Paolo Bettini believes professional cycling has had the courage to change after years of doping scandals, while other sports have struggled to face up to their problems.
Bettini was speaking at this year’s Tour Down Under, where he was a special guest at for the annual pre-race Legends’ dinner. The Tuscan-born Italian never raced the Tour Down Under during his career but was part of the Italian team that rode at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He went on to win gold in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and enjoyed a prolific career between 1997 and 2008, winning the world title in 2006 and 2007 and five monument Classic victories during his career.
Bettini was Italian national coach between 2010 and 2014 but quit the prestigious position to create Fernando Alonso’s WorldTour team. The team never got off the ground but Bettini now reveals he had 15 riders committed the team before the project fell apart.
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Without a full-time position in the sport, Bettini now works with Gazzetta dello Sport, commenting on races and has organised two stages of this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico near his home on the Tuscan coast. He is a close friend of Luca Paolini and also talked about the Katusha rider’s positive test for cocaine during the Tour de France.
“I think cycling in this moment is the best sport. It’s a very good sport. It’s impossible to say it’s totally clean, but the sport has worked hard to change the mentality,” Bettini told media at the Tour Down Under before the Legends’ dinner.
“Modern cycling had the courage to change, but other sports have not the courage for change. It’s impossible to say that the doping problem is finished, it’s important that the mentality has changed. All aspects of cycling have changed and they have a new approach to professional sport.”
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