You are an IDIOT
July 11th, 2008 by Ricky Blayney
This is Manuel Beltran, the face of the first man to be kicked out of the Tour for testing positive for drugs. EPO being the drug in particular but to be honest, who cares what it was, he is positive, he is out and he is a cheat who for some reason continues to feel it is worth the risk of dragging the sport through the dirt if he is caught and in the new age of dope testing, you will get caught.
I have to be fair though, this was only the first sample and Beltran has a right to have a second sample tested but lets be honest here, when does the second sample ever show anything else?
Earlier today I talked about how 20 riders were warned for having high blood value levels — it turns out Beltran was one of the 20. You would have thought he might have realised he was being watched. Still at 37, Beltran was on his last legs and probably needed the drugs to stay up with the younger, quicker riders. But that is no excuse for him, he has still dragged the sports name back into the dirt — right were it has been trying to escape from.
Cycling definitely deserves credit — it continues to push to the absolute limits and take drug testing to a level unseen before in sports in order to try wipe out the cheats. We should not be surprised that there will always be one or two, but hopefully in this years tour, that many are suggesting is the start of a new era with a new outlook by the young riders who like the fans are fed up with the bad reputation of their sport, this is only a blip on the radar.
Beltran rides for the Liquigas team, who have pulled him out of the race. The Liquigas team hotel was raded tonight by French police, though there are no further reports on how that went. I get the feeling all will be fine there. The days of systematic doping within teams is a thing of the past — the sponsors just don’t stand for it these days.
Beltran was an ex-team mate of Lance Armstrong during his glory days and is one of a growing list of riders who rode with Armstrong only to test positive after leaving that US Postal / Discovery team.
Beltran was no favourite for the general classification so although the story will make news (and unfortunately the only news the Tour will get in certain media outlets), it should blow over quickly.
...........................................................................................................................................................................