Cycling is pure.

I couldn't help but write this blog, as I am feeling very passionate about this this topic! Right after the events of the 2007 tour, I found myself having the same converstation with many people. "Cycling is ruined forever!" is what many people told me. I want to make it publicly known that I disagree. Cycling is pure.

I choose to look to professional baseball, football and other classic American sports for my example. In baseball you have Barry Bonds who is blatently using steroids to gain unfair advantage. The Major League Baseball officals turn their heads and let it continue. Fans let it continue. Do they give up on their favorite baseball player even after heavy cheating allegations hit? No! Surrounding the Bonds case, baseball revenues continued to increase! When people cheat in cycling, their kicked out of the tour. They're suspended from the sport. They're practically shunned by their fans.

Then there's the NFL. Their commissioners and athletes seem to have the same philosophy as in MLB. Testing is pesky, it gets in the way. Who cares if people are cheating as long as it creates good entertainment right? NFL Union Head Gene Upshaw said claimed that we don't know if doping with Human Growth Hormone even is effective. He said that in order to detect this type of cheating, you have to test closely to the time that the HGH was taken. "That means our guys would have to be pin cushions," he said, "They're not going to be pin cushions."

Then we turn back to cycling. Professional cyclists are pin cusions. This is because they want to win and they want to win clean. So tons of people were kicked out of the 2007 tour. At least they were kicked out! If that happened in the NFL or MLB (like it has with Mr. Bonds), officials wouldn't kick out the athletes, but turn a blind eye to the cheating for the sake of good entertainment and high profits.

How much more cheating will fans tollerate? From an ESPN Article, "Perhaps the answer to cheating lies within each of us," a fan is quoted as saying "It isn't just about sports anymore. It's about fame and stardom and making the eye-popping dunk or hitting the tape-measure home run." Are you still supporting a cheater? The sport of cycling is able to clean itself up pretty well because the fans have a zero tollerance for their star athletes cheating. The ESPN article continues, "It's now do as you please and deny, deny, deny when you get caught. Truth and accountability have gone completely out the window." I believe it's the lack of accoutnablility on the part of the athlete and the sports commission that dirties a sport. Mr. Bonds and MLB are turning their cheek to cheating. At least in cycling, some cyclists may deny cheating but the cycling federation won't put up with it.

I applaud professional cycling for being the cleanest sport out there. In order to clean, you have to rinse off the dirt. That is exactly what cycling officials did this summer. New teams are surfacing like the new American Team Slipstream. Cycling takes active measures to keep things clean. That's why cycling is pure.