Wednesday update

I am very pleased to see Dekker getting caught at long last. Finally the rider forever dubbed by the Dutch as The Great Talent is revealed for what he really is, just another doper. I hope that many more of the past samples that contained Dynepo will also be re-tested, as I am sure that there are many other riders who were doing the same as Dekker, including Rasmussen for one. I guess that could count as a second offense and the Chicken could get life. Good riddance. The more and more times we see these rumors of doping being proven true, the harder it becomes to ignore other unproven rumors under the proviso of innocent until proven guilty. Time after time, it seems that those riders who have a cloud of suspicion over them, and who make loud protestations of how unfairly they are being treated, turn out to be guilty. Ricco, Sella, Piepoli, Rebellin, Schumacher, Kohl. It also provides more firepower for those who rightfully object to riders using doping doctors such as Cecchini or Ferrari for "training plans". Dekker's once-close relationship with Cecchini was such that the good doctor claimed he viewed him as a son, and Dekker moved to Italy specifically to live nearby. Shows what a bit a bad fatherly advice will get you. Busted.

This turn of events also casts a dark cloud over Silence-Lotto, for the very fact that they hired Dekker (never mind Kohl) while many other teams refused to hire him based on the evidence they reviewed. Notably, Garmin thoroughly examined Dekker's background and blood profiles and found something that made them refuse to offer him a contract. Lotto surely reviewed much of the same evidence, yet their scrutiny reached a very different conclusion. Why? It seems clear that Garmin's standards are just plain higher and they have a lower tolerance of risk for those riders whose behavior and past falls into that vast gray area of suspicion. Lotto's willingness to overlook whatever it was that made Garmin reject Dekker suggests that they seriously need to reevaluate their hiring criteria. Kohl's comments on this topic were also instructive, as he thought that Silence-Lotto looked at his blood profiles, knew exactly what he was up to, and hired him anyway precisely because his profiles showed that he was skilled at careful blood doping without raising overt suspicion.

The next piece of the puzzle in this case is the Humanplasma scandal which involves a variety of former and current Rabobank riders. Dekker's close friend at Rabobank was Boogerd. Boogerd's retirement and breaking of links to Rabobank, Dekker's now-not-so mysterious fallout with Rabobank, Rabobank's increased fear of doping after the Rasmussen debacle, the first press reports of the Humanplasma case (including Boogerd's name), and Kohl's reported naming of names to AFLD (perhaps including Dekker?), now all seem to possibly be pieces of the same sprawling puzzle, slowly fitting together. Kohl's quite specific information on the transfusion business run out of the Humanplasma lab makes all the flat denials of implicated riders such as Boogerd, Menchov, and Rasmussen seem rather empty. Kohl's case proves that a doping ring was run from that lab and he was hardly the only rider involved. Perhaps it is only a matter of time before more of these riders are caught based on the growing web of evidence arising out of the Austrian crackdown linked to Kohl and his manager, the bio-passport data, and more retro-active testing.

Another issue this case raises is what role physiologists or trainers play in catching doping. In tests with the Dutch national team at various ages, and in other venues, Dekker was constantly heralded as a great talent based on his physiology and natural ability. So was he actually clean at those times, or were the testing values being manipulated by doping that all the power gurus and number crunchers were simply oblivious to? Was he really a great talent, or was he just good at using dope and fooling people? Should a good physiologist be able to tell by power numbers and other data when a rider starts and stops doping, or if he simply has impossibly good numbers? (Seems that Lim's experience with Landis says no?) Consider the fact that Rabobank was so desperate to keep the long-awaited new hope for Dutch cycling success on their team, that when Dekker said he was going to start working with Cecchini, they were actually afraid to tell him flatly that he was forbidden to do so. They wanted to keep him happy so he would stay on their team, such was the overwhelming perception of his vast talent. Yet, since Dekker stopped working with Cecchini, his performances have been intermittent at best, inexplicably terrible at worst (often blamed on his hip problem, which may be real, but is also rather convenient). So far this season, he has been strangely invisible in most races, hardly up to his old standards. Did he go clean? And if he is clean, where is all that great natural talent? Or was it just dope all along and all those drooling physiologists were just duped? LeMond has suggested that data from power output can be a way to detect doping. Yet, with known-doped riders whose power outputs and physiology have no doubt been recorded and studied in great detail, such as Dekker and Landis, it did not seem to have alerted anyone to doping until it was far, far too late...unless perhaps there was marked tendency toward willing suspension of disbelief? Heads in the sand? A refusal to be the one to discredit The Great Dutch Talent? Was Dekker so clever he could fool a raft of coaches, physiologists, and trainers? Or did they just not want to see the evidence right in front of them?

In other news, I was looking at Tour rosters and especially Cervelo's. It got me thinking...is it not a bit strange and even rather sad that the defending Tour de France winner does not even get a whole team devoted to his cause at this year's race? Look at the Cervelo roster and it is one of those lame mish-mash sprinter/GC teams like Lotto used to always be with Evans and McEwen. Half for Hushovd/Haussler and half for Sastre. I am afraid that poor long-suffering Sastre may find his chances of repeating as victor reduced by the lack of enough support riders specifically dedicated to his cause. If Hushovd ends up being in the running for the green jersey, it will even be worse. Cervelo is showing precious little faith in Sastre by hedging their bets in such a manner, especially after all those now-seemingly rather misleading early season claims that the Cervelo team would be built around Sastre. Not so much. If anyone can quietly persevere despite a lack of commitment from his team, it is the implacable and stubborn Sastre, whose amiable exterior masks an iron-willed tenacity, yet it gives me a bad impression of both the Cervelo management and sponsors that they are not willing to commit 100% of their team's resources to supporting the success of a deserving rider who has proven that he is capable of winning the Tour. If Sastre wins again, it will seem to be despite rather than because of his team's roster. Riders such as Haussler and Hushovd have already had their big chances for success this year, and have achieved it, so what would be the harm of Cervelo picking a Tour team where all nine riders were there for one reason only, to win the Tour. It must sting for Sastre to see his unfortunately hostile ouster from Saxo Bank and much heralded move to Cervelo go this way. He has so rarely had the chance to ride for himself on a team dedicated totally to his success. Last year he had to fend off the inter-team squabbling between himself and the Schlecks and the seeming ambivalence of Riis. Before that, he was often called on to ride support for dopers such as Basso, a rider who he apparently is better than when the playing field is rather more level. Now he is again given less than a clear shot at a Tour win and it just seems wrong. Without a single bad day in the mountains like he had at the Giro, and with a bit of luck and form, Sastre could win the Tour. If he does, Cervelo will have some very awkward PR scrambling to do to try to explain their tepid half-baked support of his success. People have heaped criticism on Cervelo's tactical bungling after the Pauwels incident at the Giro, yet it seems to me that this is hardly Cervelo's only glaring mistake this season. If Sastre crumbles at the Tour, I guess they will look smart, but it still would have been an honorable and decent thing to do to grant their greatest champion their full and complete commitment.

In other weirdness, I was on Myspace yesterday and there was this giant ad on the top of the page. A set of eyes peering at me (just like this ad from Youtube). I stared, taken aback. Could it be? No? A certain recognizable visage, with that tinge of arrogance and conceit. Yes, it was LA staring evilly at me from Myspace, part of the giant and loathsome Nike ad campaign. I can't escape it, even when engaged in totally non-cycling related endeavors, he's everywhere! This may be a long July....