Down in flames...

I'm not the one going down in flames of course, but one Mr. Jan Ullrich after the revelations of this past week. We have, a man, who I would say is, or rather, was one of my cycling heroes found out that indeed, he did have a bunch of blood banked ready to re-inject into himself to give a little boost on those "off" days. Jan, what the hell were you thinking? I know, all of those tough years when you were supposed to be the golden boy of cycling, the NEXT BIG Tour de France star, and then you had that pesky Armstrong guy roll in and take your thunder. And not only that, but he had a better back story than you did. How do you compete with someone who battles and wins against cancer, and then continues onward to win Tour after Tour after Tour? I could see why you would prescribe to more devious means to go faster, and to be able to possibly take down the Tour champ Armstrong, but you didn't need that. What you needed to be doing was you needed to train more. Lay off the strudel and the danish in the off season, and just go out and ride your bike. But instead, it appears that you decided to try and take shortcuts instead of the hard working route. Yes, I understand, even with the shortcuts you still had to work hard, but man oh man, it's such a disappointment.

Not to mention that the support that you received from your fans over the years was pretty much unparalleled as far as I can tell. People were behind you every single step of the way in your quest to win the biggest most prestigious race on the calendar. Hell, you had the entire nation of Germany cheering you onward up the cols and through the time trials and over the flat stages, and look at the turnout you had when the race took a turn into Germany. Unbelievable how many people lined the roads just to see you pass by.

But then, this week, your career took a turn towards negative town, and even worse, you let your lawyers make stupid statements about why Dr. Fuentes (and OB-Gyb if I'm not mistaken) had 9 bags of YOUR blood in his storage bin. While it being true on the surface that this is not for sure an indication that you blood packed, and or blood doped, but it doesn't look too good my friend, not good at all. And to have one of your lawyers pop up and say that this does not mean anything at all, and that it is "normal" for people to have their blood stored in different locations just makes it look even more insane really. Let the long list of excuses continue. So, if indeed you were storing your blood for a possible future surgery Jan, what kind of surgery was an OB-Gyn going to performing on a world class cyclist anyway? I'm not sure that his particular branch of specialty really applies to you does it?

This week, cycling took another hit to its reputation when your DNA came back matching those blood bags, and literally every good thing you did in your own career Jan has come to be recognized as being tarnished now. The Olympic medals, the Tour title, the national titles, everything, as far as I'm concerned, tarnished. Who knows how long you've been doping, possibly your entire career. It's not as if the East Germans (who you used to ride for) were known as being scrupulous in their means of making their athletes faster, stronger, and better. I'm probably certain that behind the iron curtain, there were many bad things going on as far as doping was concerned. Then you had your "trusted" advisor Rudy Pevenage, who I'm certain, had undue influence on you, and I believe to the detriment of your own career that you listened to him a little too much. He was a hanger on, looking to get rich off of you, and it appears that he offered you lots of bad advice no doubt.

But none of this matters anymore. You've gone down in flames, and your further damaged cycling just when many of us, fans of the sport, thought it couldn't be damaged any further. Thanks for that. It has now gotten to the point where it is hard to enjoy the sport for the actual sport of it, and any good performance is looked upon with apprehension and or suspicion, and this is in part because of people like you. My love for the sport will of course go on, and I will still watch the big races, and talk about the results, but always with a wary eye towards the headlines of cyclingnews.com to see who got busted for what on a particular day.

Thanks Jan for helping to chip away at the sport just a little more.