Floyd Landis (Photo: capture-the-peloton.com)

A lot has happened in the sport of cycling lately, and at the moment, everyone is trying to blame someone else, while carefully defending themselves. It started just before the Tour de France, when Operación Puerto dominated cycling headlines world wide. And then there was Floyd Landis, who continues to deny the use of doping despite having delivered two quite positive tests. The main discussion is the following: Is doping part of cycling, or is it just something used by desperate sportsmen who want to do better than they really are? Let's compare cycling to a couple of other sports, before trying to find an answer: In football (soccer), teams hardly ever play more than one match in three days, with a usual maximum of two matches in one week. That means about three hours of actual sports activity (excluding training) in one week. In tennis, during Grand Slams, players usually have a match every other day. If they make it to the final, they would have played between about 20 to 30 hours in two weeks (10 to 15 a week). But the ultimate step must really be cycling. During a Grand Tour, riders often spend five to six hours on the bike for three weeks in a row. With an average of twenty stages, this would mean one hundred hours or more. This makes about 30 to 40 hours per week. Conclusion: Cycling is simply too hard. Some are suggesting that the sport should be made easier, and I agree. Don't take out the spectacular climbs, but make stages significantly shorter. Most cycling fans are not even interested in watching long and unsuccessful breakaways during 230 kilometers long flat stages, with a sprinter eventually taking the victory. Allow the riders to focus on what really matters, without forcing them to spend all their energy for no reason. This way, maybe, cyclists will slowly be able to stay away from doping, and they can return to being the heroes they are for competing at the top level of this sport.

© Jonathan Roorda