Another Reason Not to Dope

By Doping you subject yourself to hate mail like what follows (whether delivered directly or published anonymously, or even sent to you directly by an anonymous commentator! lol), which showed up in a thread on the Cyclingnews.com forum. I'll post a snippet, though you should read the entire thread and watch how what starts as a fairly cordial exchange of information and discussion of a specific issue within cycling can be hijacked and polluted with hypocrisy and personal attacks that are spiteful and without merit - especially as the attacker hides behind the cloak of anonymity. I appreciate everyone who stands up for me, or at least refrains from piling-on, as the original hater is so disconnected from the reality of doping in cycling and its consequences to almost not merit this post. But, given the foulness of what he says and how he says it, this can be another one of those "scared-straight" learning experiences for other athletes who might consider the needle. Here is an excerpt from the hater's first post. Others follow in the original thread:

"...Maybe it’s different when it’s close to you but I don’t forgive him and probably never will. The way some people in the forum respond to him, praising him for coming clean is beyond me. Thanks for coming clean but just saying you’re sorry doesn’t cut it for me. Justice will be served when he benefits in absolutely no way from cycling. He should not have a career as a celebrity confessor/blogger/author/speaker because of a cycling career that was a hoax. Can we allow a dishonest racing career to be parlayed into a successful career as a blogger? You admitted your mistake, you’ve told us everything that’s at all helpful (not much), now…" and:

"joe's nickname is mr. 58%, but you're right, he's a good guy, forget all those bad things i said about him he didn't dope to stay competitive, he egregiously took every shortcut he could find. dare i say, hog-like. isn't joe's admission self-serving? the quickest way to turn around public perception is to confess. he's now got people lined up in this forum to defend him. for the life of me i can't figure out why but it seems to have worked beautifully.

naming names? he testified against landis (who would have gone down anyway) and leogrande who i have to admit i've never heard of. it sounds like he may have made a bargain for leogrande so he himself didn't get busted for trafficking. it seems he was a supplier in this case. i don't care to dig anymore, i'm disgusted. either way he should get a nobel prize. what are the valuable insights again?..."

It's laughable, of course, to think that I've become a successful blogger because of doping, or that I'm in any way earning a comfortable living as a result of having cheated in the sport I love, been caught, admitted to the full scope of my dishonest activities and those of scores of others, and agreed to testify in various proceedings. While I brought it on myself, if you're a young rider just starting out in cycling, you have the chance to avoid the same tragic ending by steering well-clear of doping and the idiots who would try to convince you that you needed it.

Think about it - do you really want to read shit like the above (which is only the proverbial "tip-of-the-iceberg") four years after your career ends in shame? lol - no, of course you don't! So just say no to doping and instead Bike Pure!