What Is There To Say?

It’s the news that cycling has been waiting for. The next step in the Armstrong case that has kept not just cycling but the whole world on the edge of their seats, waiting to see how the chips will fall. Every day seems to bring another admission, another revelation, something else to make you stop and weep at just where all this is going. It’s like riding the rollercoaster of Bad News that you can’t step off, your heart in your throat every time you hit another loop-the-loop.

And it feels like something ought to be said, but, really, what is there to say? The evidence is out there. USADA’s decision has been made. It’s hard to argue with the proof. Hard to dispute the verdict. Hard to believe the truth. Hard to know what to think. It’s a black day in the history of cycling. What is there to say?

Yet the circus still goes on, name after name crumbling like a wall of bricks without mortar. Vande Velde, Zabriskie, Danielson. Leipheimer, Vaughters. Hincapie. Bruyneel. Will no one escape the purges?

And now there’s news of one of our own. Matt White has now been touched, now been tainted. Our Australian ‘purity’ on the doping front has crumbled into dust, our belief and faith in our cyclists shaken, the trust gone.

It’s disheartening to see another great of the sport laid low, like the pillars of Stonehenge falling to the earth. Those who are well-acquainted with cycling are well-acquainted with its chequered past, too, and it says a lot that so many can still love it knowing full well the scandals in its history. But we can still be saddened that this is the situation in cycling. Disappointed that cycling has been reduced to salacious headlines in the tabloids. Angry that cycling has changed from how well you ride to how well you dope.

But it can’t go on like this. If we look hard enough we will always find another doping scandal, another ‘drug cheat’ to be vilified and torn down from his pedestal. Such is the history of cycling. At some point we need to draw a line and declare an amnesty. Someone has to suggest that from now on we let the dead past bury its dead and focus on the future of cycling. It’s been suggested before. Someone has to say that we need to forgive, though not forget, the old culture of cycling that allowed, nay, condoned, such widespread doping as the Armstrong case, and instead construct a new future in which doping is rejected from the level of the fans right up to the UCI, and that embraces those spectacular feats of plain old guts and endurance that make this sport great.

Let’s make this cycling’s turning point. Let’s make this the time when things could go back to the way they were or they could change for the better, and we gave them a push in the right direction. At risk of sounding like a motivational speaker on a sugar high, fans are an important part of cycling, and they do play a part in the pro cycling scene. All the sponsorship, advertising, marketing and money that gets thrown around at races like the Tour de France is aimed at the fans – fans who are sick of the riders they worshipped in July being kicked to the kerb by December. Fans who can use that advertising and marketing to push for a cleaner, safer sport, more entertaining in its purity and its natural ability to surprise.

So, what is there to say? Well, let’s start by echoing the words of Lance Armstrong and saying, “Enough is enough.”

A Blessing In Disguise

Cadel Evans is one of the best cyclists in the world. The humble 35-year-old husband and father is a former World Champion and the defending champion of the Tour de France. In recent years he has been known for his quiet, calm nature and his laid-back riding style.

But despite the strengths and talents that have made him one of the best in the world, Cadel's years with the Lotto team were unremarkable. Though he managed a second place in the Tour de France – twice, in fact – Cadel received little support from the team, had no say in how the team was run and was generally miserable. A change to the newly-formed BMC team showed instant results. Within two years he had won the Tour de France.

Andy Schleck is in the same position now that Cadel Evans was in a few years ago. The switch from his homemade Leopard Trek to the merged Radioshack-Nissan-Trek has made it glaringly obvious to all that the arrangement isn't going well. The team hasn't even managed to keep the disagreement between Andy and directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel behind closed doors. From the beginning, Bruyneel made his plan to split the Schleck brothers across all the races clear, but it seems the idea hasn't panned out as well in practise. Andy has struggled to finish a race since the beginning of the season, culminating in an abandon of the Critérium du Dauphiné with a broken sacrum. The six-week healing period means that Andy won't recover in time to race the Tour de France, leaving big brother Frank to lead the team alone.

But a broken bone, odd though it may sound, could be just what Andy needs right now, in more than one way. A year away from the Tour and a serious shot at the Vuelta a España may be enough to give Andy some much-needed experience in winning a Grand Tour that he can bring to next year's Tour de France, more mature as a rider. More particularly, though, Andy's form this year has been, to put it very mildly, not good. Like Evans at Lotto, the team tensions have been weighing on the mind of an otherwise good rider, and they've been weighing Andy down. The 27-year-old was embarrassingly dropped on the lower slopes of climbs in the recent Dauphiné, and his time trialling ability hasn't improved any since the Tour in 2010. Andy's physical form is not likely to improve until he's in a better place mentally, and that doesn't seem likely to happen under Bruyneel at Radioshack.

This year's Grand Boucle is definitely not suited to Andy, with fewer high mountains and nearly 100 kilometres of time trials, and both defending champion Cadel Evans and his British challenger Bradley Wiggins are in superlative form, ready to pounce on the slightest hint of weakness from any of their rivals. An appearance at the Tour de France would simply have yielded another weak performance to add to a long list of failed races for the year, doing no good to Andy's teammates, his managers, or himself. Maybe Andy should be thankful for the respite and regard the next few weeks as less of a missed opportunity and more of a blessing in disguise.

Au Revoir, Leopard

Pour un an, j'ai été un fan fidèle de l'équipe Leopard Trek.  J’ai attendu avec impatience à voir le maillot de l’équipe, et j’ai acclamé les porteurs de ce maillot.  J’ai vu chaque étape du Tour de France cette année, suivi l’USA ProCycling Challenge, et acclamé mon gars Andy tout le temps.

Mais désormais mon équipe n’existera plus.  Dans un tour très imprévu par tout, l’équipe nationale luxembourgeoise va se joindre à l’équipe américaine Radioshack.  C’est un choque aux fans, parce que Leopard a été crée pour les frères Schleck à pouvoir courir avec une équipe nationale, et avec ses résultats pour sa première saison, cet effort s’est passé bien.

Selon L’Équipe, ce tour est dû au départ du manager, Brian Nygaard (qui, ironiquement, vient à l’équipe australienne, GreenEDGE), et le manager de Radioshack, Johan Bruyneel s’intéresse aux coureurs luxembourgeois depuis longtemps.  Flavio Becca, désormais ex-patron de Leopard, explique dans un entretien récente avec Le Quotidien que cette «double perspective» de Bruyneel a des grandes espoirs pour les frères Schleck, particulièrement pour Fränk.  Avec champion du monde de contre-la-montre Fabian Cancellara, les frères devient les leaders de l’équipe.

La question finale de cette fusion est celle de coureurs.  Avec les règles de l’UCI, une équipe peuvent avoir 30 coureurs dans son effectif.  Quelques coureurs sont déjà départis pour des autres équipes, comme Stuart O’Grady à GreenEDGE, et Becca a dit que tous les contrats qui ont été signé pour l’année prochaine avec Leopard «seront respectés».  Mais il reste beaucoup de coureurs qui n’ont pas tout restent dans l’effectif de la nouvelle équipe, qui a été nommé par le management dans une façon horrible - 

 Radioshack-Nissan-Trek.  Oui, c’est vrai.  Et «Leopard Trek» a apparait si belle.