Deals With The Devil
It sounds as though before the month is out Floyd Landis will have played his last card in his fight to have his name cleared and his win in the 2006 Tour de France reinstated. The Court for the Arbitration of Sport (CAS) told the Associated Press that the hearing would begin on March 19 in New York and is expected to last six days. It is not yet known when the arbitrators will give their final ruling on the case though so we could still be in for a long wait before we know the end of this chapter of Floyd’s story. Unlike the previous hearing that Floyd went through in California, this one will be held behind closed doors so we won’t be able to get as much information as we’d like - unless our friend Paula over at TBV gets the inside scoop for us as she so often does.
In other news, former T-Mobile rider, Patrick Sinkewitz has again done as he was told, this time agreeing to give up his plans to appeal the $61,000 fine that was handed down to him along with his one year suspension for using testosterone just prior to the 2007 Tour de France. As a result of his continued co-operation the German authorities have agreed to abandon their plans to take more court action to prevent him from racing again.
I get that the goal here is to do as much as possible to reduce doping within the sport (I don’t suppose anyone thinks it can be done away with totally) but something just doesn’t sit right with me when it ends up meaning that you can cheat, admit to cheating, and then all you have to do is co-operate fully with authorities, roll over and do exactly as your told, serve up as many others as you possibly can, and you get away with a slap on the wrist.
Sinkewitz is going to be racing again - assuming he can find a team to sign him (Rock Racing probably still has a few slots open) - by July of this year. July! He basically just misses out on the early part of the season. Guys miss more time than that after a nasty spill on the road.
I don’t fault Sinkewitz here particularly. He’s just playing the game as it’s been designed around him. He’s just trying to keep making a living. And, obviously, in order to break the cycle of doping within the teams you must get your hands on the information you need to get to the root of the problem somehow. But this just feels wrong to me.
Would Floyd have been racing at the Tour last year if he’d rolled over and done what he was told?
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March 12th, 2008 at 4:13 am
I agree with your criticism of the system and how it can be played. And it is difficult to fault the riders who play it to their benefit. While substantial monetary fines are a form of deterrent I feel that hitting them where it really hurts is the best way. Missing a full season should be a minimum fine…even with cooperation. I think we all agree that the goal is the have a drug free sport. I long for the day when I look up at the rider on the podium and not have the shadow of doping lingering in the back of my mind.