Doping Update

I’ve been chewing on this Velonews Article about the toll of doping, and thinking about it in terms of economics (darned education – I cannot help but avoid looking at everything as either an engineering problem or via business terms). The problem, as The Doctor lead to, is one of incentives – the biggest incentives come with winning races. Doping comes with both health and potential loss of income incentives (or disincentives), but not doping also comes with the disincentive of not winning races.

And now, after coming clean about attempted doping, the UCI is recommending a 2 year suspension for Ivan Basso.

Let’s see, now – if Basso actually had popped positive, what would he have gotten? 2 years suspension, just like Tyler Hamilton, probably. And then, if the Hamilton model holds true, it’s going to be nearly impossible for Basso to come back.

(as background, Hamilton’s just completed his 2 year suspension. However, as he’s implicated in the Spanish doping investigation, Operacion Puerto, for evidience that he was doping at about the same time he got busted at the Vuelta Espana, he can’t get work with a top-level team. Meaning, even if you serve your time, you’re screwed)

So, let’s examine a couple of scenarios:

1. If Basso hadn’t confessed, he’d still be riding right now – the lack of positive tests in or out of competition, and the glacial process of the Spanish investigation haven’t provided any evidence on which to hang him.
2. The current one, in which Basso confessed, and is looking to get screwed.
3. The scenario in which he stops doping activities quietly. The risk of positive tests in competition is mitigated, but he’s still got his past hanging over his head, and hasn’t done anything to change the climate.

Is it time for a “Truth and Reconciliation” commission in cycling? An opportunity for dopers to confess, get clean, and resume competing with little or no sanction? As it stands, any confession or attempt to get help gets the rider nailed, so, from a rider’s point of view, why quit?

Update

Basso got whacked for two years, retroactive to late last year when the charges against him were identified.

Basso’s 29. He’ll be 30 when he’s allowed to come back, unless he gets whacked again like Hamilton. Neca’s right – there needs to be a better solution