While it has its many virtues, CycleSport Magazine's biggest handicap -- its two month delay -- bites back hard this month. I just received my copy of "the Clean Issue," a non-stop lecture on the evils of doping that might not have sounded sanctimonious and redundant in late July... but now?
No doubt there is useful information -- CycleSport leads the industry (IMHO) in creative in-depth reporting, and even in my cursory read I gleaned from a couple pieces a sense that French Cycling is ahead of the clean-up game. Also people seem to hate Paul Kimmage and other old-school whistle-blowers. Fine.
My problem is, since the Landis scandal broke, people who pay attention to the sport underwent a seemingly endless examination of doping. Here at the Cafe we had enough conversation, argument, and recrimination to exhaust the most extreme cycling media junkie. Who, by the way, isn't me.
So this is a very subjective complaint, but maybe a better one is that we've all thought a lot about this, probably made some progress in the communal thinking about drugs, and can expect to see at least a stiffening of the sport's collective spine, as people unravel the truth. CycleSport is late to the subject, and looks a little silly in the process.