Ask a pretend bike racer
November 15th, 2007 |A faithful reader (unlike what you may find at Bikethrough) writes in:
What’s your take on the revamped Tour de France and blood profiling? Cleanest Tour ever, or same old shit?
I think we are getting closer to the cleanest Tour ever.
Testing is getting more sophisticated, more cheaters are getting caught. The result is that it looks as though the sport is at its worst. I believe the reality is that, with improved testing, those that were using the most sophisticated doping techniques are now being busted. The message from the last two Tours should be: It ain’t worth it, you are going to get caught, don’t even try. I think the pro peloton is getting cleaner.
I’m not saying that doping will ever completely go away. I totally understand the motivation to dope and until recently the team structure, from the top down, has made it very easy for riders to make the decision to dope. But it has to give pause to the new professionals that the system seems to be working better now than ever and if you take the risk the chances are higher now that it will not pay off.
As they say, it’s always darkest before the dawn.
Cleanest Tour ever? Maybe. If not, perhaps very close to it. Time will tell.
