{"id":3366,"date":"2013-12-13T18:17:51","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T18:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crankpunk.com\/?p=3366"},"modified":"2013-12-17T06:19:08","modified_gmt":"2013-12-17T06:19:08","slug":"good-riddance-to-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2013\/12\/13\/good-riddance-to-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"good riddance to 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

by cp. this article originally appeared in The Roar<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Reason to hope? Or back to being dopes?<\/p>\n

2013 may still be with us but like a wheezing great-uncle on his last legs, bedded down in the far-corner of the infirmary, its life, inevitably, is fading faster almost than Lance Armstrong\u2019s fan-base did.<\/p>\n

It was, however, a proper little rager in its youth, 2013, ringing in the full fury unleashed at the dog-end of 2012 by Travis Tygart\u2019s Reasoned Decision in which the head of USADA named 11 cyclists who gave evidence against their one-time team leader, the aforementioned LA.<\/p>\n

Amongst them were such good ol\u2019 American boys, such clean and chippy next-door types as Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie, George Hincapie and Tom Danielson.<\/p>\n

Americans dope<\/i>?<\/p>\n

Get the heck outta here!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Well yes, apparently they do, and loads of them, too. And the English. And the Aussies. And the Canadians. Funny that, because for so very long there was an ingrained belief \u2013 a snobbery, you could call it, a chauvinism, or even, dare it be said, a racism \u2013 that basically said that \u2018those foreigners\u2019 doped (the Italians, the Spanish and all \u2018that lot\u2019), but not the English-speaking brigade.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s one very large duck now firmly dead in the water.<\/p>\n

On top of that, 2013 saw \u2018admissions\u2019 of guilt by several others, such as Australia\u2019s very own Stuey O\u2019Grady, and also Michael Rasmussen of Denmark and 2012 Giro winner, Ryder Hesjedal of Canada.<\/p>\n

Danilo di Luca proved that baseball is very similar indeed to cycling in that a) loads of the old boys are juiced to their eyelids, b)it\u2019s way better to watch both sports when you\u2019re flat-out drunk and c) both sports very sportingly embrace the concept of three strikes and you\u2019re out.<\/p>\n

Thankfully in baseball that takes between 30 seconds and say 3 minutes, whereas in cycling it\u2019s a little more prolonged \u2013 we had to watch the Italian junkie Di Luca polluting the sport for several years before he proved even more stupid than he looks by actually getting caught three times.<\/p>\n

Oh! The indignation!!! It\u2019s not that these guys are so unhappy cos they fell into doping, it\u2019s the realization that to get caught you have to be pretty damn dumb, or to have had a massive lapse of concentration\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Doc! I thought you said take the micro-does 36 hours before and it\u2019d still be ok! Not 46!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

There were also no (ie ZERO) positives at the Tour this year. Hmm. If you believe that no one at the Tour was actually doped, then, well\u2026<\/p>\n

\"that's<\/a>
that’s right, a big fat zero<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But with unbanned drugs like Telemesartan doing the rounds they don\u2019t even have to \u2018cheat\u2019 now, cos even if it does do exactly the same thing as other very bad and very terrible banned drugs, if it\u2019s not on the list, it ain\u2019t cheating!<\/p>\n

Right?<\/p>\n

Right\u2026?<\/p>\n

Hello?<\/p>\n

UCI Hotline? Yeah there might be guys on this Telemesartan stuff.<\/p>\n

UCI: Right, hang on love, just let me check the list\u2026 Barbara. BARBARA! Where\u2019s the list? It\u2019s where? What\u2019s it doing in the cat litter? Right hang on petal, let me see\u2026 Ooof, Barbara, I’ve told you, stop feeding Tiddles sardines, bloody hell. Two sniffs o’ that and you’re greedy… Right, hang on, Telemesartan… Nope, not on the list, they can take it til, well, till they get weird illnesses. All perfectly legal.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Clickkkkkkkkkkk\u2026\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Then we had the PresidentGate, or whatever we should call Pat MacQuaid\u2019s ungraceful attempts to hang onto power in the UCI by any means necessary. Talk about going out in style. Old Pat managed somehow to drag the sport and its image through even more mud as he hawked himself out to Malaysia, Morocco and Switzerland in search of support for his re-election bid.<\/p>\n

Thankfully though, Brian Cookson prised power from Pat\u2019s grubby little mitts, and I do mean thankfully.<\/p>\n

Of course, it is far too early yet to sat whether Cookson will be the remedy that cycling needs, but the early signs are encouraging. He brought in Tracy Gaudy to handle the women\u2019s side of the sport (though as VP her remit is of course far wider than simply that), has spoken of his support of increasing bans for doping to 4 years, and is trying to heel the gouge that MacQuaid put in the relationship between the UCI and WADA.<\/p>\n

On the actual road, it was encouraging to see that several dodgy riders of a certain age were unable to secure\u00a0 contracts for 2014, forcing them into retirement.<\/p>\n

There does seem to be a sense of renewal in the peloton and more riders are starting to say they don\u2019t want dopers in there with them. The Omerta lingers on, the code that means many hold their tongues when it comes to doping, but the fact that journalists and indeed fans can now talk openly about doping without being labeled as haters is a very good thing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a funny old year though, really, with many spectators being unable to suspend their disbelief when watching a lot of the racing. But again, that we can now see remarkable and \u2018unbelievable\u2019 performances and ask \u2018how did he do that?\u2019 \u2013 and mean it \u2013 means that riders will, we should hope, more aware that, if they are taking stuff, crazy rides will be scrutinized.<\/p>\n

Cookson is in though, Pat is out, LA is in his own personal wasteland, people like David Walsh and Betsy Andreu have been thoroughly vindicated, and I can write something like this and get it published.<\/p>\n

There are new faces emerging in the pack and race directors appear to be keen to work with WADA to get the riders properly tested. Scandal is bad, clean is good. Several brands seem to see the advantages of supporting teams and riders that are known to be anti-dope, so this too is good.<\/p>\n

So, back to the dark old days? You could say, if you\u2019re a bit of a realist like myself, that the sun has still not fully dawned – and a huge chunk of that feeling comes from the fact that there are so many people still saying things like ‘let’s move on<\/em>‘ and ‘what’s done is done<\/em>‘.<\/p>\n

And yet, are there reasons to hope?<\/p>\n

Yes, I believe there are.<\/p>\n

Roll on 2014!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by cp. this article originally appeared in The Roar Reason to hope? Or back to being dopes? 2013 may still be with us but like a wheezing great-uncle on his last legs, bedded down in the far-corner of the infirmary, its life, inevitably, is fading faster almost than Lance Armstrong\u2019s fan-base did. It was, however, a proper little rager in its youth, 2013, ringing in the full fury unleashed at the dog-end of 2012 by Travis Tygart\u2019s Reasoned Decision in which the head of USADA named 11 cyclists who gave evidence against their one-time team leader, the aforementioned LA. Amongst them were such good ol\u2019 American boys, such clean and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40955418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":[],"wpupg_custom_link_nofollow":[],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"good riddance to 2013","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2OfoS-Si","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3699,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2014\/02\/21\/horner-lewis-lampre-its-all-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":3366,"position":0},"title":"Horner, Lewis & Lampre. It’s all wrong.","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"2\u6708 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This isn\u2019t a new story. It\u2019s been kicking around now since the end of January. Yet there\u2019s been very little commentary written on the deal that will see last year\u2019s surprise Vuelta a Espana winner of 2013, Chris Horner, twinkling his little magic toes all over the World Tour again\u2026","rel":"","context":"chris horner","block_context":{"text":"chris horner","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/tag\/chris-horner\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1233237938craig-lewis.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3266,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2013\/12\/08\/doping-amnesia-rife-in-cycling\/","url_meta":{"origin":3366,"position":1},"title":"doping amnesia rife in cycling","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"12\u6708 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by crankpunkthis article originally appeared on The RoarIt seems to be catching, like the sniffly cold your kid brings back from school that explodes into full-blown influenza and ravages the household. Except this isn\u2019t merely a cold virus \u2013 it seems that several members of the cycling fraternity have developed\u2026","rel":"","context":"dopepunk","block_context":{"text":"dopepunk","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/dopepunk\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/jeannie_longo_devant_les_s_nateurs_pour_parler_dopage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5785,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2015\/02\/26\/the-story-of-american-doping-in-the-80s-the-olympics-eddie-b-and-his-product-our-old-friend-lance\/","url_meta":{"origin":3366,"position":2},"title":"The story of American doping in the 80s: The Olympics, Eddie B, and his “product”, our old friend Lance","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"2\u6708 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This documentary looks at doping in the 80s in the USA, it isn't cycling-specific, though it is cycling-related as it deals with doping on a systematic and institutionalised scale, nothing most of you won't have known already but that may be enlightening for some. 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Or back to being dopes? 2013 may still be with us but like a wheezing great-uncle on his last legs, bedded down in the far-corner of the infirmary, its life, inevitably, is fading faster almost than Lance Armstrong\u2019s fan-base did. It was, however,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40955418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3366"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17087,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366\/revisions\/17087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}