Michael McGuire: The Tour Down Under’s appointment of Stuart O’Grady sends the wrong message
The Tour Down Under’s decision to appoint Stuart O’Grady only could have been made with no real understanding of how people view the cycling world, writes Michael McGuire.
Opinion
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Cycling has become so wrapped up in itself, so insular, that it has no idea how people outside of its own narrow perspective view the sport.
It’s perception of itself is not dissimilar to what we’ve seen transpire with Prince Andrew in the past few weeks. Prince Andrew was apparently initially pretty pleased with how his TV interview, in which he admitted to misjudgment when it came to hanging around with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, had gone. The swift and crushing public condemnation that followed surely cured him of that strange notion. And if it didn’t, being sacked by his mum would have.
Which brings us to the decision to appoint Stuart O’Grady as director of the Tour Down Under.
A decision that could only have been made by people with no real understanding of how most people view the world of professional cycling.
Which is that for many years it has been viewed as the most drug-ridden sport in the world. Of course, cycling people will tell you great strides have been made in cleaning up the sport.
That testing is more rigorous than ever. That it’s cleaner than it’s ever been. That it’s winning the battle against the dopers and the cheaters that so ruined the sport’s reputation.
And then they appoint Stuart O’Grady to run the Tour Down Under.
In 2013, O’Grady admitted he had taken the performance-enhancing EPO all the way back in 1998. O’Grady made the admission after being named in a report from the French Senate which examined doping at the 1998 Tour de France. “Leading into the Tour I made a decision,” O’Grady told The Advertiser’s Reece Homfray in 2013.
“I sourced it (EPO) myself, there was no one else involved, it didn’t involve the team in any way. I just had to drive over the border and buy it at any pharmacy.”
O’Grady says he used the EPO for two weeks then never again. At that Tour de France in 1998, he won a stage and became only the second Australian to wear the leader’s yellow jersey.
In 1999, O’Grady won his first Tour Down Under. He won his second in 2001.
Part of O’Grady’s excuse for doping was that he had been so far off the pace at the 1997 Tour. It was the “everyone else is doing it, so why can’t I’’ rationale. And there is no doubt at the time it was easier to find a doped-up cyclist than a clean one.
O’Grady was famously friends with Lance Armstrong, the biggest cheat in the history of any sport. The duo buddied up when the American came to Adelaide for the TDU in 2009.
O’Grady even supported the decision by cycling’s governing body, the UCI, to bend its own doping rules to allow Armstrong to compete in Adelaide and pick up his $1.5 million cheque.
Of course, in 2009, while Armstrong was still protesting his innocence, no one who was paying any attention believed him.
When O’Grady won the Paris-Roubaix in 2007 riding for Team CSC, the team was managed and owned by a former Danish cyclist called Bjarne Riis, who admitted using EPO to win the 1996 Tour de France. A report in 2015 by Anti-Doping Denmark said Riis was well aware of widespread blood doping by other team members while he was manager of Team CSC.
O’Grady claims he has learnt from past mistakes. And Australians generally like to think the best of their athletes.
It’s a naive view that Australians would never take banned drugs. That it’s only those nasty foreigners that would stoop so low. But all sorts of sports have had athletes banned over the years: footy, cricket, swimming, rugby league and union, athletics, soccer, and the list goes on.
Maybe that softness is what allows O’Grady to run the TDU. Maybe we think everyone deserves a second chance, as long as they’re Australian.
The official press release making the announcement contained no reference to O’Grady’s drug taking. It did, however, contain an endorsement from Gerry Ryan, owner of Mitchelton-Scott racing team. This is an outfit run by Matt White, another who confessed to doping while riding for Lance Armstrong’s team.
You wonder if cycling will ever really learn.