The news hit this week about Haro team rider Chris Shepards 2 year suspension for a positive EPO test. At first I just couldn't believe it. I spent a lot of years on the race circuit with him, his teammate Seamus McGrath and various other team riders. I never had the oppurtunity to actually tune for them since they weren't sponsored by Manitou until after I left the circuit, but I was always welcome in the race trailer before and after the races. We watched many an F1 races on Sunday mornings on the Haro satelite.
The story got me thinking about the whole drugs in cycling bit. For a guy like Chris to be pushed to do something like that the stakes must have been enormous. Chris isn't a win at all costs type of guy, extremely likeable, very approachable and a lover of the sport. He likes to ride bikes, and it shows. He showed up a few years back at a local race at Branched Oak. He saw the race on the web and happened to be driving through so he stopped for some training (he was impressed with the competition by the way). Chris liked going to local events, he called them "real", the heart of what mountain biking was, is and will be.
Chris has had a pretty crap season or two so I'm sure the pressure was on. Will any of us ever be able to understand those pressures, probably not. For me, this says that the better part of the pro field is doping, it's just a matter of who gets caught. It's a shame good people get pushed to make bad descions. If you're ever in Kamloops B.C., Chris's hometown, look him up, he'll show you some sweet singletrack.
5 comments:
well, if that's your livelyhood (racing) and you have to compete with the f'ing juicers then maybe at some point you juice. the whole situation stinks. and it's all sports. that really stinks. something as honest and inspiring (to us anyway) to be dragged down to the level it has, sucks.
Kinda makes it hit home, doesn't it?
I would imagine that this serves as a "breach of contract" with his sponsors; so now the sport that pressured him so much to perform will likely leave him out to dry financially, forfeit his 401k, so he'll have to come to MOD for a job. And I understand the high level of punishment should serve as a deterrent to other racers, but I'm not so sure its working. Kinda like asking if the death penalty is actually keeping the crime rate down.... Doesn't seem like it.
if they televised the death penalty then maybe it would make some sense.
i have this buddy out here in the Fort who used to be a domestic pro roadie (a past uspro/philly winner, won a stage at the tour of poland, etc and so forth) who says he never doped it up ... but sometimes looks back and asks himself why he didn't, from a pure financial perspective. anyway, in his words, "look at those guys, they are set for life financially, own several homes around the world ... and i have 10 year old van, student loans, credit card debt, and a very modest house after 12 years of elite level competition" and frankly he's a little bitter about it. can ya blame him?
even at a regional level it sucks to think about who's might be on the juice ... especially if your a struggling cat. 1 or cat. 2 who goes to big races and dukes it out with the "pros" all summer. you know some of those guys are doing it too. super discouraging.
~daverill
damn,
dope never made me really fast,
just made me high.
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