The only way to stop doping in Cycling

There is a group that sells products with the tag line, "Dopers Suck" and I whole heartily agree. People who use chemicals to cheat should never be allowed to do so and act as if they are just that damn good. Let's look at a few proven dopers. Tyler Hamilton; served a suspension and now is under a cloud of suspicion that during the time he was caught he was doping. (DOH) Robert Heras; also caught cheating with EPO as I recall. Now complaining no one wants to sign him.

But let's look at the other side of the coin. Possibly wrongfully accused and/or convicted riders who may have been victims of lab errors. I know of the best case. That would be Floyd Landis. This man was able to prove, not surmise, prove that the lab had made major mistakes. The springy headed lap dog arbiters even agreed, then said he was guilty anyway. Tough luck there Floyd, you are totally correct, however we can never be wrong, you lose. This sounds like there might be a flaw some place here. The lab is not taken to task in anyway and an athlete is fired. Now think about this in a different perspective. Let say you my reader are brought up on murder charges. These are based totally on an error at a lab. The judge says yes they made a huge error. You are correct, but you will be doing life anyway. This is basically what happens to a wrongfully accused athlete when the lab screws up. The confidence of the system is gone. Now lets look at our dear friends in the UCI. They have a rider who is found to have an inconclusive test. This may mean the material of the test, in this case most likely urine, will not yield a result positive or negative. There just might be some tampering or a flawed sample that is not usable. Hey lets have the lab that did it before just confirm their erroneous result. This is what happened with Spanish rider Mayo and his sample. No we need to have some clarity and confidence in these tests. We need to have riders knowing that the tests and labs are fool proof. I think I have the solution!

The first step in any method of ridding cycling of performance enhancing drugs is to have everyone in the loop tested. I mean from Dick Pound at Wada down to the guy who washes the bikes after the race. This is the only fair way to make sure we have a "clean" sport. This would include lab techs as well. Every drug the riders are band from using the entire drug testing world would be band from using without a note. Some things we would have no Therapeutic Use Exemptions for, like say for E.D meds. (I know this would really be bad for people like Mr. Pound but seriously walk the walk you talk!). The labs would have to have a zero (0) error policy and protocols would have to be uniform; procedures identical and measurable. I suspect that this would serve a dual purpose, the test would be accurate and the lab reliable. Just imagine a drugged lab tech somehow messes up your sample and you wont get that new job. Would suck huh?

I truly hate seeing athletes cheat. Look at Barry, Mark and Sammy their records mean nothing and they are the laughing stock of their sport. Personally I would love to see them wiped from history as the cheaters they are. I would hope the scandal of drugging in baseball will clean that sport up. Maybe people will want to see it again. Me I am just going to go out and ride my bike. Enjoy the time, fresh air, and nice people I meet. Knowing that they aren't doped up to try and do something they couldn't other wise do. Performance enhancing drugs need to be illegal, ALL of them! Think about it, you might just change your opinions on a lot of dopers out there!

So as the Cycling season begins, remember. Dopers Suck and aren't really able to do what they do. Point them out and clean them out! Let's start at the top and clean up all of sport! Then we can all relax and enjoy what should be a healthy under taking. Not a trip to the undertaker! RIDE IT!!!