Above is Riccardo Ricco pointing to himself, the cheating scumbag, who is another rider giving a clear disregard to his sport, his team-mates, and the fans who come to watch it. Yes, Ricco, a greedy, self-centred man, in it for the money, has won two-stages in this years tour and although he becomes the third rider to be disqualified for drug cheating, he is the most high profiled. Remember stage 9 how he burst away from everyone on the final climb? Remember Phil Liggett on ITV4 telling us that he rode like Marco Pantani? Remember how pre-race we had been told that he had a ’shady past’ that he defended as being natural? Yes. Remember all that suspicion . . . It was correct.

When Ricco flew up that final climb, I should have been enjoying a great cyclist at work, but immediately myself and those watching it with me looked at the T.V. screen suspiciously and instantly underlined that kind of a performance as one of a doped up rider. Ricco’s hero was Marco Pantani, another cheat who helped put cycling into the hole it has been in for the last ten-years and so when I woke up this morning to hear he had been kicked out of the tour — I was not in the slightest big surprised or shocked.

Ricco was the King of the Mountains leader and the White Jersey holder as the best young rider. Other riders do move up, but it is the White Jersey that stands out to me. Ricco was supposed to be one of the ‘new generation’ coming through on the back of the new-era of clean cycling. I suppose that ‘theory’ has now gone out the window and a new blanket of suspicion goes over everyone again, just like in the old days.

His Saunier Duval team has withdrawn from the tour meaning that now only has Ricco screwed himself but also his team-mates. It would be unfair to point fingers at this team-mates also, but in this day and age it is hard not to, and that gives us suspicions about the one/two finish by Piepoli and Acebo. Fairly or unfairly, that isn’t my problem, that is now the problem of Ricco for bringing that upon his team-mates.

This positive drugs news today followed the positive yesterday by Moisés Dueñas of Barloworld. He too was removed from the Tour but his team have decided to continue on. Dueñas was not a huge overall threat though he was high up overall, but his scandal can be swept under the carpet unlike the Ricco positive.

Us die-hard fans continue to stick with it and continue to support the sport and its unmatched fight against cheats within, but in the mainstream media and with the passive fan this is another huge hit that the sport is going to struggle to survive from. Ten years on from the Festina scandal, what really has changed? The promises of a new generation appear to have been for nothing.

Category: Pro Road Racing » Doping, Riccardo Ricco, Tour de France |

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