Sick of Doping

While I'm talking about things that make me sick I should quickly note that I have had it with the recent flurry of doping related stories. I don't know about you, but in my opinion the sport is killing itself. I mean, what other sport does so much to broadcast its dirty laundry to the world?! Recently, nothing pisses me off more than reading about yet another race organizer who is taking a stand on what rider or team can or can't participate in their race. And the notion that a rider is guilty unless they can prove their innocence, regardless of how weak the evidence against them, is plain crazy. Personally I don't know if Basso doped or not but given that he has been cleared by his federation on what grounds can he or Discovery be excluded from racing? How the race organizers get off thinking they can judge a rider's guilt or innocence is beyond me. And then you have jokers like Patrick Lefévère who in my eyes is a perfect example of the ultimate cycling hypocrite. On top of all that, you also have guys like Bart and Sager (among others) getting totally screwed by USADA. It's completely insane and out of control.

The LA Times recently ran a story on doping in sports. Here is Part I and Part II for your reading pleasure. If you don't have time to read the entire article you can find highlights here.

Oh, and one more thing, if you've ever wondered what it would be like to take performance enhancing drugs, read this.