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A trend continues

OLIVER MOORE

Globe and Mail Update

Latest comment posted at 6:14 PM EST 25/07/07

There's a long history of doping problems at the Tour de France ...Read the full article

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  1. Kim Feraday from Vancouver, Canada writes: Yes and what about those home run records by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa that were fueled by steroids. And is there a football player in the NFL that doesn't have HGH or steroids for breakfast every morning? Not to mention basketball. And now golf. Get real. MOST professional athletes at the top levels of their sports dope. Many, like Michael Vik break the law and the most basic ethical standards and still their teams and the league stand by them. What a joke! As I mentioned on another post yesterday at least cycling is serious about solving the problem. You can't say that for any other professional sport. How about including that fact in your column.
  2. Hudson Wong from Deep Cove, Canada writes: We live in a society that rewards big muscles with big money. The wages paid to professional entertainers rise in proportion to the need of the audience to be entertained by more and more freakish performances. The wages are as obscene as the appetite for novelty is insatiable; therefore, cheating will always be evident.

    Instead of paying genetic freaks to perform superhuman tricks, the audience should get off their couch, actively participate in sports and live off the fat of their asses.
  3. Red Ensign is our glory! Real Canadian pride! from Canada writes: i honestly don't really have a problem with people using drugs per se. what sets mankind apart from all the other animals, is the extent to which we modify our external environment. in simple, we may the external environment conform to our will. it is only a natural and logical extension of that tendency to also modify our internal environment as well. if your unhappy, we can fix that, if you don't produce insulin, we can fix that too. if you want to maximize the ultimate potential of the human body, you will need drugs to do that as well. thats great, no problem. the problem arises when you consider the toxic action of drugs, and the fairness in pitting an enhanced performer against a natural one. the easy solution would be to insist that everyone take the same drugs. the problem with that, is that some people rightfully object to potentially harming their bodies. for every drug, there is a line where its toxic effects equal and outweigh its benifits. thing is, each person's body will have a different dose where this occurs. so then, instead of being about performance, it becomes about tolerance first, and then performance. such system would encourage dosing competition and pushing the threshold of safe use beyond. so when you consider all the genetic factors involved that influence the effectiveness of drugs, you may as well just do it naturally anyways based on genetics and training.
  4. Michiel Horn from Canada writes: As the translator of a fine book about myth and reality in bicycle racing (Benjo Maso, The Sweat of the Gods,Norwich, Mousehold Press, 2005) I know that doping is almost as old as competitive cycling. For well over a century great riders have used it to try to get an edge. It's no substitute for native ability and conditioning, but it has on occasion been the difference between winning and finishing down the track. The forms doping takes has changed over the decades, but the reality is unchanged. Francis and Henri Pélissier openly used various substances, including cocaine; the great Fausto Coppi admitted to using amphetamines regularly; Jacques Anquetil was even more open about using drugs. Only the naive get worked up about grown men doing what it takes to win under incredibly difficult conditions. As a consequence of Rabobank's mealymouthed concern about its image, Rasmussen has been denied an almost certain victory. We can only hope that the survivors give us as good a show as he did these past few days.
  5. Mark Gardiner from Toronto, Canada writes: Tyler Hamilton is another big name from the cycling world who belongs on the list.
  6. Hans J. Porten from Brampton, Canada writes: Wait until the list is completed and the players of NHL, NBA, NFL, European soccer, etc. are published. Do not want to hear that uprorar. Fortuantely there is more money and political pressure on the line. When that imaginary border line is knocked off and all the players get suspended, we will not have anymore a complete team. So, please be carefully what you are writing about cycling otherwise we get what everyone whishes for. Do not forget that cycling is just a beautiful sport and do not destroy it by bad comments. Show a lot of incompetence.

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