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Friday's Mailbag: Pedro, Probenecid and other problems

Published: Nov. 24, 2006

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

Say again, Pedro?
Editor,
So let me get this straight: PedroDelgado thinks the problem with doping in cycling is that dopers aregetting caught?
Steve Scott
San Diego, California
It’s all about the “medicine”
Editors,
I had to laugh at Pedro’s remarks on our current doping crises. Thisis the man who won the Tour on a technicality. The fact that the “medicine” he was on to hide the dope he took was not on the list of banned substances was well conceived, and he “legally” won. Sorry, Pedro was a great rider,but he was also a doper.
David Derby
San Diego, CaliforniaThat’s true, David. Delgado did test positive for Probenecid, widelyregarded as a masking agent for steroids, during the ’88 Tour. At the time,the IOC had banned its use and the UCI was planning to follow-up, with the diureticslated to be added to cycling's banned substances list the month after the Tour wrapped up that year. For all of the carping and complaining people do about WADA these days, it is nice to have homogenized regulations. That wouldn’t happen today. – Editor.What’s the big deal?
Editor,
Why is cycling so obsessed with performance-enhancing drugs?Other sports — football, baseball, hockey, golf, tennis, etc — don'teven bother testing. Why should the hardest sport of all care aboutthese drugs that wreak bodies and cause heart problems? If idiots wantto inject, pop pills, drink secret formulas, and believe that this crapactually does anything for their performance, then more power to them.
Bill Leachman
Markham, VirginiaWatch the real racing
Editor,
After reading the interview with one of Spain’s greats and the changesthat road cycling has undergone. It makes me happy to know that thereis still a cycling sport that we can turn to for the hard fought and cleanwins that make people/racing great. I’m talking about and the NORBA/Collegiatecycling series. This is where you truly get people racing for thelove and not the money.Could you in future provide more coverage of these series? Yougot the NORBA down. Perhaps it’s time for people to know who theup and coming collegiate stars are. Maybe pick a different conferenceevery week and report on it.

Keep up the good work,
Joe Slonecki
Grand Rapids, Michigan

P.S. I liked the coverage of the Tailwind Cross Race from theother day.Say it ain't so
Dear Editor,
When I saw that Discoveryhad signed Ivan Basso, I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn'tanother VeloNews April Fools prank (you naughty boys caught me hook, lineand sinker on thatone from last year).I gotta admit though that it has finally convinced me that the top levelof this sport is about as dirty as it can get. Discovery signingBasso left me snickering. Then Bjarne "Mr. 60%" Riis comes up witha comprehensive testing plan for CSC. The "forced sincerity" onhis face in that VeloNews picture had me rolling in laughter.Maybe it's just me, but I can't imagine Discovery with Basso gettingan invite to the 2007 version. Is it any wonder the Tour wanted togo it's own way. There are going to be a lot more restriction onwho will get invites to the Tour next year, and I can hardly blame them.Let's face it; the Tour is everything in cycling. The big names andthe big teams can cry all they want, but the Tour won't be shedding anytears for them in 2007, cause it got it's faced rubbed in the caca thisyear.
Rob Soteros
Lasalle, Ontario, CanadaThanks Rob. We were actually quite proud of that old Verbruggen/Pound schtick. We hooked a lot of people - including the Boston Globe - with that one. You're right, though. It is hard to come up with new material every April, since every time we come up with something we think might be over-the-top, reality beats us with something just a little bit weirder.As for Discovery, with or without Ivan Basso, ProTour teams get a guaranteed invitation to the grand tours, so as things stand now, that won't be an issue. - Editor
The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.