Same old same old in cycling’s most prestigious event. Arguably the race’s most exciting rider this year Ricardo Ricco tests positive for performance enhancing drugs. Every year there is a scandal. Every year we ask is the Tour de France dead? Is it?
15 Responses to “Is the Tour de France a waste of time?”
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Reverse question: because athletics has alot of doping scandals, is it a waste of time? Come on give tour de france a break!!!
Nelsoni makes a good point, think about this. In the TDF as in professional cycling, there is/was a great deal of effort put into doping. No doubt still is when you consider what is involved in cycling and the pressures of the schedule. But in an event like the TDF organisers got the message and wanted to clean it up. Sure there are still incidents, but when you consider what is being done to correct this situation, the organisers must be congratulated.
In comparison to other sporting events, the TDF represents only a small part of overall sporting events with problematic doping. It comes down to money, not personal glory or pride in participation and as so much money is invested in sports then there will always be unscrupulous players ready to take the chance for a payoff in the end.
What of the Olypmics, drug authorities have admitted they will not be able to test as widely as they want, as much as they want and there will be scandals. Just consider Marion Jones for a moment and what her sporting career turned out to be, but eventually she was caught after so many years. Do we forget those people. No doubt there will be drug finds in Beijing and no doubt many many athletes will have either used drugs to get to competition level or still be using during the event.
The TDF is one event that more than just about cycling, it is also a celebration of France and as long as race organisers keep up their vigilance then the event itself cannot be blamed but those cheats willing to take the risk. For the most part it is a magnificent marathon of man against terrain with no more than a simple machine beneath him to propel him across a magnificent land. Even with the drug cheats those who enjoy this spectacle are disappointed but none the less still support and love this event year after year.
The Tour de France has become the Tour de Dop. It’s still a sensational event and I hope the authorities will clamp down hard on all drug cheats by imposing a life time ban on them.
Considering the efforts being put into detecting the use of illicit drugs in all sport–but particularly the Tour de France–can the possible advantage ever be worth the risk to one’s career?
I guess many consider the answer to be “yes” but I have to think any sportsman using drugs these days has to be pretty stupid–or from a different planet–to think they can get away with it.
tour de france is the last thing i wanna watch.
abhinav
Why not let them dope up as much as they want and race it then?
Then everyone has a fair chance of being the man they want to be but can’t.
@ Bob in Queensland
How many professional athletes can you name who are smart?
@ Nelsoni
To answer your question, yes professional athletics are a huge waste of time. Think of all the wanna be football superstars from the inner city who spend their time trying to go pro and fail. Only to live the rest of their lives on the taxpayer’s dime because they can’t handle doing real work. Look at the people we glorify (particularly in the NFL and NBA). Some of the biggest names are rapists, murderers, or people who hold dogfights at their house. Not to mention that there is a disproportionate amount of them doing drugs, both performance enhancing and recreational. I can’t believe that there are parents who let their kids idolize professional athletes and treat them as role models. From what I’ve seen, most of them are exactly what you wouldn’t want your children to turn into. I love playing sports recreationally and staying in shape, but you won’t see me sitting at home on the couch cheering on the local team.
Not to mention, the way sports separate the students in our high schools. When someone joins the basketball or football team in high school, it becomes their identity. I know my high school had a really big group of jocks who terrorized those who were less popular. The worst part about it was that the faculty did absolutely nothing to stop it. I witnessed countless life-shattering humiliations.
In my opinion, athletics done for any other reason than recreation and exercise are a waste of time and money.
Just because people are caught dopping are already dopped does not make the Tour de France a waste of time.
People who live in capitalist countries have been bombarded with products that can improve their performance for a century. What do you think snake oil was for?
Now we capitalists have a physician class of dope pushers that push expensive prescription drugs on the population.
If you added up all the people getting prescription drugs to make them perform better emotionally, or physically (all thousand flavors ), plus all the illegal drug takers of opiates, amphetamines, coke, pot… , plus all the legal drug users of alcohol, and nicotine, how many of us are left who use nothing?
The riders of the Tour are the fittest people on the planet… drugs or no drugs no one can compare with them.
Drug-taking is rife in all sports. However, I do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sports are necessary for physical fitness and enjoyment and should not have their image polluted by people masquerading as “professional sportspeople” all that “professional” means is that they are good at money-grubbing and cheating.
The tour de France is not in itself a waste of time, since it is still a world class indurance event. People who choose to take drugs should have to live with the consequences./
Isn’t a glorious and flamboyant waste of time exactly what it means to be French? How then could the Tour be any different?
The question should be “Is the Tour de France still a credit to France?”
I say it is.
No, it needs to be revised and work on…
Dennis
Syracuse, New York
Certainly the Tour needs to be cleansed of drug-taking with life bans for those found guilty and no right of appeal, but it is still a marvellous sporting spectacle.
Tour de France is simply more stricter than other events because of all the previous scandals, which allows for more control and detection of athletes using drugs.
But honest and hard workers athletes are still majority, this year winner is an example.
What a great victory from my fellow countryman, Carlos Sastre!!!!
Jon, long time…nicely surprised to find this blog when looking for comments on the Tour de France 🙂