What is the stance of the Canadian cycling community on doping?

The Lance Armstrong saga has blown by us, unleashing a flurry of discussion about doping in cycling. What is the Canadian cycling scene’s stance on doping within our sport?

I had a great conversation with Kevin Field, who helps manage the SpiderTech powered by C10 team and whom I have known for a long time, yesterday about cycling in general. And of course our discussion turned to doping. He suggested that now is the time for there to be a discussion within the Canadian cycling community about our position on the matter. Of course everyone says that he or she is against it, but really?

There needs to be a unified voice that speaks out against doping. I think that the riders can lead, but they must be supported by Cycling Canada, the teams and organizers. Although we live in a society that is based on the concept of “innocent until proven guilty,” we have a problem with doping that where there is smoke there has often been fire. As a community we need to not turn a blind eye and pretend that all is well.

One of the great difficulties with doping in cycling is that dopers are constantly allowed to return into the fold and given a second chance. For me, dopers made poor and unethical choices in the past, which indicate that they cannot be trusted or relied upon. Even in the testimony surrounding the Armstrong saga, in which riders have purported to tell the truth about doping in cycling, there are too many inconsistencies. There are also strangely glaring consistencies, such as the choice of those that testified against Armstrong to all decide to stop doping in 2006. Is this plausible? Ex-dopers cannot be believed. Their lies besmirch the sport as a whole, and all the athletes involved. They have no place in the sport’s future.

As a community we need to decide if there is a role for ex-dopers, such as Michael Barry, within our sport. The question we must ask is who has more to give to the future of our sport: the ex-doper who was a top pro or the low-level pro who never made the choice to start doping?

People will say that it is a shame to lose the experience of the ex-doper, that he has much to offer having done the major cycling events in the world. First, remember that his experience was gained by enhancing his performance with doping products. Because he rode well is not a reason to respect him. Second, we now have a strong base of respected, experienced cyclists within Canada on whom to build our sport. These are riders that competed against the best in the world, understand how the sport works, and chose not to dope. They are the ones that should be given the chance to contribute to the sport. They should not have to compete once again in retirement for jobs against those who doped while they raced. To truly change the sport we need to turn to those that made the ethically sound decision not to dope. They can lead the way and show that a career is possible without doping.

What is our stance in Canada against doping? I hope we turn our backs to it.