One rule I try to live by is this: If you make a mistake in life, own up to it. It may not be easy or comfortable to do, but for the long term, it’s the best thing — even if the short term gets a bit rocky.
In the last post, I wrote about Bernhard Kohl testing positive for CERA, the latest generation of EPO drugs. Today, Kohl `fessed up and admitted that he’d used the drug. As VeloNews reports:
Kohl said he made the decision to use CERA following a crash in this year’s Dauphiné Libéré. Covered with road rash and unable to train, Kohl said he was doubtful that a mediocre Tour performance would help him secure a new contract.
“The pressure was overwhelming,” he said. “I was looking ahead to the Tour and realized I was not in the kind of condition I had hoped to be. I am just a man and a man who made a decision at a moment of weakness. I made a bad decision and I have to pay for that.”
Kohl got a new contract for 2009 with Silence-Lotto after the Tour ended. With today’s admission, Bernhard Kohl likely won’t be racing in 2009 or 2010. Good thing for him that this came out now. After the beginning of the new year, he would have been facing a four-year ban under new UCI rules. (Although, since the Tour wasn’t held under UCI rules, could he be punished under those rules? A part of me suspects not.)
The Austrian cyclist went on to tell the media that there was no systematic doping at Gerolsteiner, even though another teammate also tested positive for the same drug.
“No, there was no systematic doping,” Kohl said. “[Team director Hans Michael] Holzer knew of nothing. Holzer has always stood against doping. I think the worst part is that I disappointed him.”
The team, which was expected to fold at the end of the season, ceased operations following news of Kohl’s positive on Monday.
It’s a shame to see a rider succumb to the temptations to dope. Understandable, in a way, as Kohl felt his professional future depended on a good Tour performance at a time when he wasn’t able to to prepare as well as he would have liked. Taking a shortcut to success, however, comes at a price.
Kohl says he will accept the punishment that Austrian cycling officials will impose. Good choice. No real good comes from guilty individuals professing innocence when they’ve been caught dead to rights. Too many instances of that only makes those who are innocent all the more suspect, should a false positive case arise. Especially when such an individual loudly proclaims his innocence after a whole bunch of guilty athletes have used the same strategy in their efforts to avoid punishment.
It takes courage to admit when you’ve done something wrong. Bernhard Kohl showed a lot of courage today. Perhaps he can use the time away from competition to help educate other cyclists that the price of doping is too high, and that they are better off riding clean than pouring heaven-knows-what into their bodies in order to perform.
It’s more honorable to try one’s hardest and not win than it is to cheat. Yes, athletes are paid to perform. And the pressure to dope is no doubt high. But the cost of doping is high, too. It can mess with your health, and it ain’t cheap. But most of all, when you’re caught, you stand to lose everything. And a few moments of falsely won glory can’t ever be worth that.
After the first line I was waiting to hear your confession.
The refreshing thing about Kohl’s acknowledgment of guilt is that we avoid the polarization between the extremes of “the lab must have screwed up” and “all riders are dopers.”
Kohl didn’t even try to use the Basso/Schleck ruse of “I was going to, but I never did.”
Systematic doping? That’s obviously a question that remains open.
DR,
Well, I’ve certainly made my fair share of mistakes in my time. But you’ll have to wait until I’m in your neck of the woods and have had a few beers. Given the state of the economy, it may be a while before either happens. 😉
Rant, I agree with your assessment of Kohl’s response, but we need to go further. I see nothing form him about how he obtained his CERA. AS many others are now saying, we need to go after the suppliers, not just the users.
Doc,
True, we do need to go after the suppliers. I certainly hope that during the course of whatever disciplinary procedures Austrian cycling authorities bring against Kohl, that he’ll have the courage to speak up and tell where he got the drug from. Putting the suppliers out of business has a much bigger impact than catching and punishing a few individuals here and there.
Rant,
Unfortunately, the suppliers are good and honest drug companies making a necessary product for those with kidney failure, cancer, or who have or will suffer significant blood loss. How it gets from there to the peloton, who knows. Life was surely easier when it was a simple hematocrit “safety” check before the race to make sure cyclists didn’t have a non-dehydrated hematocrit that would become a fatally high level with dehydration. All that said, that is not why I am writing.
Did you see the interview with Velonews that Tyler Hamilton did a week or so ago?? At the end, he began talking about the process of returning to the peloton with Rock Racing and he made mention of the “cycling mafia” and it seemed he was truly scared of saying too much about it. Who are they and do they exist? Whose side are they on?
Ange,
Point taken about the drug companies. By suppliers, I actually meant the people who somehow acquire the drugs for illicit distribution, or the less-than-honorable doctors who knowingly write prescriptions that enable those who don’t truly need the drugs to acquire them.
I missed the Hamilton interview. Sounds very interesting. Now I’m going to have to track it down and read it. Thanks for the tip.
Quite a number of years ago, as I was finishing up my college education (or so I thought, but that’s another story), I investigation a position with the DEA, called a “Compliance Agent”, or something like that. The main idea was to investigate legitimate supply lines between pharmaceutical companies and doctors, hospitals, and drug store, accounting for the total production in attempt to determine if, where, and when legitimate drugs were being siphoned off for illicit purposes. This is something that should be done, but this is also more properly the business of legal authorities than UCI, WADA, etc.
On a different note, I see that drug problems have struck Major League Soccer, with 2 players being suspended for PEDs that apparently were obtained in OTC nutritional supplements. See:
http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20081016&content_id=196417&vkey=pr_mls&fext=.jsp
Ange,
The mafia which is referred by Hamilton is the drug mafia operating inside cyclist. That mafia is made not only by cyclists, there is too the DS, some people of managements, and so… That mafia forces riders to shut up. Bassons was a victim of that mafia.
You seem to say Kohl came right out and confessed, giving him credit for being ‘brave'(not your words exactly) — but did he not deny that he doped and was ‘In tears’ at the allegations in the first day or two? Now to come forth and tearfully admit his guilt does not make him any less quilty, he may only be sorry, for himself, that he was caught; if he had not been caught would he not continue to dope? What is his(and all the others who have actually doped and denied)real regret?
Not to say that if you did drugs you should not be allowed to ride again, you should for the first time offender, but beyond that your gone.
On a totally different note, the Tour of Missouri has now become a campaign issue in the race for Missouri Lt. Gov. The incumbent, Peter Kinder, was active in promoting the ToM and now his opponent, Sam Page, is charging that he inappropriately used job development funds to promote the race and has lost “millions” of dollars. The Kinder camp disputes the amount of loses, which apparently actually amounts to about $300,000.
Who’d every thought that a pro stage race would every become a campaign issue here in the heart of the Mid-West?
That’s because politics are B.S. It’s only an issue because Mr. Page doesn’t have anything worthy to promote if he’s talking about a bike race.
Seem to recall the ToG bringing in milliions of dollars to the economy. Yeah, it may cost the govt. some money, but what about all the small business’ that get a big boost from the races?
Geezz. Somebody please slap the politicians….
Van,
Point taken. Still, to admit to having doped, even if the first couple of days he was in denial, is a braver move in my mind than to deny, deny, deny. Of course, it could have been that he was just being practical, too. Looking at how doping cases tend to go, it might be more practical to admit to doping so (even if that’s not the case) than to spend zillions of dollars fighting the system, only to get sanctioned when all is said and done. From an economic point of view, that makes a whole lot of sense, anyway.
William,
When politicians don’t have anything to say on the real issues, they go off and try to raise other, smaller or inconsequential, “issues.” There’s always been politics in cycling, but sometimes cycling becomes a matter of politics. Argh.
Mike,
I’ll be queuing up in the “slap a politician” line, right behind you … 😉
We miss the obvious with Kohl’s situation. Kohl himself points out he doped because he needed good TdF results to maintain his employment. In his estimation, he could not get good results without doping, so he’d be out of a job. But if he doped, and was caught, he’d be out of a job too. Seemingly, we are willing to congratulate the confessed doper – he “owned up” – but what seems reasonably clear is that Kohl was most upset at was getting caught. He was very willing to take that money from S.L. and presumably deprive a clean athlete of the just rewards of hard work: a good paying job. Yeah, Kohl’s a real stand up guy.
Show me the athlete that doped, then without provocation or accusation confesses to doping, and I might be willing to forgive and forget. (You might want to point to Riis, but it seems the statute of limitations had run on him, and there would be little consequence.) We can make the legal consequences as draconian as we want, but we still have to address the issue of “if I’m gonna be out anyway, what do I have to lose?” mentality.
eightzero,
I guess sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees. Or the trees for the leaves (though not this time of year, after they’ve all fallen to the ground…). Good point.
Deterrent has to be coupled with detection in order to work; this is one area where the present system seems to fall down. If we accept the conventional wisdom that there are many more dopers than are caught, any prospective doper would more than likely factor in both the severity of penalty if caught with the chances on being caught. And it is the perception of the probability of being caught which is important, not necessarily the actual chances.
Many hold that a large percentage of the peloton dopes and consequently, since only a handful at most have been caught in recent years, the chances of being caught are low. This is especially true if you are not podium material, as half the tests done in the TdF were taken from the podium (top GC and stage winner). So if your career is based on being a good domestique and making the time cut-off, or being a “promising” rider who finishes, say top 20, you can avoid the top spots and reduce your chances of being tested by one half. And even if your are tested, there is seemingly a good chance of not being caught. If we take the additional B sample testing done in Landis’ case at face value, about 1/2 the time the A tests missed what the B tests seem to say should have been positive results.
Gambling and winning occasionally can be strongly addictive. If many riders from the period of say 1990 thru 2006 were doping, they were rolling the dice and avoiding crapping out. Each time they did so, it would tend to re-enforce the desire to take another roll; each time another rider got away with it (or at least was believed to have gotten away with doping) would further re-enforce the desire while offering additional incentive in the form of “I have to dope in order to be competitive.”