Playing catch up

I've not had much time to keep up with this blog of late, what with acting as promoter for a large cycle race (the Bicester Millennium 4up team time trial), trying to write lectures, organise my growing research group (working on surfactin production and biosurfactants) and... and... and...

To catch up a bit on things I've posted about before, the Tour de France has come and gone. Probably gone for good, what with the reputations Vinokourov, Moreni, Rasmussen and now Mayo tarnished by missed drugs tests or positive ones. It's not really a surprise that such things happen (a quick reread of Paul Kimmage's book is enough to put anyone off the "glory" of Pro cycling) which says quite a lot about my attitude to the whole thing. I hope that the witch hunt that is going through cycling at the moment is extended to other sports. I can't believe that the footballers, tennis players, track athletes and swimmers of this world are somehow whiter than white, particularly given their larger disposable incomes compared to most cyclists.

In the end what bothers me most about the drugs in sport issue is that it reflects on me. I might only be a club cyclist who races five times a year in time trials, but on the odd occasion I win, do the others in the field suspect that I have doped to do it? Would I be that shallow that I would?