Hey boy, you are beautiful
Category: Cycling
Sport may be depressing. I know that. Your idols dope and are bad models for kids, especially their own. I always feel sad when doped sportsmen/women are having kids. What kind of world will their children see and meet. Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov is having three kids, one girl and two boy twins. I know Vino loves his kids, but if I was him then I would be ashamed if my kids had to bear the truth that their father used dope. I would be ashamed because I did something so disloyal to my fans and team mates. Vinokourov is ashamed, he never wanted to test positive for dope. In his first year as a professional he was probably sure he could make it without drugs. He wanted his people to be proud, but who can be proud when success are made by illegal things? His B-test was positive too, but I'm sure he won't admit anything. I still like him and his personality, but I guess I would have a difficult time believing in him if he came back to the world of sport. Of course I feel sad about it, but I would definitively like him to admit his faults. He would unburden himself if he did, and I'm quite sure he soon will speak his mind in a couple of month's time. Just wait and he'll do it by himself.
Another person I feel sad for is the Danish rider Michael Rasmussen. No, I have never been a great fan of him but I will never forget his time-trialling skills, or his most unlucky time-trial race ever, a couple of years ago. It was one of the last stages at the Tour de France 2007. Rasmussen was in third position overall, but as he fell early on and broke the frame he simply had to change bike. He changed the bike one or two times, he changed wheels as he got a flat tyre etc. It must have been the worst day of his life. At least for the moment as he had yet another strange day during this years Tour. The rider won stage 16 from Orthez to Gourette Col d'Aubisque. All ready from the beginning people spoke about a rider who had been tested positive for testosterone after another stage. Rasmussen could clearly have been the one, which was why I acted so nervously in the climb. I can't describe it, but something made him unsure about himself. The doped rider was Christian Moreni and so Rasmussen?s victory meant nothing that day. Later that night he heard that he was sacked from the Dutch squad Rabobank. A TV-commentator from RAI, Davide Cassani, told the press that he had meet Michael Rasmussen in the Dolomites when Rasmussen said he was in Mexico. He got the sack because of lying. And if a rider lies about where he has been, who can trust him that he has never used dope or that he was not full of dope at the time, and that's the reason for hiding?
Who, except for him, knows what was really going on? Of course his wife knows, and perhaps a couple of more people, but only Michael Rasmussen can tell what really was going on with him.
He wore the yellow jersey in the Tour de France the day when he was sacked. He could possible have won the whole race, but he was not supposed to win this year, and maybe never. I believe there?s always a good reason why things happen and Rasmussen, I bet, will learn a lot by being sacked from Rabobank.
But the rider himself told a Danish local paper that he was almost going to do something very stupid that day when they fired him. He was all alone in his room, he was sad and he just got sacked. Will anyone blame him if he thinks of suicide? Okay, I have to leave. Take care.
