The doping bans continue...

Another cyclist, this time, a woman, has been banned, for life, for testing positive for rEPO that was found when she was tested in competition at the Tour de Toona this past year. All I can say, is that Genevieve Jeanson, the woman who got busted, let's just say, this isn't a shocking surprise honestly. Why you ask? Well, since she came onto the cycling scene, she has dominated. And I don't mean just winning a race here and there, but actually dominating the elite of all women cyclists in the world. She was doing times in her time trials that would have put her a lot of the times, in the top 10 of the men's pro race. This is not to say that this couldn't happen, it's just that nobody else in the women's ranks were doing this, or even coming close for that matter. She would get into a race, and simply ride off the front of the pack, and never be seen again. I saw her race several times first hand, and saw her throw it down, and destroy women's fields most of the time, on her own. She had a team, and a few teammates here and there, but she didn't need them. She was way too strong for everyone else, and let's just say that suspicion ran very high amongst the women in the rank and file of the cycling world. I know a few of the pro women, and that's all they would ever say, that Jeanson was on the juice, and really judging from her performances in some of her races, there is really no doubt about, and of course, now we have the positive test result as well. She also had some strange behavior, namely, going to races where she knew there wouldn't be doping controls, avoiding European races for that same reason, and basically staying in North America and cleaning up here. Her coach, was also pretty shady, or known as such in the world of cycling. Andre Abut, lots of questions hanging around him, and there was always the question of what kind of relationship did they have between coach and athlete, because there was lots of talk about them being together, if you know what I mean, and I think that you do. Also, another piece of evidence against her fell into place a couple of years ago when she was busted for a high hematocrit level at World Championships the year they were in Canada. Now, this is not an indictment of EPO use, but a higher than normal red blood cell count normally indicates abuse of something that raises said levels, namely EPO. When you get popped for a high 'crit level though, essentially the UCI asks you to take a few weeks off. You're not suspended, but you're under a light and people are looking your way. The following race season, Canada would not issue a racing license to Jeanson, so she got one from USA cycling, where she spent most of her year anyway. This license was issued to her with the knowledge that if she messed up, she would be banned for life possibly. That Spring, she missed a doping control at the women's Fleche Wallone race, and in the eyes of the UCI, this is the same as being positive for something. She was not suspended again, but given a warning, after her excuse for missing the test was checked out and found to have veracity and some truth to it. Her excuse? She left the race site, and did not hear her name called for random doping controls. Shortly after that, her doctor was busted for prescribing illegal performance enhancing drugs to the athletes under his care, which he admitted, but then took back after pressures were brought onto him. He had a book of doping clients, and what he gave them, but that was quietly stashed away, and nothing could ever get proven from her doctor. Now fast forward to 2005, she is racing the Tour de Toona in Pennsylvania, her name is called for random. She gets busted, and now, to make a long story longer, she's out, banned for life, and since she's banned for life, she has decided to retire from cycling. It's troubling really, because she appeared to be a cyclist who could have had a good career regardless of what kind of substances that she took. She was naturally strong, and naturally gifted, but I think winning, and the pressure of an overbearing coach took its toll on her, and then she was expected to win, and she took the sure route to winning. She doped, and now, she can never participate in cycling again. She severely screwed up, and now, she's out and will never come back. And to her, I say good riddance. We don't need her type in the sport, we don't need her to screw things up more for the sport, and since she's a doper, she should be drummed out of cycling, and I'm glad that she's gone, never to return again. It is people like her, that damages our sport, and makes people wonder about the performances of athletes who do compete in this sport, and question their results constantly. Jeanson is damaged goods.

I've got another bone to pick with the cycling community in America in general. Look people, especially ones who organize and put on races, can you stop naming your races Tour de something or other? I ask this because first of all, we're not in France here. Only in France is it OK to call your race Tour de France for instance. Why? Because it is your nation's language. In the good old USA, why can't we just say Tour of Georgia instead of Tour de Georgia. It just sounds silly, and stupid. And this year, we have the Tour de Toona (as mentioned above) and of course the new race, the Tour de California. Cripes it's annoying to me. I don't know why, but it just is. Use the word "of" in place of "de", it doesn't make your race anymore European to use "de" in the title of the race, it doesn't make it more mysterious and or international, it just makes it sound stupid. They just need to give that shit up and get on with it. If I ever put on a race, there will be no "de" in the title of it. It will be something like, "The Leg Breaker Tour" or maybe the "Bite Your Stem Criterium" or something like that, indicating that it's going to be a hard race. Don't get me wrong. I like France, and the French, great people and great country, it's just that, a race running through the Georgia countryside is about as far from France as you're going to get. Which brings me to another point. I am betting that the Tour of George (I refuse to use its proper name) is going to die after this year. They have had a couple of good years, but just 2 years ago, it looked like it was going to flop over and die, but a certain cyclist named Lance Armstrong decided to race it, and that brought in the sponsors. That brought in the money. Guess what though? This year, there won't be Lance there, he's retired, and I think we're going to see it, and lots of other races around the country dry up, as the so-called "Lance Effect" wears off, and people decide that they don't care about cycling again. And really, before 3 years ago, people still didn't know much about it. With the hype of Lance winning his 5th Tour de France in a row, and then his 6th and then his 7th, well those wins brought the people running, but now that he's gone, cycling is going to be ignored again, and settle back into oblivion. I hope that I'm wrong about this, but I don't think that I will be. You'll see, people don't know any other cyclists out there anyway aside from Lance Armstrong, so this stands to reason really that people won't pay attention again. The same thing happened when Greg "I won a virtual 5 Tours de France" Lemond retired back in the early 90's. People in the US, if we don't have a pony in the biggest race, forget about what is going on over in Europe during the race season. Unless another American can pull a win, or even a good finish in the Tour again this year, and we do have some contenders in there that could pull out a win this coming July. The list could go as follows:

Floyd Landis
Levi Leipheimer
Tom Danielson
Bobby Julich (real outside chance there)
And the guy that I would love to see do really well at the Tour: George "I need a sandwich" Hincapie

Now some of the above names have experience in racing big grand tours, well, actually they all do. We'll just have to see what could happen this year. We'll have to see how it all shakes loose. I'm kind of excited for the Tour de France this year, because for the first time in 7 years, we don't know who is going to win this year. We have a good idea who the players are going to be, but we don't know for sure. Yeah, of course, there were always people who were gunning for Lance, and who talked a good game, but nobody could ever come through and do anything about it. The list for contenders this year is growing by the day I think. I think honestly we could see a lot different guys come to the forefront, some for a second time, others for the first. It's going to be interesting.

That's about all the thoughts I have for now. Right now, the Steelers are kicking the crap out of the Broncos, so there is a good chance they'll be back at the big game here in a couple of weeks. Then later today, it is going to be the Carolina Panthers against the Seahawks for the second spot in the Super Bowl. I'm hoping for a Steelers Panthers showdown in Detroit, because than I can heckle my friend The Chad when the Panthers lose again. Yeah, as I said before, I'm a hater.