Frank discussion
[ posted by iain Wednesday, October 08, 2003 ]
Whether you are vehemently anti-doping or accept it as a forever present element in sports where the physical demands on athletes necessitate its use, it is impossible not to see that the doping scandals of recent years have seriously damaged the image of many sports, and none more so than cycling.
If Frank Vandenbroucke's alleged confessions have been reported correctly [
cyclingnews - Saturday Oct 04 ] then it will be fascinating to see if and how he manages to continue his cycling career.
For somone who has been so embroiled in scandals and personal problems in the past few years to make a return to the career heights he reached during his superb 1999 season would be quite astonishing.
Setting aside the potential obstacles of bans and custodial sentences making a sucessful return to the top must depend hugely on the reaction from teams, sponsors, fellow riders, the press and the fans. Fortunately (maybe unfortunately) there seems to have been more than a few episodes in recent years from which to learn lessons.
Pantani,
Ullrich, Zulle and Virenque have all made comebacks from scandals of varying degrees of seriousness, albeit with limited success for some of them. For the latter two, the way they reacted to the
1999 Festina affair made a big difference to the speed of their comebacks. However, although both have tasted success since, I believe Zulle has done so with much less of a smear to his character. His relatively immediate admission and acceptance meant he returned with the image of a someone who served his time and was left to continue his career carrying very little baggage from his past. Judging by this maybe Vandenbroucke's alleged admission may serve him well.
Virenque on the other hand has relied on something else to ease his return. His popularity. "Housewive's favourite", "Tricky Dicky", call him what you want. His popularity with the French fans has, to the chagrin of the officials, helped him overcome a very serious image problem. Pantani and Ullrich have also both benefitted from being very popular riders when caught in sticky situations. Why are they popular? Because they are all three very talented cyclists. Between them they have given the Tour some of its greatest moments of the past decade. And here's the rub.
Riders like these are needed by everyone involved in cycling. Teams and sponsors need talented high profile riders to raise there rankings and provide better media coverage. Race organisers need to attract riders like these to promote their events and provide competitive high quality racing. The fans want to see these riders because they will provide them with some of their greatest memories as spectators.
For the teams, it's a fine balance between demonstrating an intolerance of doping (and other misdemeanors) and needing to secure the services of good high profile riders. Telekom [ now T- Mobile ] being a recent example. For the fans, it's the balance between passion for the sport and any moral contentions they may have.
All of these factors bode well for Vandenbroucke , a very talented and popular rider, who is about to enter a very testing period in his career.
