Yeah, the sophistication with which cheating has been carried out is astonishing. And cyclists certainly aren't the only ones masking; swimmers, track-and-field athletes, baseball players, you name it. Heck, Major League Baseball didn't even have a steroid policy until about 2002 (due in large part, no doubt, to sport's strongest players' union).
Cheating in cycling gets more press in large part because there's such a big effort to clean up the sport. In 2007,
Michael Rasmussen was kicked off his team and therefore out of the Tour while wearing the
maillot jaune. He was pinged because, in the lead-up to the race, he wasn't where his required itinerary said he would be - he was seen training in Italy when he'd said he would be in Mexico. Which meant he couldn't be contacted for testing. And, on top of being kicked off the team
while leading, he was subsequently banned from cycling for two years - not for testing positive, but for lying about his whereabouts. He appealed, and the suspension was upheld.
There are no more excuses in professional cycling.
The Tour and the one-day classics are fascinating to watch, I think - having Phil Liggett and Brent Sherwin as commentators is a great help; Liggett is my favorite commentator in any sport. He's sanguine, knowledgeable, and he knows all the riders and their styles. He provides great insight into what might otherwise look like a bunch of guys on bikes, and with the insight, he lets the viewer in on the excitement.
Over here, the nightly broadcast also includes a segment called
Taste le Tour, where chef Gabriel Gâté (sp?) prepares a specialty dish from the region the Tour passes through that day, and a sommelier matches it with a local wine (or beer if they're somewhere like Belgium). It's great entertainment, and I'm sorry it only lasts three weeks.
The Andorran mountain climb is always a riot. I make my first million, I am so going there to run with the bikers..jpg)
