cycling Stuff

Ivan Basso "widely acknowledged his responsibilities" in the Spanish cycling doping case and is cooperating with investigators, according to an AP report today. This is big. To put this in perspective, if Lance Armstrong is Barry Bonds, and Jan Ullrich is Mark McGwire, than Ivan Basso is Sammy Sosa.

Unlike Sosa, however, I've always liked Basso. Ullrich, on the other hand, was never that likable as his career wound down. He was icy with the press, and in his last few years on the Tour de France there were always one or two other guys on the T-Mobile team that seemed like they might challenge for the lead if Ullrich hadn't been standing in the way.

Basso was different. He was the one guy who went head to head with Lance and won a stage or two, which was nice, because Lance had everything under control anyway. I was pretty excited when Basso joined Team Discovery, even with all the doping allegations swirling. After all, everyone's doping in cycling.

And that's just it. If Basso was doping, that leaves three possibilities for Lance: A) He was doping better than Basso, B) He was doping the same as Basso, but he was a better cyclist. C) He wasn't doping. He was just that good. For the record, I'll begrudgingly admit that B is most likely, but I still think there is a chance that C is true, too. People really ARE out to get Lance, and nothing has really stuck on him for the long haul. The point is, chances are Lance really WAS that good.

Of course, that's no consolation to the (I'm totally, recklessly guessing) 10 or 20% of the riders who don't dope.

In the end, I like Basso for coming forward. He's the first big named cyclist to do it. Come to think of it, he might be the biggest name in sports to come clean. He's at least as big worldwide as Jose Canseco. I'm ready to forgive! Come on people! Admit it! You're on stuff! Go get 'em Ivan.