What is wrong with cycling today ?

Well, that is a good question. I’ve been following cycling and especially Le Tour de France for the past 15 years and now i don’t feel like watching anymore. It has come to a point where it isn’t as interesting anymore, from a athletic point of view.

Since it seems that, whatever is done with the sport, nothing really happens to make it more athletic or doping free, it seems more like everyone is covering their backs, blaming everyone else.

In this years race their has been much effort by the ASO to eliminate doping, which is good, but still there has been 3 cases (Patrick Sinkewitz – T-mobile, Alexandre Vinokourov – Astana and Cristian Moreni – Cofidis) of doping in the race and now the overall leader (Michael Rasmussen – Rabobank) leaves the race.

A Radical idea
It seems to me that the only solution is to cancel the whole race and just leave the whole thing, since the media and everyone enjoying the race questions it’s credibility. I think that a large part of the problem is the teams in the UCI ProTour that have a transparent outlook on doping and illegal substances. A radical idea is to ban all participants and leaders, doctors etc. that have been within the system before 2001.

Why this radical idea ?
How are we, as fans of cycling, going to enjoy the athletic aspect of cycling and also the toughest race, Le Tour de France, if all it contains is cheaters and corrupted team leaders ? That is a question you might want to ask yourself and hopefully you will find a good answer for it.

Another radical idea
Another interesting idea is to remove all the price money and only race for the glory of winning overall. This would ultimately be, sort of, like winning a Olympic Gold medal, since you don’t get 350.000 EUR for winning the overall title, like it is today.

Who would in their right mind use doping to win a race where the only thing you win is your name in the history books ? It’s a interesting thought, but on the other hand you might have stupid people who just do that as well.

The right mindset for cycling ?
I honestly believe that most of the ProTour riders are really stupid, but very athletic, people. Who basically would do anything to get ahead and win a dishonest victory. I think that many of the younger riders might have the right mindset when it comes to doping, but you never know with cycling, since we all get disappointed again and again.

My view on professional cycling is forever changed and it will most likely take a lot of time for me to trust professional cycling and enjoy watching it on TV. I just hope that radical actions within the sport are taken to clean house in all the ranks.

As of this i will not continue to write about the Tour de France of 2007, maybe in 2008, but that is only if it becomes a more clean race.

For me, cycling is a big part of my life and i really enjoy taking my bike for a spin and i will continue to ride my bike and compete in amateur events in Sweden, since it’s all about competing and exercise, not winning at any cost !