NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

Every once and a while an article comment is so good I have to make it into it’s own article.  Our comments feature kind of blows, and one day we will get it fixed, but I like to highlight smart, but mostly stupid, comments we get from our Peanut Gallery.  The post I am highlighting today was one of the smart ones.

After our NorCal local num-nut got suspended by the USADA, and then consequently, Peter Cannell was given mandatory time off, comments on masters doping rolled in more frequently than in the past.  We all know it’s a tricky situation… most likely we know somebody (and know them well) thats doing it, but it is so hard to say if it’s anybody good or if they are just mediocre.  Suffice it to say the offenders probably cross the spectrum.  There is no money for extensive testing, and yet, a person’s willingness to dope for a race with $200 in prize money seems pathological and pathetic.  Paul D. chimed in with a post which i think summed up a great, healthy, well articulated NorCal attitude and mirrored some of my own thoughts on the subject.  I am putting it up here so it gets a broader read.  Reprinted here with Paul D’s permission.

Based on the notion that the main object of life is to be a happy fella or gal — in a dahlia lama balanced and inner-peaceful kind of way — perhaps the saddest part of amateur doping is that it is a recipe for true unhappiness for those who do it.

There is nothing more satisfying than putting in an honest off-season’s work to better oneself, and to see the results of that effort bare themselves out on race courses the following spring. This certainly doesn’t mean winning all the time. Winning isn’t really the result that matters. It’s about enjoying the daily process of effort and truly knowing that you did the best you could.

But amateur doping — which must always be done out of some starting place of negative emotions like fear, low self esteem or greed — will never allow the racer to experience that honest inner satisfaction. The doper will always have that secret to hide, along with the lingering question of how much of their result was really “them” vs. the drugs.

I guess that’s why I’m not actually angry at any of these amateur cheaters. In fact, I actually feel sort of bad for them, not only because I know that they’re suffering inside (thus the reason they doped in the first place), but also because they don’t have the wisdom to recognize that their cheating will do nothing but make them even unhappier in the end.

And being unhappy in life is a lot worse than finishing last in a bike race, if you ask me.

That is wisdom at its best.