It’s not fair. I followed the rules. So why am I the one who feels cheated?

PARIS—It’s not fair. I followed the rules. So why am I the one who feels cheated?

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme, at the outset of this year’s race, was doing and saying all the right things to convince the casual sports fan that this was the year that the Tour would break free of the doping scandals that have diminished its reputation over the past ten years.

And then, the Italian star-in-the-making Riccardo Ricco, winner of two stages, holder of the Tour’s polka dot jersey (top-ranked climber) and white jersey (top-ranked rider under 25), a popular rider with a decent chance of finding himself on the podium next weekend in Paris, flunked a drug test. He was later charged by the French gendarmerie with possession of a controlled substance.

And so here we go again. Guess we know why Ricco was so fast in the Pyrenees.

I allowed myself to get sucked into this year’s Tour for the first two weeks. What a fool! I should have seen the signs, especially after the last two years’ events, both hugely tainted by doping scandals.

The mere existence of doping in sports continues to baffle me. I guess the fact that it continues means that somebody must be getting away with it, and boasting to a select group about the fact.

But it’s so stupid: Imagine you’re Riccardo Ricco, a cocky 24-year-old known as “The Cobra.” You’re a hot rising star in the cycling world. You show up at the Tour de France, and after the fourth stage time trial, you pee in a cup. That pee contained the banned synthetic substance EPO—reportedly, the sample also included a new drug called Cera (marketed by Roche under the name Micera) that treats kidney patients suffering from anemia. These drugs essentially cause the body to over-produce red blood cells. More oxygen-carrying cells in the blood equals a higher endurance athlete.

But here’s what kills me: Cyclists are the most-tested athletes in all of sport. They are subject to all manner of random, unannounced off-season tests, something the major North American leagues are far from enacting—try getting the NHLPA to agree to let a guy with a vial drop by Sidney Crosby’s apartment in mid-July for a little chat-and-squirt. And during the Tour, the top three cyclists in each stage are automatically tested, along with a smattering of random tests.

So you show up with drugs in your system, or drugs in your bus to inject into your system during the race. If you’re Ricco, and hoping to escape the lab’s studious eye, why do you go out and win two stages (and furthermore, boast to the press that “I’m bit angry that people have doubts about me but I know I’ve nothing to worry about. I’m just happy to have won another stage and people can test me as much as they want”)? You’re just giving yourself more chances to get caught! (Then again, if you want to avoid getting caught by not trying to win, why cheat in the first place?)

Earlier this year, Scientific American produced a fascinating report called “The Doping Dilemma” examining the so-called game theory behind cheating in a few sports with recent drug problem—baseball, cycling, and track. Its conclusion is: with the current setup of the professional cycling world, there’s a clear economic incentive to dope. Great.

Economic arguments aside, one question remains: doesn’t the possibility of being exposed as a cheater, of bringing disgrace to yourself and your family and marking yourself as a doper for the rest of your career, have ANY deterrent value?

Apparently not.

So until the cycling world gets their shit sorted out, I won’t watch more than the occasional mountain stage (Sunday, Monday and Wednesday in the Alps will be wildly entertaining, trust me); maybe check the ride home down the Champs Elysées, and cheer on the winner. But it’ll be a while before I get sucked in by a promising young cycling star like Ricco again.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice … uh …

Tags: doping, france, international, Tour de France

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Posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 7:52 pm. Follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comment or trackback.