What then?

The news about pro cycling gets worse by the day. Ten raids were conducted in Belgium on homes of Quick Step riders, and investigators found large quantities of doping products. Quick Step is the power house team of Tom Boonen and reigning World Champion Paolo Bettini, and it first came into controversy when former world champion Johan Museeuw admitted doping during his career. Quick Step has been known to focus on the one day classic rides like Paris Roubaix. I want to say that Museeuw won Paris Roubaix thee times but I could be wrong about that.

To make matters worse, Belgian and former Quick Step rider Frank Vandenbroucke, former winner of Paris Nice and Lieg-Bastogne-Lieg tried to commit suicide last night. He got caught with doping products in 2002. He's been riding for the Italian team Aqua Sapone, but didn't start the Giro d'Italia because he hadn't recovered from a knee condition.

And there's this. The Spanish "Operacion Puerto" whistleblower Jesus Manzano, has implicated Alejandro Valverde. He went on to say that the Spanish lab in would give teams heads up for when the "vampires" would come around to test the riders on teams including the Discovery/ Postal team. There's a lot more detail to it all but that's kind of it in a nutshell.

Willy Voet, the Belgian physiotherapist for the French Festina team has outlined the organization of how that team systematically dopped. They even had to work the cost of it all into the teams budget. This is an amazing read. VOET on Cyclingnews. You can read a synopsis of the Festina doping scandal HERE

So now I'm thinking about the situation with Lance and Discovery / Postal. (the Voet link is required reading beyond this point in my post if you really want to understand where I'm coming from) We've got Riis admitted. Armstrong associated to Dr. Ferrari. We've got former Postal riders, Tyler Hamilton caught. Heras caught, Andreu admitted, and testified in Court against Lance, Landis (caught?) Basso caught up in Operacion Puerto. (while he was with CSC, Riis's team. The Festina team, The Telecom Team, and now the Quick Step team. Oh yeah, the Kelme Team.

Who am I leaving out? Oh yeah. Jan Ullrich who finished second to Lance all of those years. The list just goes on and on.

But not Lance. Even if he won clean, it's a team sport. If Andreu, Landis, Heras, and Hamilton, were doping, then what does it say about his five wins? They helped him win. (?)

If Lance did dope, and I'm not saying he did, what a huge burden to have hanging over him. Let's say it becomes obvious that all of the teams were doping and he is the only hold out. What then?
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The photo is of my vintage collector bike, a 1970's Gitane Team. Full Campy Record group, except I have modern pedals on it and newer rims. Classic French racing bikes don't get much better than this one. The paint is flawless. It rides nice but it is a thoroughbred and a little unforgiving. You really start to feel it after about 20 miles. I don't ride it very often.