When will come the end?

Before embarking on a journey of revenge, first dig two graves. --Chinese proverb

Or, in this case, a grave big enough to bury the entire sport of cycling. So the ASO wants revenge, do they? Well, they best beware what they wish for, as they may just get it. But it could well spell their own demise as well. Stooping to the level of those you despise only makes you no different and no better than them. Petulance, small-mindedness, and revenge are not traits that will endear the ASO, or the UCI for that matter, to anyone.

If the Astana of 2008 is not good enough, then what team is? Rabobank? Surely not, as they still have the same DS who knowingly allowed Rasmussen to smear his filthy lies all over the Tour's sacred yellow jersey last year. CSC? Surely not, Riis befouled the Tour as badly as anyone. Cofidis? Surely not, Moreni was blatantly slapping on the testosterone gel amidst the Tour's pomp and circumstance last year. Slipstream? Surely not, David Millar once took dope. Do you see where this is going? Nowhere at all. It quickly becomes idiotic and ridiculous to go down this road. If you want to punish every team that ever was full of dopers, then there will be no teams at the Tour. Not one. Let's just get this straight: cycling's past is absolutely rife with dopers. Dopers everywhere you look, on every team, from every country, in every place in the GC from the top to the lanterne rouge. At some point it must become a useless and contradictory game to continually play "let's blame the dopers of the past for all our troubles." Picking out Astana as the one big villain is idiotic, when there are enough other bad-guys to fill a stadium. Also, is it really a good idea for Damsgaard's anti-doping plan to be panned with such impunity? If Damsgaard's plan is not good enough for Astana, then why is it good enough for CSC?

I am so tired of this. I am tired of chronicling an almost unimaginably dysfunctional sport. I am saddened by reading the floods of angry emails from disgruntled cycling fans whose potent disillusion only grows by the day. I am tired of watching the UCI and the ASO viciously attacking each other without ever considering that the real victim of their war is the sport itself, which lies bleeding to death at their feet, ignored and forgotten. In such a battle, death may well come to both opponents, and richly would they both deserve it, after the way they each have wielded their power with such recklessness and irresponsibility. I am tired of so-called anti-doping actions which do nothing to reduce doping, and are only indicative of selfishness, greed, larger long-held grudges, and deeper hidden agendas. I am tired of letting the past rule and destroy the future. Who has the courage and the vision to stop such an endless downward spiral? What team or rider or fan can now look upon the upcoming season with anything but a looming sense of dread. The upcoming threat of multiple boycotts, months of public recriminations, chaos, and worst of all, many a riders' greatest dreams destroyed, makes me feel sick and sad and powerless. Do the riders, who already struggle and suffer so much to pursue their passion, deserve such a fate as to be treated with such total disregard and disdain by the very people who are supposedly charged with organizing the best races and governing the sport?

The ASO is angry. They have seen their flagship event smeared year after year by a cast of such irredeemable reprobates and con-men that no one can blame them for wanting to get even. Yet at the same time, when great power is wielded irresponsibly, who does that make look bad? The ASO, not the dopers. They have today shown a strange lack of logic, punishing riders such as Chris Horner for the crimes of riders like Vino. A spiral of revenge only will serve to further destroy the sport. Potential new sponsors will look upon this nonsensical storm of mayhem and wonder how a sport can possibly be so dysfunctional and even continue to exist. Innocent riders who are caught in the crossfire of a battle driven by greed and power-hungry politicos find their dreams crushed without a second thought, no matter if they have in fact fully embraced the idea of clean cycling.

There is no going back, but also no going forward if ASO has their way. Who should turn the other cheek? The riders, who are often the powerless ones already, or the UCI, who has mismanaged the sport to the brink of disaster? Or the ASO, who could be the ones to set a new course for the future, if they had the courage to do it. At some point, it has to end. At some point I have to decide that I don't care if Contador was dirty once at some point in the past, I must only care if he is clean NOW and will be clean in the races this season. If I can say with some degree of certainty that he will be, then fine, let him ride. There must come an end to this at some point. That is not to say that we should not be well-educated and aware of the history of doping, but only that we cannot let it hold hostage the future. If Damsgaard's anti-doping program is not the best out there, then I would like to know whose is better? If I cannot believe that Damsgaard can catch Contador if he tries to dope, then there is no hope left at all. If we cannot say that there will be an end to the insanity of the ASO vs UCI war, an end to the petty squabbling, an end to the playing of favorites, and the start of a new chance, then there is no point to going on. Let the sport die and let us stand at its grave and weep at the indignity and stupidity of a needless, pointless death. The future cannot be found in hating the past ever more, in punishing today's riders for the sins of the doped generations of cycling's history. If biological passports, and team anti-doping programs such as ACE or Damsgaard, are to be given a chance to prove their worth, then the teams who use these anti-doping methods absolutely must be given a fair chance to truly show and prove their efficacy amidst the heavy pressures and demands of a full schedule of races.

But I am tired of writing these empty, angry rants. I wanted to write about Danielson winning the climb of Mt. Faron in the Tour of the Med. I want to write about Remy DiGregorio becoming a new French icon. I want to write about Thor Hushovd beating McEwen. I want to write about Frank Schleck helping his brother up the last climb of the Tour's queen stage to let Andy take the yellow jersey. I want to write about Jens stealing a Tour stage in a blazing breakaway. I want to write about Sastre winning a Grand Tour. I want to write about Z or Millar winning a big time trial. I want to write about Martijn Maaskant or Farrar winning a classic. I want to write about Ciolek and Cav beating Boonen. I want to write about Michael Barry riding in the Tour de France at long last. I want to write about some unknown, unheralded neo-pro breaking through with a courageous win and then collapsing in sobs in the arms of his soigneur. I want to write about the courage of riders who come back from terrible injuries and illnesses. About the noble tolerance of suffering and the beauty of the grace, spirit, and purity of the sport at its finest moments. Where have these moments gone? When will come the end of the dark days of cycling's current ugly stalemate?