The McCarthy-esque witch hunt
July 26, 2007The day after.
My feelings were best summed up by Rabo cyclist Micheal Boogerd, multiple times national champion and winner of various stages in the Tour. When asked if he felt betrayed by Rasmussen, he said:
No, no, not at all. I feel sorry for him. His life is ruined, he will never be able to do the thing he devoted his life to.
And, more telling, when he was asked if he agreed with the decision to axe Rasmussen, he said:
Agree… Don’t agree. It’s irrelevant. I don’t want to cycle any more.
You could clearly see it in Micheal’s eyes: he disagreed thoroughly with the decision.
Interestingly, Rasmussen has again stated his innocence today. In the Danish papers he repeated he was in Mexico, not in Italy. In other words, Theo de Rooij, the team leader, was lying when he said Rasmussen admitted to him being in Italy and not in Mexico.
So now it’s the words of an Italian against the words of a Dane. No offense, but it’s crystal clear to me which of the two not to believe, seeing their origins (I mean, people from Southern Europe screw each other in the soccer world too). Apart from that, you have to ask yourself: what does an Italian ex-cyclist now working for the Italian television as an analyst have to gain by breaking this ‘news’?
Exactly. Money, fame.
Let the McCarthy-esque witch hunt continue. Contador is in the yellow jersey now, right? He has been accused of doping before… Until a French person has the yellow jersey, this which hunt will continue.
>Until a French person has the yellow jersey, this which hunt will continue.
This is unfair, and not true. Tour de France is a matter of national pride for the French and they really are not going to sacrifice the race just to see a French up there. The “witch hunt” is just because people ARE doping and now they have more ways to see if a sample was clean or not. There are rumors that Armstrong’s samples were not clean back then, when they didn’t have the technology to detect them yet. But now they do, they try to learn from history and they try to make the race as clean as possible. Now, Rassmusen might or might not be innocent, but thing is he was fired from the national team too, so something smells funny with him anyway.
Comment by Eugenia — July 27, 2007 @ 3:16 am
The cycling federation needs to send a clear message to the riders. I say cancel a year’s worth of events. That should send a pretty clear message.
I love cycling…I used to ride competitively, and I have to say I know exactly how Boogerd feels right now. I don’t even want to watch it on TV anymore, much less participate. They are the laughing stock of the professional sports world right now (almost as much as US baseball is), and the atmosphere amongst cyclists I know here in the states is one of shame, and not taking the athletes at that level seriously at all.
Comment by jayson knight — July 27, 2007 @ 4:02 am