Contador's "Get out of ban free card."

I am no fan of Floyd Landis but.... he has a right to be ticked off right now.

Last November Landis was interviewed on German television and said that the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is corrupt and protects certain riders.

Now the UCI on February 7th sent Landis a letter giving him 15 days to retract his statement or be sued in a Swiss court. Floyd shot back an email that pretty much said, “I’m broke, so go ahead and sue good luck.”

What is the UCI thinking with the timing of this threat of a law suit? The handling of the Contador affair screams hypocrisy. Landis was found to have doped in the 2006 Tour de France, and was immediately stripped of his Tour win and barred from competition for two years.

Contador on the other hand was found to have Clenbuterol in his system within days of the Tour de France finish in July 2010, but the UCI kept it quiet until the end of September. Then they only said something because details had been leaked to the press.

Next the UCI pussy-foots around for months and finally handed the case over to the Spanish Cycling Federation, who initially gave Contador a one year ban. Alberto got off light when you consider most other athletes get two years.

Now in an unprecedented move a week later the Spanish Federation reverses its finding, and now says Contador is innocent. This came soon after the Spanish Prime Minister no less, stated that Contador had broken no Spanish law.

Floyd Landis broke no US law, but the American President or other top ranking US politician didn’t get involved in his case. The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has set a zero tolerance for clenbuterol in an athlete’s body, no matter how the substance got there. Its presence warrants a sanction; otherwise why have this rule.

Other athletes have already been sanctioned because of clenbuterol use; you can’t pick and choose who gets banned and who doesn’t. This is not criminal law of “Innocent until proven guilty” no one is being executed or sent to prison. These are rules of a sport that all the players agree to abide by.

The UCI has to step in now and ban Contador for the full two years and strip him of his TDF win. If they don’t they lose all credibility, and Floyd Landis is right; there is one rule for the super stars, and another for the rest.

The UCI needs to either strictly enforce its own rules on doping or get out of dope testing altogether and abide by whatever the WADA decides. The later might be the better choice because the UCI has a conflict of interest between promoting the sport of cycling, and enforcing the rules.

Right now they are failing miserably on both counts, and they are killing the sport they claim to love and uphold. If Contador rides in this year’s Tour de France I for one will not feel inclined to watch it.

Here are more reactions to the Contador non sanction case.

                         

Bike industry unites to try and work with UCI

Yesterday the cycling equipment industry announced the formation of the Global Organization of Cycling Equipment Manufacturers.(GOCEM)

This new organization was created to provide a unified voice for the bicycle industry.

The objective, to pursue a collaborative and consultative approach with the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) the governing body of the sport of cycle racing.

On January 13, 2009 the UCI announced it would start to enforce what is becoming known as the 3-1 rule. Basically it means a component part of a bicycle can’t measure in depth more than three times its width. I wrote my interpretation of the new rules in two articles on June 17th, last, and on June 19th.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that the new rules not only apply to frames, but to all parts of the bicycle. Apparently, it was not just me but the whole bicycle industry was caught off guard by this one. Hence the forming of GOCEM at their inaugural meeting in Dublin, Ireland.

Some in the bike industry are less kind in their attitude towards the UCI than I am. As an independent observer who no longer has any connection with the bike biz, my criticism of the UCI is not that they brought out these new regs, it is that they dragged their ass over this just as they did with the drug issue, then expect everyone to suddenly comply.

Carbon fiber frames and equipment have been around for twenty years, they have developed into every form and fashion imaginable, as each manufacturer did their own thing. Then the UCI suddenly and belatedly decides to regulate and bring some uniformity to the situation.

One can hardly expect manufacturers to suddenly scrap all their stock of equipment, designs, tooling, etc, and start over from scratch, especially in the current economic climate.

I believe that regulation is needed as in any sport for everyone to compete on a level playing field, but a grace period of 3 to 5 years on the enforcement of these new regulations would have been more realistic.

Any physical sport should be about athletic performance, not enhanced by drugs or stimulants, and not enhanced by equipment. The whole dope issue in professional sport (Not just cycling.) came about because a few found an advantage by taking stimulants.

Pretty soon everyone was on dope, and the playing field was level again. Except that no one could get off dope because if they had, they would then have been at a distinct disadvantage. For years the UCI turned a blind eye to the issue until their hand was forced by public opinion.

There is a situation now in the sport of swimming; a new full body swim suit has been developed and national and world records are falling everywhere as a result. It appears the governing body of that sport is looking the other way, and soon everyone will be forced to wear this same suit to remain competitive.

When that happens will the sport of swimming have been improved, or athletic performance enhanced? I don’t believe at this moment, there is any cycling equipment that can give one rider an advantage over another.

However, that doesn’t mean that it won’t arise in the future. I for one do not want to see a future situation in cycling as there appears to be now in swimming. Where faster times are being recorded and there is doubt whether it is due to the athlete or the equipment.

I also don’t like the idea that amateur athletes are forced to buy some super expensive piece of equipment in order to be competitive, any more than I would expect them to have to take dope.

Performance should be about time and effort devoted to training, not something bought because one athlete happens to have deeper pockets than another.

I believe the intentions of the UCI are good, but like all bureaucracies they first ignore a problem, then move hastily to fix it. The bicycle industry needs the sport of cycling to create the interest that sells bicycles.

The sport of cycling itself, needs both. The UCI to govern and organize the sport, the bike industry to supply equipment, and provide the cash sponsorship of the professional side of the sport.

The formation of the GOCEM I feel is a huge step in the right direction; I just hope the UCI will see it that way and both sides can work together for the good of cycling.