2012 Olympic Road Race

Landis has surfaced to praise Vino's victory. Not really the ideal chappie to be patting you on the back on the occasion. He said:

Thanks, Landis. That really helps.

I’m really glad Vinokourov won.

His victory goes a long way towards proving that the British Olympic authorities were right to want to exclude convicted dopers.

I make no accusation against Vino and his preparation for this race. Very possibly he now has the zeal for honesty of a truly reformed sinner, but as some one who has been hearing opinions about bike racing for some decades I know for certain there are going to be a very large number of people asking “What was he on?”

Without even considering how long it ought to take for a rider to recover from the Tour de France (three weeks racing = lowered haematocrit level), just think about what we know:

• Here’s a rider at the very end of his career who is not really going to be deterred by the possibility of a ban, but who obviously wanted to go out with a bang.
  
• He’s a former client of the sulphurous Michele Ferrari.
  
• He has been convicted of doping.
  
• We will assume he passed the dope test this time, but we know that tests are not necessarily infallible and that one of the purposes of expensive medical advice is to find loopholes.
  
  
  

I’m not at all clear what is meant by the term ‘Olympic spirit’ but I am certain the concept is damaged by having the games open to suspicion of cheating. I make no complaint here against Vinokourov, nor against the organisers of the London Games: it is the IOC, forcing the acceptance of convicted dopers, who are at fault here.

I’d like to go one step further than saying convicted dopers should not be allowed to compete in the Olympics: I want the games to revert to amateur status. For me professional sport and dodgy practices inevitably go hand in hand. “I could’a been a contender, Charlie, but all I got was a one way ticket to Palookaville.” I’ve enjoyed following professional bike racing, but I’ve never expected it to be pure: “Do they think we do this on Evian Water?” (J. Anquetil).

In my mind, this result shows that if we want to idealise sport it has to be amateur.