Cycling: Sibatical Year

[jhcakilmer]

I've come to the conclusion that cycling needs to step back, and re-evaluate it's place in the world. The UCI should finish out the year, and then take the next year off, atleast for the Pro Tour Teams.

I know this may seem like a punishment to some teams that have not violated any laws, or at least been caught doing it, but what is the alternative......loosing major sponsors, legitimizing the sport more (if possible), corrupting/deluting young athletes, etc.....

A good example is that in the past a university football team has been caught paying players, recruiting violations, etc and decides it's better for the future of the program to take a year off, clean house, and start new.............In my opinion this is exactly what cycling needs.

Items the UCI needs to evaluate IMO is.....
- testing protocol
- racing calendar
- doping consequences

I am in no way tired, or disgusted with cycling.....frustrated maybe a better term. I love this sport, and what to see it succeed in re-establishing it'self as a major sport, and continue it's growth.

[alancw3]

interesting article today on yahoo sports.

http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news;_ylt=AqJK08.4gOauD0.GFlRHCet.grcF?slug=ap-doping-merckx&prov=ap&type=lgns

eddy merckx! i have said it before and i'll say it again, a class act! the best ever!

will we see if the tdf breaks away from the uci next year? from what i have read this is a real possibility. the tdf may actually promote national teams for next years race.

[Tom]

No more funny business is happening now than ever before, it's just that people are starting to get caught at it. Why stop? Keep making progress. Make it harder to engage in funny business. If you stop now, you lose your edge and the funny business just keeps happening.

[harlond]

If you really want to see cycling maintain its position as a major sport, I don't see how you could seriously propose that it shut itself down for a year. I haven't read of any benefits hockey realized from doing that. Really, I'm at a loss to see how compounding one form of alienating your fans with an even more extreme form of alienating them is supposed to solve the problem. I also don't think the university example is applicable, because the league continues play. I also don't see what the year off accomplishes on the testing front that couldn't either be accomplished during the offseason or on a rolling basis as the season starts. In sum, while I understand the frustration, the solution, IMO, resembles the scenario where the procedure might be termed a success but the patient died.

[jhcakilmer]

If you really want to see cycling maintain its position as a major sport, I don't see how you could seriously propose that it shut itself down for a year. I haven't read of any benefits hockey realized from doing that. Really, I'm at a loss to see how compounding one form of alienating your fans with an even more extreme form of alienating them is supposed to solve the problem. I also don't think the university example is applicable, because the league continues play. I also don't see what the year off accomplishes on the testing front that couldn't either be accomplished during the offseason or on a rolling basis as the season starts. In sum, while I understand the frustration, the solution, IMO, resembles the scenario where the procedure might be termed a success but the patient died.

I see what your saying, but if the sport keeps going down hill, we will loose major sponsors.....and it might take a long time to bring back those sponsors. A year off would just give the sport a fresh start, basically without a year of more positives.

Somethings that could be done.......help teams set up internal monitoring.....this is difficult to establish especially when there are so many other things that team managment needs to do to prepare for the season.
This is just one example. Sure I know some teams are already doing this, but obviously not all teams are, and they should be!

I'm just worried that the doping situation is going to continue to get worse, and bring down the sport so much that it may never return to the same level (based on sponsorship support, worldwide profile, etc), or take decades to repair itself.

I think the UCI and teams could use an entire year to really work together and develop a fair, and thorough system that would greatly enhance the sport......because right now nothing is happening, or atleast it seems so. I think it could be extremely valuable, and in the long run, much smarter for the entire sport!

[paczki]

You can store a lot of blood in a year and use a lot of HGH, especially if no one is watching because cycling has shut down. :rolleyes:

I think we'd just have really beefed-up cheaters the following year.

I totally agree that the rash of doping scandals is a sign that cycling, unlike may other major sports, is taking anti-doping measures seriously and that there are probably less people cheating than ever before. At the same time I wish the team managers and Ferraris of the world were the main object of punishment, not the cyclists.

[pddebacker]

I like this idea....

http://www.bobkestrut.com/