Dope

It was an interesting day of sport for me yesterday.

Last night was my first Hibs game of the season. It was only a friendly but it's always exciting going back to Easter Road after the summer break. Normally friendlies are a bit crap but Hibs were very impressive last night and beat Bolton 3-0. We played some impressive football and at times Bolton struggled to get the ball from us. JC seems to have got the Hibs players very fit during the pre-season and everyone seems to be comfortable on the ball. Let's hope we can continue the form into the new SPL season.

Last night was also when the Tour de France descended into farce. The race leader (and odds on favourite to win overall) Michael Rasmussen was sacked by his team for lying about his whereabouts last month and suspicions over missed drug tests. Two other riders including Vinokourov the pre race favourite were kicked out for failing drug tests and this meant both their teams where withdrawn under the new zero tolerance policy.
I'm actually quite disappointed by all of this. This year's tour had been one of the most open and enjoyable for years. As much as I liked Lance Armstrong, the 7 tours that he won where never always that exciting. Usually he exerted a stranglehold over the race lead early on and the final result was never in doubt. However this year there were a number of riders in contention and the mountain stages were fascinating to watch. The battles between Rasmussen and Contador over the past couple of days had been amazing to watch. However any credibility the race had has been ruined, one French paper has even run an obituary for the Tour - died aged 104. Many of the team sponsors are thinking of pulling out due to the bad publicity which will be a disaster for cycling. It takes millions of pounds a season to run a pro cycling team, if sponsors do pull out then there will be hundreds unemployed.What is most galling is that I do believe the majority of riders are now clean, it is the idiots in the minority who are ruining the sport for everyone else. Most of the teams themselves have recognised the dangers of doping and have instigated strict anti-doping programmes, however a few have slipped through the net. In the past, drugs were almost an accepted part of cycling. Riders in the early tours used to get round the course powered by brandy, cocaine and amphetamines. Recently cycling has tried to clean up it's act as fans were gradually becoming disillusioned by all the drug scandals. Many of the so-called star cyclists of recent years have been linked to drug taking in some way.
It's imperative that cycling manages to get rid of all the drug cheats and removes any suspicions otherwise there may not be a future for it. There will be very few sponsors and very few fans left if the scandals continue.