The State of Cycling

This is the first article I have written for bleacher report, however, I've read probably hundreds of well written articles on numerous sports.  The common theme among all of the sports is that our athletes are the greatest.

Cycling is probably one of the most looked over sports in the entire world. With the exception of Belgium, and France in July, cycling is usually a little more than a footnote in a sports page, even when Lance was dominating the tour.

It seems the only real press cycling gets is when when of our high profile athletes tests positive at the Tour or Olympics. 

Cycling is very different than "ball"  or other sports where national pride is on the line. Most of the teams in cycling are very diverse with riders being from several different countries. Euskadel is the exception, their team is made up of riders from the Basque region of Spain (and all of their names start with X). 

Regardless cycling is probably a harder sport to follow because the racers do not wear their names on their jerseys or have permanently assigned numbers. How many times have you been watching the tour and hear Phil Leggett call out the wrong rider? Again I digress.

Our sport is now in a crisis both financially and  morally. Teams are beginning to feel the financial crunch, even the mighty Astana team has been paying it's riders late. Other teams have folded all together. On top of financial problems more riders have tested positive for CERA during the Beijing Olympics.

With some of our sports athlete's problems and the financial turmoil cycling is in a position that I don't think it has ever been in. In the last two years we have seen races dropped from the calendar as well as fighting between the ASO and UCI over promotions.  This all leaves the riders in a bad spot because they are caught in the middle of two rival factions.

The solution to the problems in professional cycling are not going to be fixed over night but if you look at the issues at hand, doping, money, the lack of sponsors, they all kind of fall in the same boat.

Here is what I mean, the teams are in financial trouble because the big sponsors have pulled  out of the sport they do not want their products to have attachments to doping scandals.

So now these teams are crippled because they have to divert negative publicity and still pay their honest workers while dealing with the sanctioning bodies fighting over where they can and can not race. 

Here's a place to start.  Make the sanctions the same across the board. For a two-year period starting next season make the punishment more a failed test (after confirmation of B sample) a life time ban.

If more than two riders from any team test positive in a season fine the team $100,000 euros or whatever currency would be equivalent per test and any more than four riders per team in a one season period revoke their charter and do not allow the team in any sanctioned races. 

Second, fix the race calendar.  I understand that some races carry more weight than others but does the season really need to start in January? Make Qatar and California the first real races of the year preferably closer to the beginning on March.

On that same note, do no touch the spring classics. 

These races should be pro  cycling's bread and butter but they are not as well promoted as the Tour. Start showing Flanders or Roubaix on TV and give them the focus that the Tour gets.

Cut the tour of Spain back to two weeks and award the most consistent rider of the three grand tours (Italy, France, Spain). Make the team time trial mandatory in all three grand tours.  Then award the most consistent team at the end of the year.

Make the end of the year crit races count for something.

As far as the doping issues in cycling, there are no easy fixes. You can have all of the controls put into place but it is up to each individual to monitor what goes into their own bodies. The biological passport is a good start.

It makes the riders responsible for their whereabouts at all times to be available for testing. 

Do not publish test results until you are sure an athlete is positive that is test, retest and test samples b through whatever to ensure a non-negative result. Establish well documented thresh holds for testing with riders who have exclusions such as asthma inhalers, diabetics, etc.

Produce in layman's terms a solid list of banned substances to the team doctors, directors, managers, riders, everybody involved within the teams so that everybody knows what is banned what is not. Do not allow riders to consult outside doctors for prescriptions and testing. 

Last but not least can Operacion Puerto, some riders were caught, some got away, the entire sport was ruined since 2006 it is time to move on.