Wow! I can't believe I let this blog slide for so long. I'm happy to report that my weight loss goal for 2011 was achieved and I was able to maintain it. Now I'm just ramping up the time on the bike for another summer of weekend riding on the rural roads north of Toronto.
The later part of 2011 also brought more former L.A. teammates coming forward with some pretty damning testimony regarding doping within the U.S. Postal Team. The Feds started their investigation back in 2010, when Floyd Landis finally gave up on defending his innocence and came out with some pretty "wild" allegations of systematic doping within the ranks of the U.S. Postal team, including their team leader, Lance Armstrong. I put the word wild within quotation marks, because the allegations might seem wild to the public at large, but quite believable within the little world of elite cycling. However, it seems that the same Code of Silence enforced in the mafia also applies to the world of cycling, so if an elite cyclist was caught doping then he or she should follow the same standard procedure: 1. Deny the whole thing and ask to have a B sample tested, while at the same time proclaiming to have never touched PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) 2. If the B sample comes back positive, continue to deny the whole thing and throw some theories of your own as to why you tested positive again, such as cross contamination, test tampering, etc., etc. 3. When all else fails, take your suspension (two years if it's your first offense) and come back to the sport, but don't even contemplate for a second to expose the corruption going on behind the scenes, which prompted you to take PEDs in the first place.
Well, the Code of Silence works great until some of those cyclists are subpoenaed by none other than the U.S. Federal government and now facing possible jail time if they commit perjury during their testimony, even the closest of allies have decided to come clean: Tyler Hamilton, Frankie Andreu, George Hincapie and many more according to some sources. My guess is the Feds are building a bomb proof case against L.A. and they'll only call him to testify when they have all the evidence they need.
Am I bothered by the fact that Lance doped during his 7-year reign? Not really, the fact that almost all of the guys that he shared the podium with during those years eventually tested positive or were involved in intricate doping rings only confirms that they were all competing on a level playing field. However, what bothers me is the fact that he wants to keep the myth of the clean rider in a sea of dopers alive. It's perfectly understandable though, there's too much at stake for Lance: endorsements, radio show, Livestrong and scores of fans who still believe. Unfortunately, for Lance, Judgement Day is coming in the most literal sense and only history will tell how he will be remembered.
While the use of PEDs in the 90s was rampant, natural talent and ability still played a crucial role in elevating a cyclist to the top of the sport. This clip is from the 1999 Spanish Grand Tour (Vuelta a España) and even though the audio is in Spanish, you really don't need to understand anything to see the carnage that is unraveling, as the peloton goes up the mountain and Belgian cyclist Fran Vandenbroucke is going soooo fast that only a few riders are able to hang on to his wheel.
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