Following the Money — My Cycling Innocence Lost

Fear and Loathing on the Col de Peyresourde, Cycling on Trial in the U.K. a handshake deal to get a superstar to the Giro, 6.5 w/kg the New Gold Standard — Hey Rube, Where’s the Renewal?

With gratitude to Hunter S. Thompson for the spiritual guidance on the headline.

Cycling only really became a passion of mine in 2007. Before then I didn’t know much, and admittedly I still don’t. While I have seen where Tom Simpson collapsed, I can probably, just barely, put together the whole story. Five years into my enthusiasm for a sport that I could both watch with a passion and practice with an even greater passion, there I was saying “say it ain’t so Lance, say it ain’t so.”, because yes, I bought lock, stock, and two smoking barrels that Lance Armstrong had “never failed a doping test”. A friend told me one night — “oh yeah, there are some guys apparently that dope, and some guys that push other guys to dope, and he’s both”.

Finally outed and exposed for the unmoved, unrepentant, bullying psychopath that he and his sick lot of fixers are, I then, regrettably bought into the myth of the new generation. My Barney Fife optimism and gullibility remained in control of my sensibilities as I continued to watch. My entrance to the sport was in a mythical, magical time where it’s new, young generation, boasted that they “were never cleaner”. And so I took them at their word.

I really believed in it. I wanted to believe in it, I had left all my other interest in sport behind to follow this. My summers now filled with watching Tour and Giro reruns, my Fall Sundays in the saddle, instead of in front of the NFL. Weight down, confidence up, becoming a cyclist, and continually riding into form. A part of the whole thing that is, as of yet, unsoiled, and unspoiled — the Sunday ride that is — by the haunting doubts of “is he clean? Really?”

My journey in cycling, riding, writing, watching the Monuments and Grand Tours, and foray into racing as an old-man amateur continued pretty much without incident until learning of doping in amateur sports. I didn’t think about doping in cycling anymore because there wasn’t a lot of news about it. But learning more, writing more, and asking more questions about why anyone would dope in an amateur event was a fascinating turn. The answer was pretty simple — ego. An easy to understand motivation for anyone that has ever been tempted to take that shortcut that got them that extra pat on the back at work, the easy A in school, or allowed them to build themselves on a lie they told themselves. But that’s a whole other thing. (You can read more about it here — https://medium.com/@chris.geiser/breaking-the-complicity-chain-1b91a7f3e13)

Follow the Money

For those who would claim that I have jumped the fence, put on a tinfoil hat, or am blindly following the “doperati”, I would say, maybe you have a claim. But there are facts that my opinions can’t change. Professional cycling is a business. It’s as simple as that. When a business becomes a going concern, those who are not the direct recipients of the proceeds of the business (the organizers and riders), look for the opportunity to cash in on the industries that surround any well thought out business idea. There is no shortage of businesses that have a vested interest in professional cycling. For example:

1. Race organizations
2. The riders
3. The media
4. Tourism (hotels, cars, trains, planes, automobiles, tours, etc…)
5. The bicycle industry (bikes, gruppos, wheels, tires, bidons, cases, computers, clothing, accessories)
6. Sponsoring organizations (did you know who NTT, Belkin, or Rabobank were before you started watching professional cycling? Did you think those “Brooklyn” hats were invented by Spike Lee before you started watching professional cycling? I know I did.)
7. Food/beverage
8. Bookies (legal)
9. Medical

To be sure, there are many that have been left off the list, but the lucky few rattled off here have billions tied up in pro cycling collectively, and these are only the “legitimate” businesses that we know about. As Operation Aderlass has unfolded the onion on the illegal drug trade associated with endurance sports is only beginning to be peeled back. Forget the doping part for a second and think solely about the money that is changing hands in the drugs that are getting to endurance athletes from a number of sports.

Let’s be clear, there is no one “smoking gun” here. But to borrow from politics, and Watergate, the notion of following the money makes sense. With so many stories in each stage of a Grand Tour, there are many who benefit. From the sponsor for each classification jersey, the companies that make those bikes, the magazines that publish the full page ads that say “congratulations so-and-so on doing such-and-such from your friends at really-expensive-fucking-bikes.” And so far, we probably haven’t gotten to the part where, sorry, cycling is still dirty.

The Organizations

Starting at the top and working our way down — who benefits more than the organizations that sanction the races and are sworn to ensure their fairness. According to the website of the UCI — (Union Cycliste Internationale) — the governing body of cycling :

“Established in January 2015, the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal took over the task, previously delegated by the UCI to the National Federations, of handling disciplinary proceedings and rendering decisions concerning anti-doping rules violations. This ensures equality and due process for all riders under the Tribunal’s jurisdiction, regardless of the nationalities. The Tribunal also guarantees a consistent case law. The judges are fully independent from the UCI and were nominated in view of their outstanding expertise in the field of anti-doping and dispute resolution.”

So, no matter who is conducting the testing, the buck stops with the UCI when it comes to making sure that offenders meet justice for their crimes. As with Lance and his saddle sores, we have seen a conflict of interest in this setup in the past. With a checkered past of burying doping positives to preserve the favor of the golden goose, it illustrates that the UCI has much to gain from letting the superstars and super teams have their way. The race is worth more to the media with a big name in the race, than that same big name serving a two year ban while lesser names duke it out in the mountains.

The Media

Which brings us around directly to the media. While looking to preserve the legends of Grand Tours past they remain mum on doping. With former teammates of Lance Armstrong taking to the airwaves and becoming the defacto cycling media here in the USA, there is no mention of the potential of cheating in cycling. To bring it up would be bad for business, and why would they without a positive result to discuss (see above — UCI). No results — mean nothing to discuss. “Leave it be until it gets too loud to ignore”.

To listen to the English speaking media surrounding cycling, you would never know that “doping was even a thing” as it gets nary a mention during race coverage. With fewer and fewer references to the great disgraced on American television, the true American Tom Sawyer (Armstrong), has convinced all the kids in the neighborhood that the whitewashing is fun and that they should get in on it. Both literally and figuratively. With Armstrong out of the picture, one would only assume that commentators would never point to their own transgressions. In Europe former convicted dopers are still celebrated parts of the sport with the likes of David Millar, self-appointing to save the Peloton from itself. But to cover the sport — you have to cover the sport — the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you can cover the injury porn of a crash, and show me the horrifying image of a rider going over a guardrail on a turn in slow motion ten times, then you should have the guts to talk about what might be going wrong in the sport, off the course. To cover the Giro, with U.K. commentators, and not talk about the Dr. Freeman hearings as a part of cycling coverage is to pretend it’s not there. It is very much there. The discussion of banned substances on a cycling team bus, lost rider records via damaged and lost computers, and a sports doctor who claims he knew nothing about doping in sport — all while under the watch of the architect of a team that is out on the course for the race you are calling is a sin of omission in the name of protecting the revenue. I mean, as a business person, I get it. But then maybe you can omit all the “new generation” and “better pillow”, and “they’re called ketones, and they are very interesting” pillow talk that you use to prop the math and physics that seem a little far fetched at 6.5w/kg.

The Sponsors

Paying millions to sponsor a cycling team is a huge bet. As an advertising professional in my daytime life, I can tell you that it might just be one of the worst potential returns on investment you can hope for. Difficult to measure for one, and if your peeps are not on the front setting the pace, or out in the break, those beautiful kits you shelled out for with your larger than life logo on the back are not getting shown. So what would you do to make sure your riders were up front? Better yet, ask yourself what you might tolerate. What wouldn’t you ask about? What wouldn’t you want to know? If you’re going to keep sponsoring that team, you are going to want something back. Trust me. Unless you are a billionaire who loves cycling and has money to burn. But even that guy had his limits.

As the Directeur Sportif of a pro team your motivation is to keep that sponsorship in place so that you know where you and your team’s next meals are coming from. You will scout for the best riders, and give them everything they need to perform. Right? Where is your limit when the golden goose is on the line? Cycling is not, and never will be, on a financial level with any of the major sports like Premier League, the NFL, or NBA. Cycling will always have to scrap and fight for every penny, and cultivate every superstar that feeds the beast and keeps the whole Peloton on the road. Just like the sponsors. What wouldn’t you ask about? What wouldn’t you want to know? The Omerta (the vow of silence taken by the mafia, and allegedly by the Peloton) is your friend here. No one will tell you, and because they didn’t tell you, you had no idea what was happening. (Well, unless of course you are the one who engineers it).

The Bookies/Bettors

Let’s not forget the gambling. The relationship between athletes and bookies is as old as sport itself. Dramatized for all time we picture Brando in On the Waterfront. The boxer with a heart of gold whose mobbed up brother got him to take a dive, and turned him into a bum. A compromised athlete is an easy play for a fixer and a bookie with a vision. For a percentage of the gate, that athlete can influence the outcome of an event through a solitary act. A dropped chain, a feigned illness, siting up and sitting on. A refusal to get up front. The list could go on. What we all need to recognize about sports gambling is that the outcome needn’t be win/lose to make a profound impact on the profits of the bettor or the bookie. It need only influence the outcome to a point that the odds run in their favor. From the point shaving scandals of CCNY to the World Series antics of the 1919 Black Sox, to every missed field goal or free throw that made you doubt what you just saw, it’s usually not as dramatic as a boxer taking a dive. This is a persistent relationship in sports, and no sport is immune. When a rider is compromised whether through doping, debt, or any other issue, an offer from a gambler can be easy money.

The Omerta

Rather than call this out specifically on the riders, let’s put it to the culture of the Peloton. The vow of silence. If doping is discussed, it’s discussed in the third person, which means an accusation. To admit that it is there is to admit that you as a rider are complicit. The Omerta is almost impossible to break, and those that do, find themselves on the outside. So what is the easy choice? If the choice is to suffer in silence and maintain the integrity of not doping you may raise suspicion among the teammates who dope. You fall by the wayside and are perhaps not a valued member of the team. Who will pull for you if they don’t trust that their secret is not safe in your hands. Life may become increasingly difficult to sustain in a team environment where you are not considered a part of the team. And so you may go along to get along as they say, or you may just participate in the charade, build some trust by staying silent, but moral compass aside, you have chosen the more difficult path. Shit — I was barely able to bring myself to name names here. And I’m nobody.

This Proves Nothing

All of this taken bit-by-bit proves absolutely nothing. You can make a list of motivations for just about any easy and “victimless” crime and still be no closer to the truth. But that is really the point. Cycling is exciting and fun to watch. The scenery of the Grand Tours and the monuments is breathtaking at times. It connects us to places (especially now when travel is limited), that we long to go. We can take it at face value if that’s all we want from it. To watch exciting sport, and beautiful scenery and know what it is and know what it isn’t. And if we want to leave it there — fine — but please don’t tell me that a guy who beat a dopers record on a climb is definitely clean because, you know, they don’t dope anymore. We can’t have it both ways, to celebrate the incredible achievement without calling the question. OK, then he broke the record of a doper on a difficult climb. Unpack it for me and tell me how he did it. You have about as much proof as I do. We cannot turn a blind eye and not call the question. We cannot in the face of Armstrong, Aderlass, Freeman, Festina, and every other incident or name that has sullied the sport think that just because someone got caught the danger has passed. That the trouble is over and we are on to a new day. If cycling’s past has taught us anything, it’s that there is always another cheat right around the corner. Just as in other aspects of life. Let’s not pretend that it’s not there because no one has been caught lately.

Solutions?

It’s so easy to bitch about a problem. But the solutions are difficult, especially when financial influences on solutions threaten the status quo. Anti-doping organizations are not mega-billion dollar enterprises that make scads of money catching cheats. They are largely underfunded organizations that don’t have the resources to cover the ground they need to cover to make a real impact. Who does?

Well, I will tell you — insurance companies do. What about this hare brained scheme? Require each licensed team to carry a bond that is somehow backed by an insurance company. The insurance company forfeits the bond value to the race organizers if any one on the team tests positive. That team loses it’s invitation to the dance, and the entire team is suspended until repayment of the bond is complete. Funding for the testing to be provided by — you guessed it — the insurance companies themselves, with a requirement that those expenses and results be certified by an agreed to third party. Insurance companies — if you haven’t noticed, are not fans of losing money. Given the opportunity to write a deal like this though, they will absolutely take it, if they can control the conditions. That means, rider contracts will be laden with penalties that will make a two year ban seem like a cake walk compared to the lien on your mothers house that the Insurance Underwriters of Engulf & Devour are going to put on you. The Director Sportif will have a lot to talk about with current and potential sponsors if suddenly they can’t field a team, have to back out of the race, have saddled the sponsor with an incredible debt, and is now, personally, on the hook for insurance penalties that are written into their contract. Finally, it takes the governing body of cycling out of the judgement business and provides the anti-doping agencies with the funding they would need to not only catch the scams that they know about, but stay ahead of the new crop of “synthetic blood agents”, ketone cocktails, and all the other junk that is leaking into the Peloton in the form of “supplements” and whatever else. EXTREME! WOW! Cruel even. But it would be effective. It would probably also kill professional cycling within two years, but its a place to start.

It’s time to change the model and take the foxes out of the hen house. I offer no proof here — admittedly —just an opportunity to follow the money, and ask the questions.