Originally Posted by
Helmet Head
That's what they said in 1988! And 2006!
Here are each rider's choices:
- Be "clean" but irrelevant and have a really hard time getting a contract next year, much less one that supports you and your family.
- Quit pro cycling
- Do what you and everybody else has to do.
The worst case for choosing (c) is you're caught and forced to retire. Right off the bat that's no worse than (b), and if you get away with it for enough races to place relatively well, you're already better off than (a). You gotta remember we're talking about making less than a hundred grand per year versus several hundred thousand, or even a million.
Also, remember the mentality of most of these guys is that they'd be willing to take something that they know will kill them within a couple of years if it will make them a champion.
None of that will change, so I don't see why anything will be cleaner next year.
Anybody who can't support a family on less than a hundred grand a year is living too large for his salary.
Nevertheless, if you look at the history of the Tour, you'll notice that riders were cheating from the very beginning, so what they're doing today is within that vein. Still, a rider would have to be stupid to think that there's an upside to doping today-- even if it pays off in the short run.