Telekom
May 25th, 2007 |Bert Dietz, Christian Henn, Udo Bölts, Rolf Aldag, Erik Zabel, all members of the German Telekom cycling team during the 1990’s, have confessed this week to doping during their time with the team.
I can’t recall where I read it, but someone made the point earlier that it may be a “cool fad” to admit guilt for doping.
Maybe it’s just a passing thing, or maybe it’s the start of a real revolution in professional cycling.
CSC team director, 1996 Tour de France winner, and former Telekom team member, Bjarne Riis had called a press conference for today to comment on the situation. Is Riis going to join the fad?
I have said previously that this situation will never change unless the “top-down” pressure for race results is replaced with pressure to race clean. It’s the teams that are responsible for doping as well as the elimination of doping. It’s the teams that should be punished for doping offenses and it’s the teams that should be assuring that they are creating the conditions that do not cause riders to resort to drugs.
Riis, a rider who is rumored to have used EPO to the extent that it generated a 60% red blood cell level (thus the nickname “Mr. 60%”), has an opportunity to push this potential revolution forward. Doing so could certainly put him at great risk professionally. His Tour de France win would be tainted, his directorship at CSC would be in jeopardy. However, the riders listed above were in no less jeopardy when they made their confessions. Bölts has lost his job with the Gerolsteiner team and Zabel’s status as a rider with the Milram team is in question.
Will Riis make a bold statement that past actions are no longer acceptable in the world of professional cycling? Or will he defend the “old way” and try and protect himself? Today will show if Riis wants to be an agent of, or an obstacle to change.
