Hey Dave, It Was a Ridiculously Low Bar!

The bar is soooo low!

Amidst all the Freeman hysteria, once again, it’s incumbent upon the public to suspend belief in the math, physics, and logic of a situation that just spawns more questions by the second about a situation that is fraught with at least one solitary consistency. That being the culture at Sky/British Cycling. This morning, the calls to protect Richard Freeman, point to a larger issue of culture.

The promise of Team Sky was taken by a media community hungry for a Kansas City shuffle that would distract from past questions around the sport and provide a new breed of heroes creating a dynasty on the back of marginal gains. Better pillows, clean hands, smoother pedal strokes, and just a new generation of go-getters that had Echo and the Bunnymen's “Doing it Clean” on a continuous loop.

Promises were made, pronouncements of transparency and some basic tenets laid out that would differentiate this wild concept from the remainder of the peloton. They laid out a little something like this: (I am paraphrasing of course, and I would like to thank Sticky Bottle for their excellent summary of the promises from 2016 — https://www.stickybottle.com/blogs/opinion-has-team-sky-kept-the-promises-it-made-on-anti-doping/).

1. Prove that you can win clean
2. Zero tolerance for doping
3. Don’t hire cycling doctors — but — did you mean doping doctors?
4. Prove BEYOND A DOUBT — that the Tour can be won clean

So let’s recap. What came from on high as the new sacred scrolls of cycling was a ridiculously low bar! The promises that put the media in their pocket, and made believers again of many who had fallen to cynicism after past scandals (the names are of course irrelevant, but the comparisons were important), merely a promise to FOLLOW THE RULES! A proclamation that we are different because we are not going to cheat just proves the legacy of cheating that is accepted within the confines of the Omerta of convenience that exists in the pro peloton, the sponsors, and the media.

Let’s get our glossary words straight. Cheating is cheating. Micro dosing is cheating, testogel is cheating. It is a banned substance and had no place anywhere near the velodrome. So in one stroke, there are enough questions, to flunk Sky on items 1–4. And if I need to answer the Sutton question — I will ask you — really, do you have your work doctor order your E.D. supplies to the workplace? If it was one rider — a non-consequential rider even, as many have speculated — it is still a banned substance for a rider, and that alone casts a pall over the entire set of promises made, and demands that the complicit parties start asking the questions that matter, whether it be a legal trial, a medical trial, or just an internal investigation of whether “the company” is following its own ethical guidelines.

But Congratulations are in Order!

But somehow congratulations are in order because a new bar was set. Flying under the flag of the largest and most influential popular opinion machine — possibly in history — the media have been frightened into a stunning silence, post-Freeman. With cycling’s Oswald now (for the time being), out of the way, there is nothing to see here. Problem solved, the crime punished, and no further questions to ask. Done and done.

Or is it? Outside of the questions of drug use, cheating in and out of competition, or whatever questions asked by anyone who hasn’t suspended belief in math, physics, and logic, there is the culture.

I am not a member of the cycling media, so I guess I can speak with impunity without fear of retribution. We shall see. But when the man who said that marginal gains, the best pillows, the handwashing, and attention to every single detail, doesn’t know that a doctor is ordering a banned substance to the velodrome, or doesn’t know the contents of a package that may have been injected into his number one rider, then something is amiss. I will take “The Obvious” please Mr. Trebek for $600, please.

We must ask ourselves what is the culture at Sky/Ineos, and what has been the culture surrounding this organization, and indeed all of cycling? Truly this incident has only proven that the Omerta has been deepened. That is the new bar that has been set. Truly the silence speaks volumes about the implications of asking questions or speaking up, and so the wagons are circled and the Omerta wall is fortified.

The higher the bar is proclaimed (even though it is a ridiculously low bar as we have said), the more the deepest, darkest, secrets seem to need protecting. The complicit silence of the media is deafening. With multiple high-profile races and plenty of time for commentary, nothing has been said. Richard Freeman, now struck off, stands alone as the patsy and has either been paid handsomely for misleading or inaccurate testimony or has been threatened to the point of maintaining this charade that is an affront to common sense. Either way, this person's life is now owned by the Omerta and the bullying it produces. The bullying within and without from Sky, the media, and all of those that keep shouting “Say it ain’t so Joe” of anything being out of order in Machester.