I do think there it is interesting how some athletes that were caught doping are vilified more than others. Some become persona non grata within cycling or sport that major teams will not touch , others are pretty much forgiven such Valverde, and some it almost makes their legend greater e.g. Pantani by showing their human side.
Froome & team Sky gets urine thrown, spat at and young female team staff set on, while Movistar and Valverde don't seem to suffer the same fate yet arguably have more to answer about their pasts.
I can understand that Lance is forgiven less because of how aggressively he acted to others, however from what I have read Vinrenque didnt behave much differently yet still seems to he a hero to many that is welcome at most races.
Cycling obviously has a long history of doping, but of course all sports involve cheaters at some level and many have no appetite to tackle doping and risk stirring a hornets nest that could kill sponsorship cash cows.
It is worrying how much this is moving into amateur sports. Course cutters, anti-aging hormone replacement or put and out doping all seem to crop up. I have heard the European Gran Fondo scene has some big problems with this and there have been some recent cases in the UK TT scene.
I guess human nature will always create cheats - we have a company step challenge to encourage people to get active, but you end up with people putting their pedometers on their desk fans and all sorts of other cheats to get their steps up to win a cheap water bottle and t shirt.
I guess all we can do is continue to try and weed out cheats and punish them accordingly. We do though perhaps need to be more consistent with how we treat them though this quite difficult given the spectrums of cheating that occur and that some times it is not do black and white.
Froome & team Sky gets urine thrown, spat at and young female team staff set on, while Movistar and Valverde don't seem to suffer the same fate yet arguably have more to answer about their pasts.
I can understand that Lance is forgiven less because of how aggressively he acted to others, however from what I have read Vinrenque didnt behave much differently yet still seems to he a hero to many that is welcome at most races.
Cycling obviously has a long history of doping, but of course all sports involve cheaters at some level and many have no appetite to tackle doping and risk stirring a hornets nest that could kill sponsorship cash cows.
It is worrying how much this is moving into amateur sports. Course cutters, anti-aging hormone replacement or put and out doping all seem to crop up. I have heard the European Gran Fondo scene has some big problems with this and there have been some recent cases in the UK TT scene.
I guess human nature will always create cheats - we have a company step challenge to encourage people to get active, but you end up with people putting their pedometers on their desk fans and all sorts of other cheats to get their steps up to win a cheap water bottle and t shirt.
I guess all we can do is continue to try and weed out cheats and punish them accordingly. We do though perhaps need to be more consistent with how we treat them though this quite difficult given the spectrums of cheating that occur and that some times it is not do black and white.