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Well, three weeks on, and the world of doping in sports speeds along like a tricked-out Porsche doing laps on the [[Nürburgring]]. Of course, what should I expect, eh? Lots of stuff to cover, more than my fingers will be able to tap out on the keyboard tonight. That’s OK, though, leaves other stories for another time.

So far, the world hasn’t come to an end

Of course, certain people thought that the participation by one Floyd Landis at a the New Pathways for Pro Cycling, held at Deakin University in Geelong, Victoria, Australia (west of Melbourne),  would cast a pall on the International Cycling Union’s (UCI’s) world road championships being held in the same town in the coming days. Media reports out of Australia indicate that Landis’ appearance did not cause an instant black hole which sucked the whole life (and everything else) out of the UCI’s big event.

According to an Associated Press article from The Daily Caller, Landis told the conference that there will be a doping problem in professional cycling until more riders come forward to tell what they know.

“Until I can sit here, and a lot of other people can sit down and talk about how it came to be that way, it’s going to be hard to find a solution,” he said. “If I can be a catalyst for that, so be it. I don’t care to take any credit for it because part of why I’m doing what I’m doing is for my own conscience and my own well being.

Landis had this to say about telling his mother and others what he had done.

“As much as it hurts to sit and tell my mom I lied, and to tell other people that I lied, it’s better than the alternative.”

Who’s to blame for the the current mess. An article at Cyclingweekly.com quotes Landis as telling the conference:

“Everybody is wrong, the athletes because of their behaviour, also the people who make the rules, the athletes don’t trust them,” Landis said.

[…]

“It is always black or white, dope user or not, and there is no space for something in between,” said Landis. “We all know that life is not like that.”

Quite true. There is certainly blame to go around on all sides. Although Landis ultimately turned out to have doped during the 2006 Tour (though he was caught for something he still says he wasn’t using during the Tour, itself), some important lessons came out about how the anti-doping system operates. Among those lessons is that the folks who are supposed to be the “good guys” aren’t so squeaky clean, either. And, for those who hadn’t been paying attention before, there are a number of interests — at the team level, the federations level, and the international level who may be more concerned with covering up what’s going on, than exposing it. Let’s just say too much bad publicity is bad for some people’s businesses.

Landis admitted that it took him too long to come clean, and that he would be criticized for his change of tune.

“I knew that having defended myself in the beginning, and having lied about never having doped, that no matter when I changed the story and no matter when I I decided to tell the details of what I’d done, the argument was always going to be the same. It was going to be that I shouldn’t be believed now,” Landis said.

“It took me longer than it probably should have.”

Well, yes, it did. It probably would have helped to come clean at the beginning. But what are you going to do if you’re caught cheating, but not for the way you were actually cheating? Admit to something you didn’t do, or cop a plea? In hindsight, copping a plea looks like the smarter choice.

Why speak out now? According to the AP story:

“I really didn’t want to put anyone else through (what I went through after being caught),” Landis said. “It was an unpleasant experience to say the least. And even to this day I wish there was a way to tell the truth without getting anyone else involved.

“I can say first hand, leaving me out of it or whatever anyone’s opinion is about me, there are good people in cycling that made the same decisions I made and there are people I don’t like who made the decisions I made.”

Landis also explained:

“There were plenty of good people in cycling who made the same decisions I did,” he said. “And it was never their intention to cheat anybody. It was never their intention to hurt anybody, it’s just that it was so commonplace that you could rationalize it in your mind that you weren’t hurting anybody.”

If everyone is doing it, I can see how the pros could find a way of rationalizing what they are doing. Not that it’s right to dope, mind you.

Meanwhile, VeloNation.com reports that someone at the conference asked Landis if he would like to serve as an example for riders entering the sport.

“It is difficult for me to try to say I would accept that position, as there are professional cyclists who raced their careers and didn’t dope,” he said, adding that it was hard to tell who was really clean. “Most people don’t really want to tell the truth if they did. I don’t know. [But] I don’t really believe I am in a position to be that person, to set an example.

But then, Landis went on to add:

“I would just like people to know what my experience was, and the fact that if I could do things differently again, I would like to. I would like to go race my bicycle and enjoy it for what I enjoyed it for in the first place.”

Elaborating on that point, Landis said that the important thing was to keep a sense of perspective, not to get swept away in the drive to reach the very top. “The only advice I can really give to kids who are interested in being professional cyclists is to try to remember why it is that they enjoy it. Because…I believe that any professional sport becomes something other than what it starts out being when you are a kid. It always becomes more complex and there’s politics and other things that come with it.

“But if you can somehow focus on remembering why it was you enjoyed it in the first place, in light of those decisions that you have to make along the way, I think it is easier to not get caught up in making poor decisions.”

Of course, Pat McQuaid can’t resist critiquing Landis for appearing at the conference. According to the Cyclingnews.com story:

“My only problem is with his modus operandi,” McQuaid told the AP news agency. “I am aware that there are other very high profile athletes who have also been sanctioned for major doping offences that are … assisting authorities in the fight against doping. They choose to do it, to my mind, the correct way by working quietly without any hullabaloo.”

So let’s get this straight: If you’re caught, take the sanction, cooperate with the authorities — but do it quietly — and all will be good. Interesting point, in light of this article I just saw at the NYVelocity web site a short while ago. Seems that shortly after Landis’ story broke in May, the Danish paper Weekendavisen ran a story that suggests some people in cycling get preferential treatment by the governing body, and some get blacklisted.

So riders like Landis and Michael Rasmussen, who make a big splash (intentionally or not) and embarrass the powers that be, wind up being virtually unemployable, while others who are caught manage to come back and race in the top ranks. Who knew?

Landis was not without a response, however.

“The problem is that people like Pat McQuaid,” said Landis, “are prejudiced against some riders.”

Parting shot

After reading this story on the USA Today web site, I can’t say why, exactly, but it made me think of Lance Armstrong and what he may yet be facing. And it made me also think that even the real courts have their share of prosecutors who will do anything to win a case, even when they know the case is weak (not that the case against Armstrong, if there is one, will fall into this category).