The Giro and Dope

The Giro Starts

Saturday was the start of the Giro d'Italia with a very difficult team time trial. Many of the teams criticized organizers for creating a stage that was not really suitable for a team time trial as the course wound over and between the islands of Caprera and Maddalena. An undulating course which crossed the road between the islands, the results showed it was difficult as few of the teams were able to keep their riders together. Astana rode a good race for its team leader Paolo Salvoldelli but Liquigas won the stage.

It was not without some internal controversy however, as Liquigas' sprinter Enrico Gasparotto crossed before team leader Danilo Di Luca and took the first pink jersey. Although the team tried to play down the result claiming it was intended, it appeared that Di Luca was quite agitated at his team mate for failing to let the team's GC leader take the first pink jersey. Discovery had a solid ride, but team leader Yaroslav Popovych crashed in the final kilometer and the team finsished fifth as it had to wait for its leader and fifth rider on the road.

Sunday's stage ended with a sprint finish which was taken out by Predictor-Lotto's Robbie McEwen. The Giro follows a difficult course with a mountain top finish on Tuesday's Stage 4, which could set the GC for most of the rest of the race. A short stage of 150km the final climb is approximately 17km and averages 5%. The Giro's organizers have put similar stages as early in prior editions and with no clear strong favorite, it may not be too decisive, however, it is potentially difficult enough to end someone's Giro if they are not paying attention.

Dopes Part Un

The cycling world was rocked early this week as news reports indicated that Ivan Basso had confessed to Italian authorities that he had doped and had been involved with the key targets of Operacion Puerto. Within 24 hours, however, Basso had indicated that he had only confessed to "attempted doping" and that all of his major victories had been clean.

As a former death penalty prosecutor, I can tell you that I have heard a lot of excuses for why people do the things that they do. The ones who iritate me the most have always been those who confess to their wrongdoing and minimize what they did based upon the claim that while they attempted to do something they did not follow through. Evidently Basso is not naming names, however, I would have had a lot more respect for him had he said nothing after he had confessed his involvement other than to say his confession spoke for itself.

Basso's admission appear to open the door to others as Michele Scarponi also confessed to his involvement in the scandal to Italian officials as well. This appears to be the crack in the wall of silence and denial as press reports indicate that some thirty Spanish cyclists are seeking to make a deal with Spanish authorities to accept bans in hopes of returning to race by next year's Vuelta a Espana. So it appears that there was merit to the Puerto investigation and at a minimum some of the implicated riders are now ready to come clean.

Dopes Part Deux

There have also been reports that the non-Spanish ProTour teams are considering a boycott of Spanish ProTour races if Spanish authorities do not move more quickly to resolve the outstanding issues regarding the eligibility of certain riders implicated in the Puerto matter. Althought the Vuelta a Espana organizers have claimed that they will not let any rider implicated in Puerto start its race, there seems to have been a very laissez faire attitude to the participation of Spanish riders and teams implicated in the scandal. Vuelta organizers have also bemoaned the lack of action against Spanish riders and have noted the quicker action by other federations and nations outside of Spain.

What is most disconcerting however, is the fact that while stating that they are concerned about doping in the sport, Vuelta organizers have stated their desire and anticipation that Alejandro Valverde will start the race this fall, even though Valverde has been identified as a rider whose blood was seized in the Puerto investigation and showed evidence of EPO treatment. While Valverde is the biggest name in Spanish cycling at the moment, Vuelta organizers cannot have it both ways.

Dopes Part Trois

The Floyd Landis doping hearing starts Monday. Landis fired a major shot across the bow of WADA and USADA alleging that they offered him a deal if he would implicate Lance Armstrong in doping during his Tour de France victories. Landis' take no prisoners defense has started to get attention outside of the cycling media as evidenced by these articles in Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. I do not know if Landis doped or not. If he did then he is one of the most stupid people ever to compete in sports, with his kamikaze ride to regain the lead and having been in yellow previously, Landis knew or should have known that use of testosterone would more likely than not be detected.

The whole matter has been unseemly and will not result in an outcome that anyone can be confident will result in the correct outcome. From Dick Pound's salacious comments, to the appearent sloppiness of the French lab, to the apparent lack of due process in the retesting of Landis' B samples by the same French lab that found the initial positive test, to Landis' claims that USADA is just using him to get to Armstrong. I have come to the sad conclusion that while most of the Puerto riders, including American Tyler Hamilton, probably are guilty, the Landis matter reeks of a witch trial where the top doping officials in the sport either conspired to create the scandal or ignored the very safeguards intended to protect the innocent. Either way, no one wins, and no one will ever be sure what happened with Landis.