Two Tales for Tuesday

Tom Boonen catches a break — except from the UCI

Looks like Tom Boonen is getting support from the Quick Step team, according to a brief article at CyclingNews.com. His team has announced that they will extend his current suspension, but they won’t fire him. Instead, they’re going to require that Boonen enter some sort of “psychiatric treatment plan.” In addition, the Quick Step star will be subjected to some strict new testing over the next year. Whether the team will fine Boonen, and how much that fine will be, hasn’t been completely worked out yet, according to the article.

In a joint statement Quick Step and Boonen have denied he has an addiction to cocaine, which is not a prohibited substance in out-of-competition situations under World Anti-Doping Agency bylaws. It said Boonen requires counseling to assist him through parts of the season where he isn’t under any pressure.

“It does not concern an addiction in the true sense of the word,” said the statement. “The person concerned is no ‘slave’ of the product but only uses it in sporadic and specific instances. It concerns an intelligent young man, with good surroundings and a stable family life who takes his responsibility in the majority of situations.”

Under the proposed program Boonen will see a psychiatrist once a week to begin with, moving out to a longer time frame as seen fit for the following 12 months. He will also undergo urine testing once every two weeks and have hair analysis done by a registered laboratory at least three times a year.

Just because cocaine is not a prohibited substance out of competition doesn’t mean that the International Cycling Union (UCI) won’t find a creative way to punish the Belgian star for his actions. They may not be able to issue a doping ban, but they have another weapon at their disposal. As Reuters (via Yahoo! and Eurosport) is reporting (hat tip to Jeff, who found the link), the federation has done a quick turnabout on their position vis-a-vis Boonen.

When the Quick Step rider’s latest positive test was announced on Saturday the UCI said Boonen would not be punished by the governing body “since the use of cocaine out of competition is not subject to sanctions”.

However, the UCI said on Tuesday: “The behaviour of Tom Boonen, even though it does not constitute a violation of the anti-doping rules, can be considered unacceptable and liable to harm the image, reputation or interests of cycling or the UCI.

“This infringement is punishable by a suspension of one to six months,” cycling’s governing body added.

Whatever the fallout in Belgium regarding any criminal charges, and whatever happens with Quick Step’s suspension, possible fine, and year of treatment, one other price Boonen will pay is that he won’t be allowed to race the Tour. As Eurosport is also reporting, Christian Prudhomme, the Tour’s director, made it clear that Tom Boonen will not be allowed to start the Grand Boucle.

“Obviously he cannot be on the Tour de France starting line. We are not talking about a rider any more but about a man who needs to be treated,” Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme told Reuters.

Quick Step is to be commended for giving Boonen the opportunity to correct his behavior, so that he won’t wind up in further trouble with either the law or the anti-doping agencies. They’ve got a sizeable investment in him already, but the negative publicity would, for many teams and sponsors, be the kiss of death. Tom’s got some real work ahead. It’s a shame to see such potential go to waste.

Meanwhile, it’s about time for another rehash of old baseball scandals

There’s a new book about Roger Clemens that was released today called American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime. Seeing as it’s new, I haven’t had a chance to look at the book, yet. But a number of articles have appeared in various publications talking about the book, as well as Clemens’ reaction. Michiko Kakutani, of The New York Times, has a balanced review of the book, under the headline How a Man Who Threw Heat Was Consumed by His Own Fire. Kakutani observes:

By focusing on Clemens and the people around him, the authors have turned the sprawling story of steroid-use into a sleek narrative that reads like an investigative thriller, peopled by a Dickensian cast of characters, from big-name ball players and their high-powered lawyers to small time bodybuilders and gym owners, from federal investigators and members of Congress to denizens of “the violent criminal underworld of muscle-building drug distribution.”

As in Bob Woodward’s inside-Washington books, the narrative of “American Icon” draws upon lots of official documents — in this case sworn depositions, medical records, courtroom transcripts, records from criminal investigations, as well as the groundbreaking articles these reporters did for The Daily News, and hundreds of interviews, both on the record and off. And as in many of those Woodward books, the omniscient narrative voice employed in these pages can often make sourcing highly opaque: scenes that are authoritatively rendered in an omniscient narrative voice may in fact reflect or spin one party’s point of view.

I’ll be interested to read the book at some point. The rise of steroids in baseball took a long time. Pitchers on major and minor league teams were using steroids as far back as the late 1960s. It will be interesting to see if the authors went that far back in the history of it all, or whether they confine the greatest part of their coverage to Clemens, his rise and his tumble from being a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame to being a shoe-in for the Hall of Shame (assuming it’s ever proved he did what Brian McNamee claims).

In a radio appearance, Clemens continues to deny the allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs, saying:

“I’ve seen excerpts of the book and they’re completely false. … You know, guys, it’s piling on. It’s hurtful at times. But I’m moving on.”

And a tip o’ the hat to eightzero for finding the article, which also reports that:

Clemens said he had given a DNA sample to federal investigators but that syringes provided by McNamee would not link him to performance-enhancing drug use.

“It’s impossible because he’s never given me any,” Clemens said.

By the way things are going, it looks as if it’s going to be a while before the final chapter in the Roger Clemens saga is written. I’ll be interested to see just how long this story lingers in the headlines, and how quickly (or not) it disappears from view.