Centrally organized and officially sanctioned doping has been integral to professional cycling for too long. Good legs alone are apparently not enough to climb roads that rise almost vertically towards the barren peaks of the high Alps or Pyrenees. Or at least not enough to be the first getting up there. And while the first sentence was an exaggeration, doping has not been fought seriously by those that make the rules. Basso found a new team, ditto Hamilton. The officials indulge in harsh words and no actions.
Ullrich, Basso, Landis, Armstrong – who thinks these guys were clean? Who thinks asthma is a good indicator for a future cycling champion? I don't, and yet many cyclists carry prescriptions for asthma, legally take drugs that increase breathing efficiency and do I don't know what else. Steroids are often part of the mix.
While the aforementioned cyclists, all champions one way or another, keep a wall of silence between what they might know and what the public would like to know, this wall, seemingly impenetrable so far, is beginning to crumble. Today, Christian Henn, a former Team Telekom cyclist and German national champion in 1996, admitted to systematic doping during his professional career. Less than a day earlier, Bert Dietz who used to race for the same team, admitted to the same misdeeds.
I'm reading these news with hope and the expectation that more athletes come clean – literally. Once this happens and the officials own up to the dark past, the future will be brighter. I might be naïf, but I believe in legs and will to conquer mountains, and I want to enjoy professional cycling again after the time-out I'm taking this season.
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