"Things fall apart — the centre will not hold." It's a famous literary quote, a little high-minded perhaps for the world of professional cycling, but as the 2018 season looms large, it heads seemingly inevitably towards confrontation and controversy, and those words — suggesting a collapsing empire and a sense of the end of days — may prove prescient.
There are clouds looming large on the horizon, both over the sport's biggest name, Chris Froome, and also over the long-suspected use of motors by a series of high profile riders, past and present. It's a conspiracy theory that won't go away and that is now gathering momentum, day by day.
Before even a wheel has been turned in anger, the New Year has begun with the knives already out for Team Sky's two most high profile figures, Froome and Dave Brailsford.
ADVERTISEMENT
Brailsford has been depicted as "secretive" by Greg LeMond, and Froome has been rounded on by his peers, as well as by LeMond, for his refusal to accept culpability for the salbutamol excesses that provoked his Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) in last year's Vuelta a Espana.
After LeMond, came former WADA President Dick Pound, long-term nemesis of cycling's various credibility crises, who, in sardonically citing a long history of "heroic asthmatics," left nobody in any doubt as to who his prime target was.
Now other riders — Mathieu van der Poel, Rohan Dennis, Jan Bakelants — are finding their voice, wearied by the prospect of a season overshadowed by the Froome case. The catalogue of resentments against Sky's domination, particularly in France, are building. There is a palpable sense that things could get worse.
- A lot of explaining to do: The questions raised by the Chris Froome salbutamol case
- Chris Froome in 'horrible situation' after salbutamol test
- Will Chris Froome's salbutamol result sink Team Sky?
- Timeline of Chris Froome's adverse analytical finding for salbutamol
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://ift.tt/2CCkBCs
No comments:
Post a Comment