More Culture11: I’ve a piece arguing that no-one should be terribly happy about Lance Armstrong’s decision to come out of retirement next season. Snippet:
Unlike fans in other sports, such as baseball or track and field, many cycling fans simply don’t see doping as a criminal or ethical offense. In its way, then, cycling is the purest distillation of the logic behind elite sport: Super-human performance demands supra-human resources. It is the cost of doing business.
We might more profitably ask why our attitudes to drug-use have changed. Everyone has known for decades that the peloton has been a pharmacy on wheels. Until recently, this bothered few people. These days, the cycling controversies say more about society’s wider drug-related hysteria than they do about the ethics and mechanics of professional cycling itself. Paradoxically, Armstrong’s inability to fail a drug test exacerbates rather than alleviates this problem.
We might more profitably ask why our attitudes to drug-use have changed. Everyone has known for decades that the peloton has been a pharmacy on wheels. Until recently, this bothered few people. These days, the cycling controversies say more about society’s wider drug-related hysteria than they do about the ethics and mechanics of professional cycling itself. Paradoxically, Armstrong’s inability to fail a drug test exacerbates rather than alleviates this problem.
So, hate me people, I’m a Lance-sceptic.
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