The end of a PR campaign
Breaking news just coming in: Team Astana, the cycling team around Kazakhstani talent Alexander Vinokurov, has just withdrawn from the Tour de France following the positive doping test of Vinokurov himself.
Vinokurov had lost all hope of winning this year’s tour after crashing early on but has since then redeemed himself by winning two tour stages, including yesterday’s Pyrenees stage. The day before yesterday, during the time-trial, he also left the pyloton behind him.
A few weeks back, Scaliger wrote on this blog:
Thanks to our racers, the audience has an opportunity to constantly see the flag of Kazakhstan. What is it if not a promotion of an international image?
Tastes bitter now. German public television has stopped broadcasting from the tour when one allegation after another was made public against top cyclists. Also, currently in the yellow jersey, Michael Rasmussen is confronted with mounting suspicions as he did not show up during routine doping tests. Professional cycling is in its deepest crisis ever.
Team Astana’s display during the fifteen stages has also not been very conducive to Kazakhstan’s image: Known as “Team Borat”, it was protected by muscley bodyguards, it never signed the official Anti-Doping statement, and was keeping communication with the press at a bare minimum.
on July 24th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
As an aside, it’s quite tragic for former FM Tokayev, whom Winokurov allegedly personally appealed to for help when no sponsor could be found. He reportedly lobbied on Team Astana’s behalf and got the whole business establishment such as Air Astana, ENRC, KMG, etc. to sponsor the money.
on July 24th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Professional cycling is in its deepest crisis ever.
Possibly. Remember, the defending Tour de France champion is absent owing to numerous doping allegations, which was the thought to be the deepest crisis ever … since the one before … and the one before that … ad infinitum
on July 24th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
For the sake of accuracy: German TV stopped covering the tour after a German rider, Patrick Sinkiewicz, was found to have high testosterone levels in his bloodstream (Floyd Landis had the same problem last year).
But I don’t think that this is cycling’s worst crisis ever. I think that the older riders have been brought up in a culture of drugs cheating, and if the sport continues to be aggressive about it and testing continues to be effective, it will clean up as younger riders come through. Provided they can keep the sponsors onboard in the meantime.
But there are also some double standards here. Arnold Palmer made some strong allegations a week ago about drug-taking in golf - and we had four days of coverage of the British Open in which it was, as far as I can see, not mentioned at all. I know what the tests are on cyclists and how they work (even if the UCI and the national federations need to clear up the way the ‘whereabouts’ rules work and how they are enforced). Athletics seems pretty murky to me, judging from the comments of Dick Pound of WADA. Golf? I’m not sure there are any testing procedures at all.
on July 24th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Not having been being interested in the sport for too long, I just came across the name Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, arguably the most successful Central Asian biker cyclist ever (”The Tashkent Terror” was one of his nicknames). Unfortunately, his career was overshadowed by doping as well.
on July 27th, 2007 at 9:05 am
I don’t think it really matters for our blog whether this is “the deepest crisis ever” for cycling. But Ben is right that it is a PR disaster for Kazakhstan. A European friend here who follows cycling (which I, admittedly, do not), told me that the approach to doping is just far more casual in Kazakhstan than in Europe, his implication being that almost everyone in Kazakhstan does it. I don’t know if he’s right, but it would seem to make sense historically, considering how widespread performance enhancing drugs were during the Soviet period.
on July 28th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
I used to love watching the Tour, and now I could care less. Casual attitudes towards doping and steroids are not unique, by any stretch of the imagination, to Kazakstan. Many American, European, and South American cyclists have been caught cheating. The casual attitude seems more specific to the sport itself than any particular cohort within.
on August 17th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Don’t forget that the whole point of Team Astana was that last year Vinokurov’s team members got disqualified for doping so he said, “Enough relying on other people! I am making my own team next year to show what I can do (and for the glorious benefit of Kazakhstan)!” Now he gets busted for doping himself. Good job.
on August 30th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
your web so cool