{"id":3761,"date":"2014-03-14T01:58:11","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T01:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crankpunk.com\/?p=3761"},"modified":"2014-03-14T09:49:25","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T09:49:25","slug":"usa-cycling-steve-johnson-and-the-empty-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2014\/03\/14\/usa-cycling-steve-johnson-and-the-empty-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Cycling, Steve Johnson and the Empty Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Steve
Steve Johnson of USAC<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

this article originally appeared o<\/em>n The Roar<\/a><\/p>\n

America leads the way in many spheres, from obesity to arms stockpiles, jacked-up baseball players to serial killers, and it has just gone and set another benchmark that the (sporting) world should sit up and take notice of \u2013 or rather, its cycling federation has.<\/p>\n

Or at least I thought it had. Then I dug deeper and found that, yet again, we have a situation of the wrong people trying to make the right noises whilst doing very little whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Sound familiar? A little like the UCI? Well after all, this is a cycling federation we are talking about\u2026<\/p>\n

One of the great oversights in the struggles and tussles that have gone on within the sport of cycling in regards to doping over the previous few years has been that, in general, the people who care about the direction that the sport is headed in and want it to face up to its dark and depressing past have felt that their voices have been marginalized, ignored and, at times, forcibly silenced.<\/p>\n

For years world cycling\u2019s governing body and its presidents, and infamously its most high profile rider, either looked the other way when anyone voiced concerns or suspicions of banned drug usage or went out of their way to ridicule and bully the doubters and accusers to the point where they were left isolated from the sport they\u2019d grown up with.<\/p>\n

We all know the Betsy Andreu story, the wife of former pro Frankie Andreu whom Lance Armstrong called \u201ca crazy bitch\u201d (but not fat, you\u2019ll remember) as he duked it out with her over her allegations that he used several banned substances.<\/p>\n