Cycling is Rotten in the State of Denmark

First a hero during summer secondary school for myself, the Eagle from Herning Bjarne Lykkegård Riis, took both the Danish Road Racing Championship and Tour de France, on his way to dominating the sport that year. Cycling, for the Danish people, had finally become a daily source of pride, as the podium in Paris finally became a regular spot for the Danes, now the very top spot was theirs, as Riis had finally ended Miguel Indurain's consecutive winning streak of half a decade. However, even this joy was shortlived, just as much so as the Eagle's early forced retirement in 2000.

Doping allegations soon arose in the sport, a performance enhancing drugs crisis just after his victory, gave way to a new inside game nickname, Mister Sixty Percent as allusion to a high red blood cell or hematocrit count level, an obvious indication of erythropoietin usage. Though never actually testing positive while riding, medical researchers and police believed and speculated that he was part of the peloton of sinners who took part, since no outright denial but rather an "I have never been tested positive" statement took place. Seven years later, Riis finally came out clean, issuing a confessing statement admitting to growth hormone, erythropoietin, cortisone and other banned substances for about five years, which sadly included that 1996 Tour de France victory, bought and injected himself, with coaches turning a blind eye to it.

Meanwhile that very same year, another generation of Danish cyclist began to get hit over the subject, as Michael Rasmussen or the Chicken from Tølløse wore the yellow jersey leading in the 2007 Tour de France. Rumours of him violating internal code for his team were rampant, instead of being in Mexico with his family, an former professional rider then retired said he had seen Rasmussen in Italy instead. Now with his contact terminated, the King of the Mountains was no more, despite his denial of the accusation, with news that the Danmarks Cykle Union suspended and then banned him from the future Union Cycliste Internationale World Championships and Olympic Games for missing his mandated doping controls and failing to to report his whereabouts during the missed time, with further bans unrelated lasting until 2009.

Now continuing on, the next generation of cycling Danes, Peter Riis Andersen, who threepeated as Danish Mountain Bike Champion and himself was on the way towards the Tour de France in the future and into the Olympic Games currently, again the erythroipoietin being the substance tested positive on. Andersen was immediately expelled from the Olympic squad, his team had booted him off, with his admission coming early this morning, depressed, dejected and teary eyed, saying he mainly felt under pressure after one long string of bad results in his sport. In order to raise his own level for the Olympics, felling in his body the artificial stimulant boosting his overall performance, he lower his own standards, but as he does say, though it is cowardly to cheat in sport, but it is even more cowardly not to admit it.

So here we are today, Cycling is rotten in the state of Denmark, from Riis to Rasmussen to Andersen, we have to question ourselves and the sport we love every summer around now. Replacing Andersen will be his permanent rival Jakob Fuglsang, as the leader of the game amongst Danes quite like Kim Eriksen to Riis in years past, so finding other national heroes will not be the problem. Rather it will be keeping them each of them away from tempting banned artificial blood stimulating boosters, keeping them clean but strong enough to finish the race at their peak and in top place, a old fashioned secret towards a solution could be hard work and extreme training with no room for error in such a game that sometime ends with such reckless abandon.