In the land of fun times and fun things.

[cerealjoe]

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. This whole LA deal is quite the soap opera-slash-detective story, isn't it? And now we have the book that should be the finale but like with all good stories, obviously there will be sequels and prequels and a spin-off or two. Am I going to read the whole report? Most likely, yes. First of all because of the title, "Reasoned Decision of (...)", it has a nice ring to it. Maybe we should have a read-along and discuss chapters or something. Some discussions might go along the lines of, "where the hell did the guy get all this money? This is cycling, not football!" from the few things I've read here and there. Overall though, this report will not change much about my feelings on the LA case and doping in cycling. I guess we can thank LA and his stubbornness (or is it hubris?) for confirming what many suspected, if he hadn't been so great at denying everything then perhaps the extent of doping wouldn't have been known. For the rest, I've turned into such a cynic in the last few years that I actually feel bad for Mr. George, Michael Barry, etc. and their little PRed statements on their doping pasts. Out all the known dopers from the last few years, the ones that I have come to "forgive" (or at least the ones I manage to watch win and do other awesome stuff without going "yeah, right, like that's for real") are the ones with the nice and humble personalities, so maybe that's why I'm totally inclined to feel bad for Hincapie and Barry and not some others in the bunch. Truth be told, the part that totally gets me down is the way LA seems to have bullied his way through life and doping. That totally undermines all his positive contributions. His story, or at least the one he has always told, has definitely inspired more than a few and now these people learn that chances are whatever they were inspired by wasn't worth all that much and on top of that the guy destroyed the lives of those who wouldn't cooperate and intimidated the others into doing as he wanted... that totally sucks. Still, I suppose I should point out that lately I've figured out that men's professional cycling has always been about entertainment for me. It's really triathletes and seeing that they're humans and that cycling doesn't have to be about 200 kilometer stages that has pushed towards truly enjoying cycling as a sport. That and the stories of female pro cyclists who have managed to combine cycling with having achieved amazing things off the bike, amazing diplomas, work experience, etc. And the triathlon thing might also explain the extra disdain I developed for LA trying to push his way into tris.