You didn’t need a doctor to tell you this one, folks: doing drugs, even just performance enhancers, can really mess you up. Just take a look at poor VDB – attempts suicide, survives, kinda shrugs it off, then says he’s making a comeback. Sometimes I wish all that dope really had been for his dog. But just keep in mind the concept of “dual diagnosis” the next time an athlete from a less-strictly tested sport seems a little haywire.
Of course, it’s not always bad – Bjarne Riis openly admits he doped for years, and apparently did so better than anyone else, without any lasting detriment to his personality (his bike is a different story). Oh, and one of those Festina 54%ers that Riis blew away in ’96 – none other than Christophe Moreau, who, over a decade later, is still riding, still winning (that’s today’s Dauphine stage, BTW), and allegedly, still clean.
In fact, Moreau claims to be more motivated than ever for this year’s Tour de France. It would certainly be the coup of a lifetime for the aging Frenchman to even make the podium, considering even he hasn’t thought of himself as a threat since, oh, 2001. But hey, if a tiny little cycling blog can somehow appear in the pages of Men’s Journal, I suppose anything is possible. (Oh, and Chris, they only listed you first to avoid besmirching the Cyclocosm name with an unsightly line break.)
Ouch…the linebreak does seem to trump the going 1st. By the way, like the new site layout.
Way to get some ink! How’s the hit counter now!?
For what it’s worth Cosmo, you’ve got quite a crew that reads your blog here in Australia. We’ve even been known to discuss your posts on a bunch ride.
Keep it up!