2013 Vuelta a España - Tour of Spain

Perhaps we should just accept that there has never been a clean era in sport, neither is there likely to be.

ftfy. The problem goes way beyond cycling, it's just cycling has had it's dirty laundry washed in public. In other sports popped sportsperson have long lay offs due to 'injury' rather than doping bans. You think Manchester United or Barcelona are clean? The world certainly does, and those clubs and the sport itself will do anything to preserve that image. With cycling the veil has been snatched away and we see professional sport for what it really is. Don't think for a second that cyclists somehow have a lower moral threshold that other sports people, or blame the dirty Euros for the corruption.

And the irony of that is cyclists are undoubtedly the most tested sports people of all. Not that that counts for much given the ineffective testing. More so you hear of self-policing within the peloton, a sort of reverse omerta, where the riders turn on those they think are doping. Sayer and Santa are examples of this.

Whether it's PR, part of the Sky/Vaughters assertion of a cleaner sport or reality is another matter. One snippet is Horner is a popular man within the peloton. Read into that what you will.

For the record I think this missed test is what it has been shown to be: lack of communication between the Americans and the Spanish, and the nefarious aspect comes from the leaking of the story rather than Horner's whereabouts. I believe USADA have come out and confirmed his side of the story and aren't counting it as a missed test.

Not that I'm saying he did that clean. Who the fuck knows anymore. And the UCI elections are going to make the sport even more of a circus.

But hey at least we can ride bikes and enjoy it, even if at times it's difficult to enjoy watching the pros do it on the telly.