As "bittertrackguy" pointed out, yesterday's Tour coverage did indeed spend significant time addressing the Vinikourov issue in the pre-race show. I was not aware of it because said show was not part of the reruns later in the day. As for the protest at the beginning of the race, in retrospect I'm not terribly surprised Ligget and Sherwin were less than informed, as the Associated Press failed to mention the details. I had to link to the Irish Times to get the full story.
Today's reruns did include a portion of the pre-race show and of course they addressed the doping issue at length. I was a bit harsh on Ligget and Sherwin yesterday; today Ligget showed me just how wrong I was. When Al Trautwig and Bob Rolle agreed that this is the lowest point yet for professional cycling, Ligget thought that years from now it would be considered cycling's finest hour. This is the classiest comment I have ever heard on the subject of doping, and an Englishman would not use such a phrase lightly; it indicates a understanding both of the depth of the problem and that giving up the fight is simply not an option.
Oh, and Jolanda Ceplak got the boot today for EPO. Recall that after the 2002 European Championships, Kelly Holmes accused Ceplak of doping. At the time, Jonathan Edwards was very critical and said "It always seems to be the prerogative of the middle and distance runners to get their knickers in a twist about drugs...Kelly has been ill-advised and she may live to regret what she said". I wonder if he's up for an apology. Discuss.
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1 comment:
This is what I posted on my blog today;
what I find most annoying is listening to the announcers talk about the shame Vinokourov brought to himself and his team in one sentence and then in the very next sentence they say something like, “It's too bad because he's one of the all-time greats.” It's like they think this is an isolated incident when in reality, I highly doubt it was his first time trying something like that. These guys don’t just wake up one day when there 28-years-old and say, “Boy, this tour is making me tired. I think I’ll blood-dope today.”
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