As much as we would like to hold our cycling heroes to a different moral standard, they are still human.
When those riders attain the brass ring after a hard fought race, we aspire to their greatness because we acknowledge that our reach, though it may be lesser, may someday be as long. In their failures, we can empathize because they remind us of our own imperfections and struggles throughout life.
The news of Tom Boonen (Quick Step - Innergetic) testing positive for cocaine use is only surprising if you equated his person to the greatness of his cycling feats.
Is it fair to label him a failure because of his recreational drug use? Perhaps, but few of us have intimate knowledge of his life outside of cycling and whether he lives it as fast as his sprint.
Is it fair to give him a pass because of his achievements and his stature in the annals of cycling? Perhaps, but keep in mind that he has actually lost more of the races that he has entered than he has won.
Life, as in cycling, is about decisions and dealing with the consequences of those decisions. Start the sprint too early and you may be overtaken at the line. Start it too late and you may never get up to speed.
Boonen is human, faster than most on the bike and now apparently in life, but lets not elevate him to anything more than a man who rides a bike for his livelihood.
Charles Pelkey (Velonews) - Boonen test positive for cocaine
AFP (Bike Radar) - Tom Boonen tests positive for cocaine
Photo: Leonard Basobas (2008 Amgen Tour of California - Stage 2)
This is truly a sad story that cycling could have used without. I have my own write up about it on my site. I wish, like you, I'm sure, I didn't have to comment on something like this. But it is life.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Jack. I didn't think cycling's black eye could get any blacker.
ReplyDeleteTwo cents, which I'll prob. get flamed for... If you tested 1,000 twenty-somethings after a weekend on the town, responsible young people with jobs and lives, you'd probably find the remnants of a lot of controlled substances floating through their blood streams.
ReplyDeleteIt may not be virtuous or heroic, but it's pretty normal. I don't expect my heroes to be like the ones in the comic books, who never curse, never lie, never fail... I expect them to be humans with extraordinary gifts who try to do their best - like the rest of us.
This girl won't be casting any stones at Tomeke.
i agree to a point to what kk is saying but our athletes are held to a higher standard, whether they like it or not. and the fact that they actually get tested makes it even more difficult. tom made a mistake. i hope something positive can come from it even if his cycling career is forever tarnished.
ReplyDeleteA lot of excellent points shared here. As the ancient Chinese proverb goes: "Those without expectation shall never be disappointed".
ReplyDeleteI have to beg the question, what does any of it really matter? So, pro cyclists use drugs. There's a shocking headline right? I guess at the end of the day, I have come to realize that I control one person and that's me, end of story. Therefore, to have some holier-than-thou expectation of a pro athlete or anyone for that matter is simply a wasted excerise and frankly unfair to that individual. Who am I to expect a particular behaviour of someone?
If Boonen or Landis or Lance or Billy Bob or whomever wishes to kill themselves with chemicals, have at it! It will have NO IMPACT on my love of the sport and the exercise itself. It just really doesn't matter.
If Boonen is suffering in some emotional or psychological way, then I wish him peace and recovery. Other than that, I'm in the saddle enjoying MY view and not that of someone else.
Afterall, it's a perfect circle, is it not?
Happy miles and much peace.
Let's start with Steve...the Tour has seemingly always been the Tour, but somehow the added emphasis LA gave it in his choice to simply focus his entire career around it really elevated the TDF to a different stratosphere...and not to harp on the French, but that added emphasis has somehow entitled them to be cycling's moral compass.
ReplyDeleteKK - No flaming out on your part. I guess that's why I framed the post in that context. It would have been hypocritical if I had suddenly disregard the things I did as a youth.
Jack - Yes that's the unfortunate aspect of athletic and hero worship, we elevate and tear down too easily and without conscience. Its saddening that all of a sudden we cast a person aside when hours prior we were singing his praises. He's only 27 so he has many years ahead of him to make amends, if that's what we truly need to consider him a champion again.
And well said Tooth. As I was telling Steve a while back, drug use has had an interesting effect on our metality toward our sport as it seems as popular as ever if it hasn't grown.
ReplyDeleteTo borrow some political rhetoric, cyclist have really sought to become the change we seek and have taken to the streets to be our own cycling heroes.
on the bright side ... Valverde did learn to ITT :)
ReplyDeleteAC from Liberty!!