Giro D'Italia - where can I watch it?

The doping & cheating debate goes right to the heart of what you want the essence and value of sport to be.

Real life is shit. It's not fair. The playing field isn't level. Privileged c*nts get a massive headstart in life and then pass that unfair advantage on to their kids and onto their kids who are all c*nts. Why do good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people? That's life.

We want sport to be something different to real life, to have a different value system, or at least to be a bit more like how we'd like real life to be. We want it to be completely fair. We want the winners win purely on their own talent, endeavour and hard work with no outside assistance. We want our champions to be nice, decent and honourable people. We don't want them to be c*nts. We don't want it to be like real life.

Unfortunately all sports mirror real life. They always did; Charly Gaul only climbed well when the weather was shitty. Hot weather meant his body couldn't cope with all the speed he was popping; Anquetil thought anyone who didn't dope during the Tour de France was a moron; Merckx failed a number of drug tests, usually pulling a tearful 'Virenque' when he was caught. Coppi refused a drug test after he broke the hour record. No need to guess why.

Does this diminish what they achieved? Morally or ethically speaking, without a doubt. In terms of entertainment value or in pushing the boundaries of what can physically be achieved by a bloke on a bike when he's eyeballs out, perhaps not. It depends on your perspective.

I was stood on the roadside on the final climb to Madonna di San Luca in Bologna on Saturday. It was 114 degrees and the road was fucking steep, far steeper than the route book suggested. Regardless of whether there was CERA or not in their blood stream, you look in the eyes of every single rider that came past and they were all hurting. I respected each and every one of them for getting to the top.

The sporting utopia will never exist, and has never existed. Its professional sport. Enjoy the entertainment.

Very nicely put and, on the whole, I agree with what you say.

My main objection is to compare the drug taking in the era of Coppi, Anquetil and Merckx with the drug taking of the past 20 years. EPO and other blood doping techniques mean that the cream no longer rises to the top, instead you have average riders, such as Riis or Landis, winning the biggest events, mainly because they've taken the most risk in terms of drug dosage rather than talent and effort.

A sport only has credibility if any contest is perceived to be fair, i.e. that the strongest or smartest participant wins. The sport of professional cycling is losing that credibility and runs the risk of becoming pure entertainment, like the WWF. I don't want that to happen as it is a unique and beautiful sport.