Lance Armstrong and the Doping Investigation

I wrote a while ago about this whole Floyd “Scandlis” Landis/US Postal doping thing, the investigation of which is now “gathering pace“. I was trying to make the point that if everyone in the peloton was doping, then it was a fair practice.

A friend of mine read that post, however, and correctly surmised that I don’t know any pro riders personally. He then posed a question:
“What if you trained your whole life to be a pro cyclist, and when you get there, everyone is taking drugs? You’d have to start taking them too or not realize your dream.”

That makes some sense, I admit, but its still a choice, and sometimes people want for themselves things that are going to be very hard to achieve. I’m reluctant to say that anything is impossible, but some things might be harder for some than others. What if you want very badly to be a pro cyclist but you just don’t have the physiology for it? What if you want to be a performer at Sea World, but you’re a hippopotamus?

Let’s not forget that some of the most successful professional cyclists in history have had a few physical deficiencies themselves.

I don’t know how this whole investigation will shake out, but I kind of wish it would just go away. Yeah, a lot of cyclists took drugs, but it seems like its over now and I’m sort of fine with that. More investigation is just going to mean more reporting on the doping, and cycling already conjures up two bad images in non-cyclists minds: doping and having to wait in traffic.

On the good news front, I felt good on the bike last night, though I did get called out for creeping on a red light. In my defense, there was an unexpected turn signal cycle before the actual green, causing me to take off a bit early by mistake, but I was definitely bike shoaling and deserved to be taken to task.

Have a great weekend and ride safe out there friends. Remember, if you start to get tired, just kick it into MEGADRIVE.