Ricco suave???

Turns out that Ricardo Ricco, for all of his swagger, for all of his shit talk, and for his running of his big mouth at an almost constant pace is just a straight up typical doper and a cheat in the sport of professional cycling. Turns out, his amazing wins were just that, amazing. Meaning, he took a couple of big wins, and then tested positive, and then was carted away in the team car with a Gendarme in the back seat with him therefore leaving the Tour even a little more tarnished. Not only that, but his entire team picked up their EPO filled ball, and drove on out of France, and they have also apparently suspended all racing activity for the near future. Oh, how the mighty have fallen indeed.

I should have known when I saw Ricco attack on stage 9, from the back of the pack, and as he passed some of the greatest riders and climbers in the world as if they were standing still. That was the rate of his acceleration past what remained of the peloton at that point in time. I think I'm still naive, because I wanted to believe that he had this great ability, that he had this huge forceful attack in him, and I sat there and watched him do it in awed silence, and I didn't think twice about him getting popped for doping. Nope. I just let the race unfold before me, and watched, what I thought at the time, was a great performance. It was at that point in time, that I decided to stop hating on the man as being arrogant, cocky, and overall just not a great person, and decided that his attacking style of racing was a good thing. In short, I sort of became a fan of Ricardo Ricco that day, and now, I have to shun him as he should be shunned. He's a doper. A cheat. And not even a smart one. Apparently, there have been rumors swirling around the peloton this last week or so specifically about Ricco, and how his abilities seemed to have taken on an even greater depth and shape, and now, we all know why. He was juicing on a new form of EPO, and probably thought he would get away with it. Over the last couple of years that he's been racing, Ricco has repeatedly stated that he idolizes Marco Pantani, probably one of the most infamous dopers who never really got caught doping (although in a sort of OJ Simpson way, we all knew that he did dope, it's just that at the time he was racing, there were no tests for EPO, and when there were, the man was but a shell of his previous racing cyclist) and now the circle is complete for him. His idol was a doper, so it stands to reason that Ricco would be one as well. What a dunce. The thing that really fries me about this, is that he'll get suspended, spend 2 years on the sidelines, and then, someone will no doubt hire him once his suspension is over, and since the ProTour has imploded as well, he could race for a top tier team after 2 years of suspension. And Ricco is young, young enough so that this will be but a blip in his career. By the time he gets back to racing, he'll still only be 26, or 27 years old, and will still have many good quality years of racing ahead of him, but for now, he's tossed away his career. What would be a fitting end to this, is if no team would have him back, but we all know that this isn't true. If VDB can get second chance after second chance, something tells me Ricco won't have a hard time finding someone to race for in 2 years, or less, depending on what CONI (Italian cycling federation) does with him.

Not leave Ricco out there hanging in the wind himself, we did have another no named guy from Barloworld who also tested positive for EPO. His name was Moises Duenas. Like I said, no named rider, but still. The other one hanging out there though that is even more damning in my eyes, is Manuel Beltran. Why is Beltran's positive more damning? Well, we can add him to the list of guys who used to be teammates with one Lance Armstrong, and who helped him to win 7 Tours de France in a row. It also starts to show a pattern of doping that existed on that team, and as it surrounded its main guy, Armstrong. Look at the list of guys who used to ride with him, and have either been caught and busted, or admitted that they used some PEDs, or have been named in other doping investigations:

Tyler Hamilton

Floyd Landis

Manuel Beltran

Roberto Heras

Ivan Basso

Frankie Andreu

Jonathan Vaughters

And I'm sure that there are more in there that I'm missing somehow. I just can't remember them all currently. This looks bad for the past champion, but he's retired. Nothing will happen in hindsight. Riis came out last year, and said that he doped to win his Tour, and the ASO ranted and raved that they were going to take the win away from him. Well, they haven't. Far as I know, he still has his yellow jerseys hanging over his mantel at home. And probably will for a long time.

I would like to be one of the people who, every single time someone gets busted for doping, pronounces professional cycling dead, but it just won't happen. I've decided to take the optimistic approach. As in, we're catching the bad guys, and we're nailing them to the wall. Show me another pro sport that suspends someone for 2 years for a first positive test for PEDs. There aren't any. 2 years in other pro sports would spell the end of a career, and for some in cycling, it does spell the end of their careers. That's good if you ask me. There really is no room for doping in any pro sport, although we all know it goes on, and will continue probably unabated for as long as there are pro sports (amateurs are not immune from this either, believe me), and hopefully we'll continue to catch the bad guys. I for one, will continue to watch pro cycling, only now with a more and ever increasingly jaded eye on the riders who are flying up the mountains, and riding people off of their wheels. I got caught up in the excitement last week, and forgot the "jaded" part when I was watching Ricco stomp down on his adversaries. I won't make that mistake again.