Peter Gutwald

OK, I would usually rather not respond to these mass postings, but about a
month ago I read an interesting letter that was posted at cyclingnews.com.
You don't have to agree with it, but there's probably more truth in it than
most of us care to admit. I'm still going to watch the rest of the tour,
I'm still going to cheer for Chris Horner, and I'm still going to continue
to read my cycling mags and ride my bike. See the letter which I have
copied into this posting, below:

It is about us!

We gripe and complain when we see corruption and doping in sports, the
combines in football, and the bought victories in cricket. But we should
realize one thing, when humans (that is us, ourselves, you and me) are
competing they will not stick to the rules. Politicians don't, guys with
successful careers don't, and anyone driving a car of paying taxes doesn't.
The rule is not "don't cheat", the rule is: "don't get caught".

What happened recently is that we are whitewashing sport as a real life
fairytale. Those boys and girls are little white saints, different from all
of us. A myth supported by legions of sports commentators. And a myth that
is destroying competitive sports.

By all means we should have rules and keep people to them. Try to catch
them! But stop whining about dishonesty and cleaning up the sport. As long
as we are human that is how we behave and how any competing human behaves:
fighting to win, stretching the body, stretching the rules.

And for those that have forgotten: in older versions of the tour de France
guns, poison and spikes where ingredients of a sport that is a true mirror
of life. If we hate what we see, we should consider what is tells us about
ourselves.

Enjoy the view,
Stef Cornelissen
Vught, The Netherlands
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

From the readers letters section posted at www.cyclingnews.com.

On 7/24/07, masessa@charter.net wrote:
>
> In no way shape or form did he do what he HAD to do to keep his job. I see
> allot of riders slower than him who have jobs. Do they fire every rider who
> doesn't win? Of course not.
>
> ---- Erik Long wrote:
> > Why are we all so surprised at Vinokourov's positive test? When did we
> all
> > go back to thinking that the UCI Pro-Tour is so different from other
> > professional sports?
> >
> > Are they doping? Hell Yeah, in addition to more training miles than
> you'll
> > ever see in your lifetime. It's not like these guys inject a magic
> > substance, sit on the couch and just get faster. Hell, EPO only works
> if
> > you're riding a hard schedule. The pain of riding hard is still there
> for
> > these riders, they're just going 10% faster than than they would if the
> dope
> > didn't exist.
> >
> > Is it unfair to the riders who aren't doping? It would be naive of us
> to
> > assume that there are cyclists on the Pro Tour who don't care to keep
> their
> > jobs. But under the assumption that there are Pro Tour riders who "ride
> > clean", then yes, it would be unfair to them.
> >
> > Vino's job (his J-O-B) is to be competitive at the top level of a
> > professional sport. Hundreds of miles of training every week, the
> strict
> > diet, the ability to handle a bike at 80mph, and all the natural talent
> in
> > the world isn't going to get 1 rider in 3 million to average 31mph in a
> 55k
> > time trial, no matter who's bike you put 'em on. That takes
> pharmaceutical
> > assistance, and if you want to keep your job, you'll do it because there
> > will always be new talent waiting to take your place.
> >
> > That's the cold, hard, reality. And now that Vino's been caught doing
> what
> > he had to do in order to do his job, he'll lose his job, his career will
> > end, and the tour will go to another great rider and eventually, he'll
> get
> > caught, too.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----Original Message Follows----
> > From: gschreckchat@comcast.net
> > To: judson@math.harvard.edu, obra@list.obra.org
> > Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] vino = cheater
> > Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:42:48 +0000
> >
> > I think Atana's and Vino's silence speaks volumes. The result
> apparently
> > came from the test after the TT. In this case, there is not much reason
> to
> > wait. These guys are going to kill professional cycling.
> >
> > Of course, I suspect that if other sports had rigorous testing, these
> would
> > be a lot of sports in trouble. I notice no one ever followed up on the
> > soccer palyers that supposedly were working with Fuentes. In baseball,
> guys
> > who tested positive are still playing and apparently in football, you
> can
> > still pay in the playoffs, make the alll star team and be eligible for
> > defensive player of the year after you serve your massive six-game
> > suspension for steriods. Attendance in all those sports still sets
> records
> > which only goes to show that the fans do not really care, nor do the
> money
> > interests. For some reason cycling always seems to be in everyone's
> > headlights both on the road and the press. It is not an excuse for
> cyclists
> > taking drugs, just a question why the rules are not enforced a
> stringently
> > for other sports. I suppose there is more moeny involved in other
> sports
> > which drives everything..
> >
> > --
> >
> > George Schreck
> > gschreckchat@comcast.net
> > (503) 502-0425
> >
> > -------------- Original message --------------
> > From: "Thomas W. Judson"
> >
> > > Let's wait for the B sample to come back before we
> > > judge Vino as a cheater. Let the process run its
> > > course. There have been false positives in the past.
> > > --- Mike Bene wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/tour07/news/?id=/news/2007/jul07/jul25news
> > > > > _______________________________________________
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> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Thomas W. Judson, Ph.D.
> > > Preceptor in Mathematics
> > > Department of Mathematics
> > > Harvard University
> > > 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
> > > EMAIL: judson@math.harvard.edu
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
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