Tour de France

Tuesday October 23, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday October 23, 2012

Lance Armstrong Is Stripped of His 7 Tour de France Titles

Tour de Fraud, Lance Armstrong gets new sponsors

The International Cycling Union announced Monday that it would not appeal the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s ruling to bar Lance Armstrong for life from Olympic sports for doping and for playing an instrumental role in the team-organized doping on his Tour de France-winning cycling squads.

Lance Armstrong won ultimate possession of the Tour de France’s yellow jersey for seven straight years, but his name is being removed from the Tour record books.

That decision to waive the right to take Armstrong’s case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest court in sports, formally stripped Armstrong of the seven Tour titles he won from 1999 to 2005.

“Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling; he deserves to be forgotten in cycling,” Pat McQuaid, the president of the cycling union, known as U.C.I., said in a news conference in Switzerland. “Something like this must never happen again.”

McQuaid said he was “sickened” by the facts in the 202-page report the antidoping agency made public two weeks ago regarding the evidence it had in the Armstrong case, and called it mind-boggling how former teammates like the five-time national time-trial champion David Zabriskie were pushed to use performance-enhancing drugs.

McQuaid said that Armstrong’s teams had a “win at all costs” attitude fueled by “deceit, intimidation, coercion and evasion,” and that all of the evidence was there to prove that Armstrong doped. He added that he was sorry the cycling union had not caught Armstrong and his teammates “red handed” so he could have thrown them out of the sport. (Source: NYTimes) 

 

July 28, 2007

Dear Editor,

Excuse me, that’s Tour de France, not “Tour de Farce”. The slanted, critical articles and cartoon are not fair to the sport or the majority of athletes that participate in this great event.

Granted, I am angry and disappointed when I see that a great performance that excited me has been falsely obtained due to the use of illegal blood transfusions or stimulants. It really burns me that a very few idiots have selfishly and desparately enhanced their performance, at the cost of their own integrity, the welfare of their team mates and the reputation of the sport.

The point that the authors of these articles and cartoons is missing is that cycling has been trying hard to clean up the sport, particularly since Floyd Landis was caught after winning the Tour last year. Teams and sponsors have been pulling-out or demanding a clean sport, and it has been working. Apparently a few have not gotten the message.

The real issue here is that cycling is doing something about the drug problem. The increased and improved testing is actually getting results. Offenders are being caught and punished, and that is why it is in the news so much. That is more than you can say about professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey. If they started doing the same intensive testing as cycling, these other Pro sports would be lucky to have enough guys to field a team!

These so-called “sports” in North America are morally bankrupt in this regard and the people in charge do not want to know about the illegal use of drugs, nor do the “fans”.They hang one scapegoat out to dry now and then, to make it look like they’re trying, then it is back to business as usual. It’s all about money and they won’t risk that to catch cheaters. At least Pro Cycling has the guts to do it and risk some bad press to clean-up their sport.

Ken Wilson
Ancaster

Wednesday July 25, 2007

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday July 25, 2007

Hamilton eyeing 2015 Pan-Am Games?

At this point, it’s still in the very preliminary stages. But tourism and sporting officials in Hamilton are discussing the possibility of Hamilton making a bid for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

Tourism Hamilton’s David Adames says no formal discussions have taken place, but that could change in the next couple of weeks if the Canadian Olympic Committee decides to back a bid for a Pan Am bid.

Those in favour suggest the city would benefit from the hundreds of millions in federal and provincial dollars for sporting infrastructure.

But those opposed point out it will cost the city as much as 200-million dollars of its own money. (Source: CHML News)

Commentary

I know it’s the summer when I draw back to back on local news — when little stories are the fodder for editorial cartoons, simply because of a dearth of news on the national and world fronts.

Today’s subject is the mulling over by city officials to make a bid for the 2015 Pan-American games. “Here we go again” — I utter defiantly against the predictable enthusiasm of my colleagues in this editorial page room. Just as the current Pan Am games are being played out in Brazil with virtually no television coverage and scant knowledge that they’re even going on a few bright lights in Hamilton are aching for the event to be played out here.

As with the city’s earlier bid for the Commonwealth Games the thinking seems to be more about a blatant opportunity to grab a lot of provincial and federal funds to fix up existing arenas and stadiums than really understanding the traditions, history and spirit of what’s behind certain international games.

At least with the second Commonwealth Games bid we were demonstrating perseverance by going after the games for a second time. Along the way we were learning what the Commonwealth games were all about, and became aware of the fact that the games had it’s origins with the first Empire Games being played in Hamilton back in the 1930’s. Our bids were not only just about fixing up our crumbling arenas, we had a genuine desire and connection to the games.

The politics of the bidding process screwed us, but at least we learned. More persistence could get us a Commonwealth Games sometime down the road.

But a Pan Am games bid? Now we’re back to the old federal/provincial cash grab without really knowing what we’re getting into.

I sketched the cartoon below but thought it really went beyond how I feel about the potential of hosting a big international games event. I’m not a bread not circus’ advocate, just suspicious of Hamilton’s tendency to put off fixing crumbling buildings and infrastucture with the hope that one day this city’s going to win the lottery.