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News and Views About the United States
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By Lionel Venturini
August 25, 2005
l'Humanite
- Original Article (French) 
Why is
it that a feeling of uneasiness persists after the revelations by [French
sports daily newspaper] L’Equipe that the seven-time winner of the Tour de
France used EPO during the 1999 race? Is
it because the suspicion clearly remains that had been felt up to the time of
that last arrival on the Champs-Elysées, his hand over his heart, listening to
the American national anthem? Or is it because these delayed revelations refer
to the long years of complicity between racers, athletic directors, organizers
and followers of all types, including journalists? The sports daily [L’Equipe] defended
itself meekly, “in the name of what moral … should the battle against doping have
an expiration date?” an editorialist wrote yesterday.
Armstrong on the Victory Stand, July 26.
COLLECTIVE
RITES SURROUNDING DRUG INJECTION
There
is discomfort because tongues were wagging - not in the evening at the hotel
after a stage of the [Tour de France], but in the columns of newspapers, when
we learned only today that police suspected wrongdoing based on information they
had received and were watching the Discovery Channel team closely during the
stage in Pau [in southwestern France] in 2005.
There
was also discomfort underscored by Marie-George Buffer, the [Minister of Sports
in 1999] who initiated a rule that differed fundamentally from earlier ones by
taking into account the health of athletes, and not just the cheating. At the
time, Buffet claimed to have been bothered by the “publication of a single name
… Caution must be used so as not to damage a single individual.” France-Soir [a
French afternoon daily] believes that it knew the six other samples from 1999
belonged to a single racer and questioned l’Equipe’s silence on the subject,
inevitably suspecting a racer who distinguished himself on the roads of the
Tour, “with stage victories or a distinctive jersey,” perhaps a Frenchman.
At
least the Armstrong affair once again puts the spotlight on the [cycling] pack
and its customs. These collective rites surrounding [performance enhancing drug]
injection, close to those of drug addicts, are described quite well in books by
Erwan Mentheour in 1999 (1) or Philippe Gaumont in 2005 (2). [These books are] indisputable
testimony that cycling culture has made nearly inaudible.
Living
in isolation, more often with their teammates than with their spouses,
professional cyclists were long allowed to roam freely. “It is not possible to
understand the culture of doping in cycling without first studying the training
practices, which are very demanding physiologically, and which are backward
when compared to what has long been done in other areas of athleticism,” said sociologist
Christophe Brissonneau, describing a “normalization of doping” in road cycling
as a rite of integration into the cycling “family.” Sanctions are rarely
initiated by athletic authorities. It has always required the law, the police
to bring them order. This makes it easier to understand the shoulder shrugging
by Eddy Merckx, who called the affair “tabloid journalism. “Lance confirmed to
me that he never used performance enhancing drugs.” Or Laurent Fignon, for whom
“this story is too old, what interests me is prevention for young people.”
It is
hard to disagree with that last sentence. But still, we know that doping goes
on, from the confessions of those who do it – of the preparation or recuperation
of racers. Francesco Conconi, Italian assistant and intellectual guide to Dr.
Ferrari, didn’t hide the truth in 2001 when Armstrong asked him, while climbing
in Ventoux, using an earpiece, for advice on what tactics to use based on his
physical condition or known reactions to certain products. Certain products? Mystery
…
[Editor’s
Note: Dr. Michele Ferrari was convicted by an
It is
also impossible to speak of doping without analyzing the importance of money.
To build a career when competing against the quickest people out there, many have
found it necessary to use drugs. But to use drugs, money is needed. To continue
at that level, a lot of money - to pay the doctor who concocts the regime that will
allow one to avoid getting caught. And what of the doctors torn between their
oath to heal and athletic morale? There was a strange mix of reactions when, at
a conference in Paris in early 2005, a researcher revealed the results of his investigations
on iron injections that athletes should receive to make up for nutritional
deficiencies caused by EPO treatments: every athlete in the room had to think
about refining his regime …
SHEDDING
LIGHT ON THE 2006 TOUR
With
Armstrong’s retirement, which coincides with the testimony of Jean-Marie
Leblanc [director of the Tour de France] as a betrayed man, will a new page
really be turned in cycling and the Tour? Pragmatists believe that the
Armstrong affair opportunely puts the spotlight on the 2006 Tour. Skeptics will
long hold on to their doubts. Others will retain a certainty of not believing
the guilt of their idol, like the 72% of Americans polled by the sports channel
ESPN.
(1) Secret défonce [Secrecy Destroyed], Erwan Menthéour, Éditions, Jean-Claude Latt es, 1999.
(2) Prisonnier du dopage [Prisoner of Doping], Philippe Gaumont, Grasset et Fasquelle, 2005.