What is it with all the cheating?

In order not to sully my previous post on this year's good-but-not-epic Tour, I decided to reload and address doping in cycling. Yep, again. Why?

4 riders tested positive or were removed from this year's Tour. At least so far. I read yesterday that it might be a week or so before all the tests are done. Let's hope that nothing more comes down the pipe...

Ahhh yes, the last positive (4th) came Sunday night, where Kazakh rider Dmitriy Fofonov tested positive for a stimulant. So he's now looking for a new job. Sad...cycling is at least becoming non-tolerant of doping. However, on the flip side, the recent dopers on the Saunier-Duval and Barloworld teams have resulted in both of these sponsors pulling their team sponsorships. So that is not good.

Fortunately, the erstwhile Saunier-Duval team has already found a new sponsor. American Beef - a mexican company by the way - has agreed to sponsor the team (which will officially be called Scott-American Beef) for the rest of the year.

However, this doping epidemic is not limited to the Tour de France. On the weekend, Denmark's National MTB champion Peter Riis Andersen tested positive for EPO. Whoops. On the same day, the women's world road race champion Marta Bastianelli (Italy) tested positive for a banned stimulant. Of course, she blamed her pharmacist and his special herbs that she was using for weight loss. Double whoops. On the positive side, that does open up two more hotel rooms in Beijing next month since both cyclists have been punted off their respective Olympic teams.

Moving away from cycling and into track and field...lots has been said about sprinters and their tendency to "ingest" products that make them go faster. US athletes especially (although our very own Ben Johnson will always be at the top of any list - right beside Marion Jones - let's call them the King and Queen of Dopage). Anyhow, the recent successes of Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt have brought sprinters from Jamaica into the limelight. However, despite the high profile of their sprinters over the years, the NY Times did a story last week that highlighted how the nation has never had a sprinter test positive for steroids. Good story. Well, it was until yesterday when an unidentified male sprinter tested positive for something (still unsure) and will not be going to the Olympics. Whoops. So much for a feel-good story.

Last thing...it was also announced yesterday that the IOC will store all the doping tests from Beijing for 8 years. This is an improvement of 400+ weeks over the current 30 days. Wow. So now there is a big deterrent that beating a test in Beijing might still result in further shame down the road. It will be interesting to see what happens there...Jacques Rogge (IOC President) predicted 40 doping violations in Beijing, so we'll see what happens...8-8-08!

Bikey On...