Still not obvious to me
Thursday, October 11th, 2007We have been going around on this for a few years now.
Have we decided which religion is best yet?
Archive for October 11th, 2007
Post Conviction Strategy
Thursday, October 11th, 2007Roberto Heras is getting ready to get back into the game after serving his two year suspension for testing positive for EPO during the 2005 Tour of Spain. He maintains his innocence of the conviction. He’ll be signing for some 2nd tier continental team and never be heard from again.
Floyd Landis, currently serving a two year ban for testing positive during the 2006 Tour de France, has appealed his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He maintains his innocence of the conviction and is currently radioactive.
Tyler Hamilton, back from his two year ban for blood doping in the 2004 Tour of Spain, has been caught in limbo with his current team Tinkoff after questions continued regarding Hamilton’s possible involvement in Operation Puerto. Hamilton maintains his innocence of the conviction and has been applying unsuccessfully for work as local dog catcher for Marblehead Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, David Millar, having confessed to using EPO in 2001 and 2003 and serving a two year ban, came back to racing full time in 2006. He has won a stage of the Tour of Spain and the 2007 British Pursuit Championship. He is a vocal anti-doping advocate, has raced for a Pro Tour team for the last two seasons in major events like the Tour de France and will race for Team Slipstream in 2008.
At some point these doping convictions become more about public relations than finding the truth. Understand that I come from the point of view that these doping tests are sound and a rider who gets popped is pretty much totally guilty.
Do you think these guys should just cop a plea, serve their time and get back into the sport as an anti-doping advocate instead of trying to fight tooth and nail in the attempt to “prove” their innocence? At what stage do you reach the point of diminishing returns where you do yourself more harm than good by continuing to fight a proven doping conviction?
Floyd Landis is going to go down in history as a turd. He could have gone down in history as the savior of the sport.
Which path would you have chosen?
