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You Brought This on Yourselves

[editor's note, by chris] Cosmo throws some gas on the fire... as he's been known to do.

How many of you cheered when Ullrich, Basso, Mancebo, and all of Astana were banned from this year's Tour? I seem to recall very few people shouting along with me above the fray, trying to point out that these men, who'd worked essentially their entire lives to compete in this one event, were being pushed aside without conviction, without trial, without even charges.

Well, I hope all you anti-dope crusaders are happy now. You jihad won you an additional three weeks of self-delusion. Your "clean" tour, your miracle comeback, your likable new champion, all of it was a farcical lie. And to smear a bitterly ironic layer of frosting onto your utterly half-baked confection, the five Astana riders who were implicated (and subsequently banned) as a result of Operacion Puerto just got cleared of any wrongdoing.

So, instead of bitching about how you're "jaded and cynical" now, or about how you feel "betrayed" by Floyd, why don't you sit down and write a letter to Vino', describing to him why you thought it was ok to ban his teammates and end his 2006 Tour before it began? Why don't you explain to Allen Davis and Joseba Beloki why you stood idly by while they were robbed of the rights that your predecessors fought and died to protect? After today, I feel like "because I wanted a clean race" will ring awfully hollow.

In fact, track down Tony Rominger and get the names, phone numbers and email addresses of all the Astana soigneurs, mechanics, masseurs, directors and drivers, who had to chose between buying food and paying rent this July, just because you thought punishment without due process was the only way to guarantee clean cycling. You think those guys won't be jaded? Do you think they won't feel betrayed?

In a perfect turn of poetic justice, the ASO, the UCI, and WADA, along with any cycling fan that stood silently by before this year's Tour, brought the sadness and disillusionment of this Landis positive upon themselves. I've tried time and time again to warn people about the dangers of a fanatical anti-doping stance; maybe, now that the futility of their actions has slapped them in the face, they might actually listen.