by Steve Martin

Created on: January 10, 2009

Although most sports have problems with cheating, cycling is unique in that it has almost been driven to the point of destruction by doping. As a keen cyclist who was an ardent follower of professional road cycling, I'm surely not alone in having been turned off cycling as a spectator sport. So, why is it cycling in particular that has succumbed to the menace of doping?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /

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Much of the reason for this - and for the difficulty in eradicating the problem lies in the sport's historical roots. Most sports grew in the Victorian era and were seen as "gentleman's pursuits" as it was only the wealthier classes that had the money and time to pursue them. Even soccer, the people's game, began life as a middle class hobby; one need look no further than the names of the early teams: "Corinthians"; "Old Etonians"; etc. Only two sports were the preserve of the lower orders boxing and cycling. These were sports that were tough, that made incredible physical demands on the human body. As such, one had to be driven to succeed.

So, an impoverished Belgian labourer could make a month's salary by winning a local bike race, just as a young man from the slums of a northern English city could make real money by getting into the boxing ring. For this reason, cycling and boxing were never part of the "gentleman's" approach to sport. Cycling was never about the taking part, it was about winning. It was never about being a good sportsman, it was about making money to put food in your stomach. It is for this reason that cycling has always been prone to a bit of cheating. Even the first winner of the Tour de France was stripped of his title when it was discovered that he had taken the train for much of the route.

We may now be in the Twenty-First Century, but the attitudes prevail. Even today, boxing and cycling attract those from the lowest social classes and most impoverished backgrounds and cycling is still about making money. Even the majority of top-class professionals do not make a salary high enough to live on without the extra income they earn from prize money.

There are no good losers in cycling; nobody drives their body to extremes just to come second and go home without the prize money. Cycling is a sport which encourages people to do whatever needs to be done to win including doping. The Tour de France attracts more spectators than any other sport. However, not one of these fans pays an entrance fee. Cycling is dominated by sponsors who pay money to teams that win.

And so, while this mentality continues and it is difficult to see it changing those who dope and those who try to catch them will continue to play a never-ending game of trying to stay one step ahead.

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