When Blogs Go Away

After the recent election, many bloggers decided to close up shop. (thanks to Waldo for keeping track of this stuff).

One of my favorite non-cvilleblogger blogger has closed up shop. As everyone knows, I love Ivan Basso and believe him to be completely innocent of any operacion puerto allegations (although I know performance enhancing tools are rampant in the sport).

This particular blogger kept up with Ivan Basso, when his wife got pregnant again, I found out through this blog, when Basso won the Giro d'Italia this year, the blogger cheered right along with me. He (she) proclaimed Basso's innocence not with adament statements (see above) but by looking at the materials made public. He/she is leaving the blogging about Ivan because of the nightmare the sport has become with the preformance enhancing drugs. "For me, Cycling lost its attraction the day it became obvious that even today, eight years after the Festina affair, systematic doping is still wide-spread in the peloton. I don’t believe that doping will ever be eradicated, but I do believe in a clean sport. Cycling is not a clean sport, and while I will work (where possible) for a clean sport, I will no longer run this webpage nor support the sport in other ways, until significant reforms are implemented."

This article details another sport concern with steroids, the NFL sack leader in October (and I believe at the end of the season) Merriman tested positive for a steroid in his urine. That fella is now playing in the playoffs (Chargers) and is a remarkable defender. How clean are our sports? How clean can we expect them to be? Someone this week (Tony Gwynn) criticized the Baseball Hall of Fame voters for not voting for Mark McGwire paraphrasing "everyone was doing it, everyone knew about, coaches, players everyone" so basically McGwire should not be judged for his steroid use but for his performance (which was predicated on his drug use).

I want sports to be clean, I want the administrators of the cycling world to get it together and I want cycling to continue to be the thrilling, awe-inspiring sport it is. I hope this all happens soon so the blogger will return.