i read about LA motorpacing Tejay and i realised that, although nothing should surprise me anymore when it comes to this kind of thing, these guys were born not only with very good ‘rider DNA’ but also with the capacity to be as thick as two short planks at times, and that this means that there will always be surprises.
opening up CyclingSnooze is like Xmas every day. presents abound. if it ain’t some Kazakh being dumb enough to get busted by a system that is three steps behind the dopers – they call these guys ‘dopey dopers’, cute huh – it’s something like this.
like the Schlecks being coached by Andersen for years. like guys still going to doping doctors to learn from their ‘vast experience.’ or like current pros going on Shamcapie Gran Fraudos.
now before 68 and 1/2 irate ‘Pologists start pounding their keypads with their knuckles let me state that i’m sure TvG is a smart lad, i’m sure he can manage the dials on his shoes and zip up his jersey all by himself and that he can string a thought or two together, but – and this deserves italics –
seriously?
this is a guy that rides for a team that has a media dude that mailed me last time I wrote about Tejay to request that i change the ‘v’ on ‘van’ from a large one to a small one.
that is some serious micro-management.
and yet… they let this go?
nobody paused to think about it?
bells did not ring?
what this is, quite clearly, is yet more evidence (as if we needed it) that shows that these guys inhabit a different world from the rest of us. whereas anyone remotely located in the real world would look at this scenario and say, ‘you know what, this might be a bad idea’ – these guys just don’t see it. it’s business as usual for these top guys, to be associated with former dopers, to be managed by former dopers, to be overseen by a federation head who is questionable to say the least, to be interviewed by doping apologists and to be lauded as heroes by guys who see nothing wrong with a current pro hanging with the Track Mark Pack.
why should we, really, expect anything else? Tejay is riding for a team run by a guy who should not be in the sport, Jim Ochowicz.
want to know why? read this by Inga Thompson and check the chart.
or this from VeloNews about Floyd Landis claiming that Ochowicz knew about doping at U.S. Postal.
Tejay rode Hinshabbie’s Fraudo just recently too.
can you see a thread emerging here? these riders may well be clean, i hope to the outer reaches of the universe that they are but they are living in castles in the clouds. they are not equipped with the mental faculties (and not because they aren’t intelligent, they clearly are, but they are also products of their environment) to see that for the normal bike dude in the street what they are doing and who they are associating with is disturbing.
i keep coming back to the same thought, and that is this:
the thing these guys do is not what we do.
that is not our sport.
i don’t even know what it is.
some are going to say ‘well, LA and those guys are human too’ and they are correct. but let them do their rehab away from this fragile and busted sport.
let TvG call LA anytime, i still think it’s not right but if we don’t know then – well, we don’t know. but this kind of brazen act, just like riding with George, it suggests that the thought process is untethered from common sense.
and if it’s not that, if it is rationalised and considered, then it is a hefty f**k you to the people who love this sport and want it cleaned up.
the last thing i can think of is that this rider may be placed in an uncomfortable position by being on a team run by a man associated with LA for so long and feels that he can’t say no. i don’t know. it’s possible.
i wonder how Brian Cookson feels about all this? a new poster boy hanging with an old one, one whose sheen is very much gone.
yeah i just don’t get it. please, if you can make sense of this feel free to impart your wisdom upon me.
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