Tuesday, May 22, 2007

So I don't know if anyone who isn't a cycling geek is following the Floyd Landis hearing about him doping during last year's Tour de France. What a bunch of amateur mobsters. On all sides. Personally I think they're all guilty. Nobody gives me any reason to think otherwise. As soon as there is a new test, there will be people finding new ways to get around it. I want to think that cycling is getting unfair attention about doping, and I do think that sports like baseball, football, soccer, and hockey dope more, but cycling at that level is dirty. Not everyone, but the guys at the top. Hell, half the mid ninety's Telekom team is admitting it, including Bjarne Riis, the winner of the 1996 Tour de France. He told them they can come get the jersey. Now he owns and manages a team: CSC. They've been dirty for a long time. Merckx got caught a few times. Patrick Lefevere, who now manages a team, admitted taking speed in his day. I haven't heard it yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if Indurain, one of the classiest cyclists ever had doped. He won the Tour five times in a row. (Riis beat him in 1996). With the 1996 tour if they decide to take the title away from Riis, second place was Ulrich (implicated in Operacion Puerto, and persona-non-grata in the cycling world currently), third place was Richard Veinrique (implicated in the Festina Affair) They'd have to go pretty far down the standings to award it to someone who might not have doped.

Even so, USADA and WADA (the United States and World Anti Doping Associations) are also a bunch of ass holes. If this were a criminal prosecution, all of their evidence would be thrown out of court. The lab didn't follow protocol, and even the manufacturer of their machines said they didn't know what they were doing. For professional athletes, cyclists are by far under the most scrutiny. They need to be available not only after and before the races for blood and urine tests, but also ANYTIME the WADA wants. If they miss a test then they get suspended as if they were positive. Let's see a baseball or football player put up with that. Sorry Barry, I know it's late and you just finished playing a double header, but you hit two home runs, and we need some pee and blood. (BTW, Bonds is guilty) Dick Pound and the rest of those jackasses need to be strung up for all the leaks of information, and the attempt to try this in the court of public opinion before the data is all in.

It hurts that my favorite sport is being ruined by money. They have to start an unlimited class, or start a season of amnesty, and then get really strict on people who dope, or we're just going to have to accept that some people will cheat, and do the best to catch them. At least riding a bike is still fun.

On to politics, so Monica Goodling testified to congress this week. Somehow they gave her immunity. What did she do? She played the "I'm just a girl" card. Oh come on. You were hired into a position you weren't qualified for, because you went to Liberty University (started by Jerry Fallwell, consistently rated one of the worst Law Schools, but has a strangely high percentage of graduates in the current administration) and would be willing to ask inappropriate questions in interviews. Things like: "are you a Democrat or a Republican?" Even if it was under the direction of Bush/Cheney/Rove/Gonzales, you still deserve to go down. Why won't this ship sink? Lie after lie after lie. How even die hard Republicans can support anything that comes out of their mouths is beyond me. Easily the worst administration since Nixon. In a few years we might see them as worse. Goat Fuckers! It's too bad that Carter started crawfishing on that statement.

Must stop ranting...

J

1 comment:

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