Jörg Jaksche

[Rueda Tropical]

Reading this guys story in the light of recent events really highlights the total corruption of the UCI and team management.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/jorg-jaksche-doping-hypocrisy-and-a-dog-called-bella

The problem was he spoke too loudly. Instead of confessing to just his own weakness and immorality, he lifted the lid on a career of doping: from Polti to Telekom, CSC to ONCE and Astana, it was a long-running chronology of teams that had capitalised and funded systematic doping programmes. He confessed to the German police, their anti-doping agency and the UCI.

Of course after coming clean he became a pariah to the "anti-doping crusaders" running cycling. His career came to an abrupt halt. The guy won Paris-Nice and no one would touch him.

Hypocrisy was rife in cycling in the wake of Puerto. Bjarne Riis, Alexandre Vinokourov and an endless list of individuals vilified Jaksche claims. Vinokourov claimed that the German had only confessed after being paid a handsome sum of money by a newspaper. Frank Schleck, who rode with Jaksche at CSC, was spared an initial link to Fuentes and went on to win a stage of the 2006 Tour.

Sound familiar?

There were no further questions and to Jaksche’s knowledge, no further investigations were made by the UCI into any of the individuals or teams that he’d implicated.

The UCI tried to get a longer suspension for Jaksche and said there was not enough info to pursue anyone else. I'm starting to see a pattern here...

[G-Reg]

Deleted

[Rueda Tropical]

As the Kingpin for it all, this is clearly Armstrong's fault!

Armstrong would not have survived his first Tour win without the UCI. It was the UCI calling the shots. They could have buried LA anytime they chose. In '99 they probably didn't think the sport could take a Tour winner getting busted the year after Festina. After '99 he was probably perceived as being good for business and that bought him continued protection.

The cyclists, even the biggest stars are just canon fodder. Although LA more then any other rider managed to make himself a partner rather then just a pawn for the management of cycling.

[MattTuck]

Armstrong would not have survived his first Tour win without the UCI. It was the UCI calling the shots. They could have buried LA anytime they chose. In '99 they probably didn't think the sport could take a Tour winner getting busted the year after Festina. After '99 he was probably perceived as being good for business and that bought him continued protection.

The cyclists, even the biggest stars are just canon fodder.

UCI = MLB = NFL..... etc.

governing bodies like that are interested in 'fair play' only as far as the fans don't want to see 'fixed' outcomes. When it comes to scandals that give the sport a black eye, or threaten the entrenched status quo, the first rule of bureaucracy kicks in... Preserve the bureaucracy! and if that means sweeping stuff under the rug, or pinning it on a 'lone wolf', or scapegoating the people that try to do right, too bad.

[Rueda Tropical]

UCI = MLB = NFL..... etc.

governing bodies like that are interested in 'fair play' only as far as the fans don't want to see 'fixed' outcomes. When it comes to scandals that give the sport a black eye, or threaten the entrenched status quo, the first rule of bureaucracy kicks in... Preserve the bureaucracy! and if that means sweeping stuff under the rug, or pinning it on a 'lone wolf', or scapegoating the people that try to do right, too bad.

Somehow what's "good for the sport" always winds up being whatever is good for lining the bureaucrat's pockets as well as preserving the bureaucrat's power and image.

[laupsi]

great insight, thanks for the link.

[slidey]

On a slightly tangential note, can someone inform me if UCI gets a cut for high-end bike/bike component sales? By high-end, I mean the companies who also have a representation on the pro tours, and inevitably get TV time, etc?

[majorpat]

What goes around, comes around...

[BillG]

Great piece. Notice he has no problem with WADA and the USADA.

[Bob Loblaw]

Very interesting stuff. His comment that the UCI considers a scandal free sport to be a clean sport jives with how they've conducted themselves lately.

Strange how a guy like him gets ostracized, yet David Millar is welcomed back and becomes a symbol of anti-doping. Probably because Millar never named names.

Even when you ride clean, there's doping politics to contend with.

BL

[bikerboy337]

Good story. Its amazing to me that whenever anyone speaks and tells of doping, they are immediately branded as cheats, liars with and agenda and just out for money. It really does get tired when the only defense is that those speaking of doping are just bad people while the rest of the peleton are good guys... the more stories like this that come out, the better imho, things are starting to crumble...