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What's left but to cancel the show?

ALLAN MAKI

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 5:44 PM EST 26/07/07

Tour de France organizers need to make a statement ...Read the full article

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  1. Scotty Dont from United States writes: Ridiculous. That would be like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. "The show must go on."
  2. J Dear from Canada writes: Please keep in mind that the latest episode that involves Rasmussen which encouraged this story had nothing to do with testing positive for anything. The man apparently lied about his whereabouts a month or more before the tour started. Rabobank could have taken another rider and thrown him off the team then! Lets not paint all of the riders with the same brush until facts unfold.
  3. Roger Fabi from Canada writes: This is a bit of an extreme view. We all know there is doping in cycling, and it sucks, and it is difficult to stop, but if we take the hammer approach suggested here we'd have to start with canceling all pro sports. Believe it or not cyclist aren't the only ones taking performance enhancing drugs, they just happen to take part in a sport with fairly rigorous testing so they are more likely to get busted. Rasmussen hasn't actually been proven guilty of anything more than arrogance and lying -- probabaly shouldn't send anyone to the gallows just yet.
  4. scott ballard from Portland, writes: I could not disagree more. What you should be writing is applause for the people who administer this sport for having the guts to actually do something about cheats in their sport. You should be condemning baseball and your own paper for even reporting on baseball. Bonds is a joke and the fact he is allowed to brake a sacred record is disgraceful to baseball and more importantly Hank Aaron. The tour and the remaining pro tour events will be the better for this in the long run. The fact individuals are willing to stick their neck out for the better of the sport, persevere, instead of throwing up their hands and giving up, provides hope and admiration for this sport. I used to like baseball and basketball but the fact the league allows these punks to behave the way the do, which in my opinion they are disrespectful to their, the fans who support them and so on means I cannot be fan if they treat everyone around them like fools.
  5. Alexander Churchill from Toronto, Canada writes: Is it willful ignorance or simply laziness on Maki's part to take a dump on a sport so willing to go after performance enhancers that it will throw the current leader out of it's most high profile event on the mere appearance of impropriety?

    Maki, Brunt, the PTI guys and the rest of the jock sniffers need to open their eyes - want to know why cycling appears so dirty? Because it (and to a lesser extent, track & field) is the only sport even making an attempt to be clean. One question Maki - when was the last time Gary Roberts or Steve Montador or Ray Emery were randomly tested? Has Ben Wallace ever been required to give his whereabouts in the off-season? Do you think the NFL has samples of Jumbo Eliot's urine on file so they can test it some time in the future for something that was undetectable during his playing career? Do you think Ichiro has is guessing what new technology the MLB masterminds have come up with to test his samples when he gives it to them in spring training? No? Well, if they were in the pro peleton, they answer to all of the above would be an emphatic yes - without even getting into what their teams would do to enforce internal regulations - like those of Rabobank that caught Rasmussen up.

    The moral outrage of Maki and his ilk in the face an issue they don't understand and are too lazy or stupid to bother to research make me want to puke - Vive le tour!
  6. WOHOO figure it out! from Kingston, Canada writes: scott ballard I couldnt have said it better myself!!!
  7. D M from Canada writes: Well big Al, we'd better drop Baseball, Football, Soccer, Track and Field and a host of other sports as well. Cycling is suffering because there is an attempt to address the issue. Barry Bonds about to break the big record...come on. Can the season and test everyone of them I say.

    As somebody else said, maybe you should do your research Al. Are you aware that a large percentage of athletes involved in the Operacion Peurto drug scandal in Spain are soccer players? That's right, a bunch of soccer players rocketing around the field jacked on EPO, roids, and extra blood. You and your kind love to dump on cycling because you know nothing about it. Better keep to sticks and balls champ.
  8. Bryce Richards from Calgary, Canada writes: Stop the race for however long it takes and Drug Test absolutely every racer. Hand out life time bans to every racer found guilty of drug malfesance and blood doping. Then continue the race with only those racers found to be absolutely clean. Take away all corporate sponsorship from all individuals and countries that continue to perpetrate this continued illicit drug trade. Make it known there will be zero toleration for drug induced racing. The Penalty will be loss of all future privilege in all amateur and professional event road racing events for the life time of the participant. Strip all previous trophes, from the history of the racer found guilty of racing while drug induced.

    Or maybe when it gets this bad, just stop the race cold turkey. Tell all the participants to go home. Have a great day. Don't come back next year without a clean slate on the Drug Test. No second chances. No maybe what ifs.
  9. Kim Feraday from Vancouver, Canada writes: I have to agree with most of the comments here. Maki if you're so keen to stop the tour because of doping, lack of ethics and poor management then I expect that your next column will call for putting a halt to the NFL, MLB, NBA and probably NHL seasons. No? Why not? Drugs, criminal behaviour and cheating are a daily part of these leagues. The problem in football is so bad that the steriod epidemic has reached the high school level in the United States. That's right you have 13 and 14 year old athletes who want to be like their heroes so juice up on the steroids. Not to mention the lack of even the most basic morals shown by Michael Vik in his torturing dogs and running drug infested dog fights. Yet the NFL won't act against him. Talk about a JOKE! It makes you want to cry.

    As past president of the Football Writers of Canada you must have an interest cleaning up this morally bankrupt sport so I expect that your next column will come out in condemnation of football and the cancellation of the NFL and CFL seasons until football can sort itself out. I look forward to reading it. If not it will be clear to me and most of the readers here that you share the NFL's moral stance on crime, drugs and protecting young people.
  10. nigel martin from Canada writes: Great idea. Punish those who haven't taken drugs.
  11. Jeff Taylor from Canada writes: All you guys are fooling yourselves if you think every sport is just as dirty as cycling. Your level of denial in the face of overwhelming evidence is astonishing.

    A friend of mine who is involved in cycling wasn't surprise when Landis was busted last year. At that level it's a given that they're all doping, he said. It's just a matter of who gets caught.

    And J Dear, there's a reason why the Rasmussen story "had nothing to do with testing positive for anything." It's because he was doing everything and anything to avoid being tested. If you believe he's innocent you probably also believe in the tooth fairy.
  12. Mike Smith from Canada writes: Glad to see cooler heads prevailing in this forum than from the author of the article. I can't believe that Rasussen was kicked out because somebody said that they saw him in Italy. In what other sport would you be kicked out because someone claims to have seen you somewhere that you said you weren't? How many other sports test their participants for doping as frequently as cycling? I was shocked and appalled by Vinokourov, moreso because I was personally rooting for him. But, he got what he deserved and was kicked out. What's happening here doesn't stop my love for the sport of cycling, the Tour needs to go on. People's attitude towards drug free sports needs to be painted across all sports and not just cycling. It needs to start with parents teaching their kids that winning isn't everything. Man, I'd love to be in 173rd place in the Tour de France. Remove cycling from the Summer Olympics because of drug scandals? Please, if we want a true and just world with a level playing field, why are the Olympics being held in China where basic human rights aren't even guaranteed? The double standard is sickening.
  13. Peter Dedes from Kitchener, Canada writes: Cycling may be the dirtiest sport in the world, next to weightlifting, but it is the most tested. I'd like to see cycling's level of testing applied to all the other major sports before we talk about writing off this year's grand tour.
  14. davey davey from Ottawa, Canada writes: I think it will be the sponsors that cancel the TdF.

    Look at the photo of the racer, with the sponsor's name across his jersey (Confidis?), being led away by police.

    What do you think the CEO of the sponsor company thinks when seeing that photo? The order to stop sponsorship will come pretty fast.

    Why would the sponsors (usually companies that depend on their reputation, like cell phone companies and banks) risk continued involvement with something so obviously tainted? Or even the appearance that it is tainted?
  15. Chris B from Vancouver, Canada writes: Uhh, I don't think anyone here disputes that cycling has its share of cheaters and dopers, but to say that it is somehow dirtier than a sport where 350 pound men can run faster than I can?

    As an example of how the NFL is treated differently in the media, look at how in the SAME year Shawne Merriman was suspended for Steroids, made the Pro-Bowl and was third in the voting for Defensive Player of the year. Yet when a team kicks a member out (Rasmussen) on the charge of inviting suspicion, columnists call for the end of the Tou de France.

    You want "inviting suspicion" go check out that Size 11 noggin down in the Bay Area.
  16. Edwin Longueville from Cavan, Canada writes: Allan Maki has obviously never heard of the principle that one is innocent till proven guilty. I agree with Rasmussen being thrown out as well as all the others that are found to be using drugs or avoiding drug tests. But why he thinks it is fair to the cyclists that are innocent and have been doing their darned best for 16 days, to cancel everything is beyond me. Overreaction is the word that comes to mind, I give him the benefit of the doubt that he is not stupid.
  17. J Dear from Toronto, Canada writes: Taylor: Innocent until proven guilty is my point. Rasmussen has been tested 17 times during this race, as all leaders in yellow are, and all results have been negative. Is my point so obscure?
    If Rabobank were aware of his elusiveness before the event it should have been addressed at that time. Who knows what he was up to in June, innocent activities or otherwise. That's not the point. He' s been thrown out after being allowed to complete the majority of the tour. Strange timing. This is a bit like throwing Peyton Manning off the Colts when they're deep in the playoffs, after management has known about him lying of his whereabouts for six weeks.
  18. Kim Feraday from Vancouver, Canada writes: Jeff Taylor. You're the one who's kidding himself. Don't you read all of the stories about NFL and MLB players who get caught on steroids. Their punishment? Miss a couple of games. Then all is forgiven. If the NFL had the same testing program and rules as the NFL most teams wouldn't be able to put together a starting team. Not to mention how the teams and leagues do NOTHING when their players are caught in criminal activites (shootings, drug dealing, illegal gambling, dog fights). It makes professional cycling look innocent in comparison. Yet I don't see Mr. Maki or other "journalists" calling for an end to the NFL season. I wonder why. A national survey of steroid use in California high schools put the number at 20,000. No surprise with the likes Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery as role models and the organized doping ring courtesy of BALCO. Getting back to football, many NFL players have been caught (even with the weak testing) and others have come forward to tell about how extensive the use of steroids is in the NFL (Jim Haslett, Steve Courson and others). Really all you have to do is look at these guys for confirmation that steroid use is rampant. So as I said in a previous post let's see Mr. Maki call for the NFL and CFL to shut down operations until they can clean up their sport and put an end to the horrible example they are to young athletes.
  19. Mark Allaart from St.Catharines, Canada writes: Mr.Maki wants to punish the one sport that is regularly catching and punishing it's cheaters. Although the chronology of the whole Rasmussen affair makes you scratch your head, the result is correct. I'd submit that cycling fans are more willing to condemn and punish cheaters than fans of other major sports.
  20. Pieter Funnekotter from Canada writes: I think what Maki's getting at is that sooner or later they all seem to test positive for something. The leaders that is, anyway. In a sport so reliant on brute strength and stamina this is a serious problem - even more so than baseball and american/Canadian football. That said, I am very happy to see the CFL commencing testing soon. I think it will find a large number of cheats, but it won't find that everyone in the sport is doing something dodgy. In cycling, I fear that it is so endemic that it's beyond saving.

    I tend to agree - cancel the whole Tour de France - it's become a disgrace.
  21. andy c from Canada writes: one possible way to deter cheating in cycling would be to disqualify the whole team of any member of the team is caught dopeing during a race. the diffrence in testing between cycling and NA sports leagues can be sumed up in two words: player unions.
  22. John Luu from Toronto, Canada writes: Does Allan Maki still watch NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL? Or should those seasons be cancelled too? When those league get a real testing program like professional cycling, I would give Mr. Maki's words a bit more weight.
  23. Giovanni Di Ponzano from Italy writes: Mr Maki - You need a lesson in objectivity. You should write about the Cancellation of all Professional Sports, based on your logic as applied to the TdF. Kim Feraday's posts are dead on and instructive. Like other sports mentioned, Pro Cycling needs to get on top of cheating and doping. But it can do without witch-hunts. Nothing that I have read about Rasmussen can support his "dismissal" from the TdF. He has been labeled a cheat without a shred of evidence. He has been "allegedly" reported to have been seen in Italy during a time that he stated he was in Mexico. This issue should be easy to prove. I am surprised that so many morons in the press are willing to hang the Dane on a whim, without a determination of facts. Should Proof of substance abuse, doping, or that he was in fact in Italy and not in Mexico, then I would change my stance on Michael's innocence. Until Then I will consider him Winner of the 2007 TdF. There is not one instance of Rasmussen having ever been tested Positive. Relying on Suspicion only is anti-democratic. Jeez on that Logic perhaps the person who rode in over some the fasted total overall average times for TdF finishes should return some his Yellow Jerseys ;-)
  24. Gern Blanstin from Vancouver, writes: I think in Rasmussen's case, the problem is that he missed several tests. That in itself should be punishable, which I suppose it is given that he is now gone.
  25. John Luu from Toronto, Canada writes: Rasmussen missed 4 tests. 2 from the Danish Cycling Federation and 2 from the UCI(Pro cycling tour). The Danish team kicked him off because you can only miss 2. UCI has a 3 strikes your out policy. They are closing that loop hole this year.
  26. Jim Summers from Waterloo, Canada writes: There will always be cheating in sports. I don't know why we put athletes on a moral pedestal and call them role models. Think about what people will do in the real world for money; people have murdered for a lot less than the multi-million dollar contracts that Tour de France winners can expect. We know athletes will try to cheat; that's part of the reasons we have referees. We make a really big deal about doping; but if bikes weren't weighed, do you think riders would cheat on the weight limit? I don't think harsher penalties will work as a deterrent; the penalties are pretty strict right now. We just have to keep testing, and if the riders don't clue in soon, bicycling will go the way of Ice Dancing and Synchronized Swimming; if you can't trust the outcome, there isn't much point in watching the sport. Shutting the Tour down for a year won't make us trust the riders again the following year; we just have to trust that drug testing will catch all the dopers and stop assuming that every rider is a cheat.

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