A Doping Positive?

Somewhere, lost in the wake of doping scandals at the top tier of professional cycling is the fact that there seems to be more of us on the road than in years past. As Sal Ruibal (USA TODAY) pointed out in his article yesterday, many of us are choosing to be "our own Lance."

Ruibal writes:
"USA Cycling, the national governing body, sold almost 60,000 individual licenses last year, a jump of more than 6% from 2005. (A USAC license allows a rider to compete in sanctioned races.) Charity rides are also big. This year's National Multiple Sclerosis MS Bike Ride series drew more than 100,000 cyclists.

In Arizona, an estimated 10,000 cyclists are looking ahead to El Tour de Tucson on Nov. 17. The 109-mile ride around the perimeter of the city has something the French Tour lacks: riders are treated to Krispy Kreme donuts.

People "are not riding to be a Greg LeMond or Lance. They are riding because of the love of cycling, because it is environmentally friendly," race founder and director Richard DeBernardis says. "It's a means to dealing with our transportation issues and because it's something they can achieve. They'll ride without their heroes.""

For cyclists this news may not come as a surprise. Ruibal is certainly preaching to the choir in this respect. But for the average sports fan, the news is somewhat unprecedented.

How many sports have actually experienced growth in the absence of its biggest stars?

You need only to look at our national pastime and favorite sport, baseball and football, to see what type of effect its stars can have on its popularity. Both sports have survived strikes, lockouts, and contractual squabbles throughout their history. During these hardest times, where both utilized replacement players, so called "scabs," there wasn't the type of springboard effect that cycling is seeing today. In fact, the popularity of each sport was diminished and actually lost some of their respective fansbases.

Perhaps the current growth of cycling is more about the functional utility of the bicycle rather than its utility for sport. But unlike baseball, where the infestation of performance enhancing drugs brought back its fans, professional cycling is losing theirs to what essentially makes these athletes special, riding a bike.

If you were looking for a silver lining to the doping controversies of cycling, how can you argue with cycling's integration into the American culture.