What if no one cared about doping?

But just when you thought it was all about the money, the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world passes up $40 million to defend his principles. In this case, the principle in question is his right not to be tested for doping. But the Pacquiao-Mayweather situation brings up an interesting hypothetical: Would you rather see a Tour de France with only minimal drug testing than no Tour at all?

Katusha revisits Crime and Punishment

Would-be Russian superteam Katusha has is making its riders sign a contract addendum requiring them to pay the team back five times their annual salary in the event of a positive doping test. The new “agreement” came up after one rider got popped before the Giro and several riders initially refused to sign it. Gert Steegmans is final remaining holdout and has sacrificed his Tour de France start. What are his reasons? What are the team’s? What’s the point?

UCI studies declare anti-doping “a race without end”

In 2006, the UCI commissioned two studies “to provide a better understanding of the different aspects of doping: the roots, methods, mechanisms and practices.” One was a qualitative study by a French consultancy, AlteRHego; the other was more quantitative (although the size of the data set is not disclosed) by Professor Xavier Sturbois of the [...]

Lemond’s plan raises questions

Starting with some pointed questions at Lance’s Interbike press conference and continuing in an interview with Cyclingnews, Greg Lemond has been touting an anti-doping plan that would return a positive test when a rider’s power output exceeds what his VO2 max indicates as possible for him or her.
It’s more of a concept than a detailed [...]

Riccardo

I’m at the PSFK conference right now, dealing with the fallout from the Ricco positive as relates The Road Diaries. It’s interesting to be part of the internal debates but mostly it’s a shitty situation for everyone involved.
We’ve decided to leave the posts related to Ricco and Saunier Duval-Scott up on the site, except for [...]

Floyd’s legacy?

The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced earlier today that it will uphold USADA’s suspension of Floyd Landis, whose website is currently down. That was Floyd’s last chance to be exonerated through the global sporting establishment, although it is possible that he’ll continue through civil court.
I’ve never been able to commit to a position on [...]

Is the Giro too hard?

Enrico Gasparotto (Barloword), Jens Voigt (CSC) David Millar (Slipstream), and presumably other riders were pretty adamant that yesterday’s uphill time trial at the Giro d’Italia, which featured over 5km of dirt roads and grades up to 24%, was too difficult. “Impossible”, said Gasparotto.

But, clearly, the stage was possible. Only 6 riders out 152 missed the [...]