a number of other German teams emerged, unfortunately, all too often with the borrowed business plan of Le Groupement. Coast was one of these, and when they lured Ullrich away from T-Mobile, Rudy Pevenage bid an acrimonious adieu to his longtime associate Wlater Goodefroot (directeur sportif at Telekom) to accompany Ullrich. (An uneasy détente between the two was effected in order to complete Ullrich’s return to the squad.)
Always conscious of the German rival teams – especially the more durable and successful Gerolsteiner – the management at Telekom found themselves pressured into making personnel decisions against their better judgment. The signing of Robert Bartko after the 2000 Syndey Olympics was one example. Despite Telekom’s view that he was a season or two away from a pro career on the road, they snapped up the track star after Ullrich’s defection to Coast. Perhaps this also led to Telekom’s summary dismissal of many of its more loyal riders after they got a bit long in the tooth. And in a bizarre and ugly incident during the Giro d’Italia this year, T-Mobile criticized eventual winner Paolo Savoldelli for ingratitude after he left following an unhappy two years with the German team.
Unsurprisingly, both Vinokourov – the most successful rider this year – and Erik Zabel – the most successful rider in the team’s history – are leaving after this season. Zabel rejected the offer to follow in Ludwig’s footsteps and ride one more year before taking a management job. Instead he and Alessandro Pettachi will head up an Italo-German team pimping milk from Bremen’s creameries.
Also leaving, however, is Walter Goodefroot. His retirement had been planned for some time, but certainly could come at no better point. Ok, well, maybe he would have preferred to have hung it up last year before the messiness of this disastrous season. Fortunately, T-Mobile has also seen fit to already try and script a storybook ending to this tale. Goodeforoot’s replacement as top dog in change of the cycling team will be Olaf Ludwig, the same man who once turned the squad around. Certainly the squad’s sponsors and its legion fans are hoping he’ll have the same touch needed to develop young talents like Matthais Kessler and Stephan Schreck – and give T-Mobile its second re-birth.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
America's Greatest Cyclist
I had desperately wanted to believe that Mar-Jac's comment was only some type of twisted joke. But unfortunately, you can see the site in all its splendor here. I was working on something about the wheels falling off of T-Mobile with the German Tour underway, but this can't pass unnoticed...
The bio section is particularly enlightening. Did you know, for example, that over the summer George "claim[ed] a record-shattering seventh consecutive Tour victory"? Or that "Lance and George are the only riders in the history of the sport to win the Tour de France seven times"?
(Listed, too, in his palmares is the 1998 US Cycling championship, despite the fact that he was penalized for an illegal draft in the race caravan and stripped of the victory.)
All this would seem to belie Hincapie's self-indulgent claim that the road to the top didn't happen overnight. Apparently it just took a few hours one afternoon with an HTML editor.
I'll save a longer tribute for George Hincapie Day.
The bio section is particularly enlightening. Did you know, for example, that over the summer George "claim[ed] a record-shattering seventh consecutive Tour victory"? Or that "Lance and George are the only riders in the history of the sport to win the Tour de France seven times"?
(Listed, too, in his palmares is the 1998 US Cycling championship, despite the fact that he was penalized for an illegal draft in the race caravan and stripped of the victory.)
All this would seem to belie Hincapie's self-indulgent claim that the road to the top didn't happen overnight. Apparently it just took a few hours one afternoon with an HTML editor.
I'll save a longer tribute for George Hincapie Day.
Friday, August 19, 2005
There's a Special Place in Hell...
... reserved for those who get what they ask for. On Mar-Jac's suggestion, this is where I'll be posting my rabid rants on developments in the pro cycling peloton. And maybe even a few comments on my own masochistic attempt to recover something of some competitive form on the bike.
In any event, hope you enjoy it.
In any event, hope you enjoy it.
