Pro Cycling Will Survive

We lost some great riders during this years Tour de France. Rasmussen, Bayo, the entire Astana team and on and on. A lot of people are saying that it just shows how 'dirty' pro cycling is. Yeah, a lot of riders are doping. No excuses, it's just dumb. The idea of sport is to excel because you work harder, train harder - not because you learn how to inject chemicals and foreign blood into your system. I still hurt about Floyd Landis. I was so impressed by his comeback to win the tour last year, an absolutely incredible display of talent and heart. But, if he in fact was pumping testosterone, then he deserves to be stripped of his title.

I am really impressed at what Team Slipstream is doing. Their partnership with the Agency for Sporting Ethics represents the kind of action that is needed. Their commitment to drug testing and clean training is to be commended. Already David Millar and Christian Vandevelde have committed to moving to Slipstream/Chipotle next year, even though they are not even a Pro Tour member as yet. I think that says a lot about cyclists who want to excel as athletes, not as 'dopes'.