Procycling defends Andreu hiring
Procycling, one of BikeRadar's sister magazines, has come under fire from readers after hiring Frankie Andreu as its pro bike tester. Andreu confessed to EPO use while riding for the US Postal Service team, which made him an unpopular choice among readers who want the magazine to have a clean agenda. But Daniel Friebe, Procycling's features editor, defended Andreu's hiring in his latest blog:
"In our view there are three categories of, well - we might as well be blunt - dope cheat: there are the guys who spent years juicing to earn a pretty penny and still deny it today; there's another category of rider who has been dragged kicking and screaming into the confession booth, resenting every second; and there's a third category who bowed only to pressure from their own conscience, and who usually go on to become outspoken critics of doping. We'll leave to you to find a slot for the Bassos, Landises, Hamiltons and Herases of this world, but we can tell you that Frankie Andreu fits very much into the third category.
"Frankie won't change the world testing bikes for Procycling, but let it be known that we hired him not only because he knows a sprocket from a seat-tube, but also because we wanted to express our solidarity with a guy who had the wherewithal to release a large skeleton from his own and the sport's overcrowded closet. The same honesty had already cost him at least one job, condemnation from his former team leader and team boss, several friends, not to mention a good number of sleepless nights. All for what? Because he cheated or because he had the audacity to put a fist through a very old, very thick wall of silence?"
To read the full blog entry, click here.
User Comments
There are 14 comments on this post
Showing 1 - 5 of 14 comments
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epicyclo
Posted Sun 6 Jan, 11:56 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
It is reasonable to forgive those drug cheats who voluntarily and spontaneously own up.
Then there are those who seek forgiveness only when exposed - I do not buy a magazine that puts one of them on the cover or has an article on them. Let them wither on the vine.
As far as those who have purportedly not been exposed - I think we have to remember innocent until proven guilty.
Perhaps we need an amnesty with a deadline.
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giant mancp
Posted Tue 13 Nov, 10:28 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
That's the last issue of ProCycling I buy. It's a complete farce!
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DubDevil
Posted Wed 7 Nov, 12:09 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
Hey NFERRAR, no reasonable argument remotely intended. That was just a piss take of your reasonable solution of banning cheats from “not being given other cycling related jobs” if caught.
I’d buy inner tubes of Frankie any day.
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yourmom
Posted Tue 6 Nov, 3:56 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
DUBDEVIL wrote: "The pay is rubbish and the majority of the time is spent dealing with a load of self righteous idiots."
Now now... That's no way to talk about ProCycling staff ;-)
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nferrar
Posted Tue 6 Nov, 1:03 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
Doping in cycling isn't a 'mistake' it's a clear attempt to cheat your way to improved results and the financial rewards that follow. The current 2-year ban obviously isn't sufficient risk/punishment for many riders as they continue to dope.
Sure there needs to be some carrot along with the stick, e.g. less emphasis on results (if you're going to get fired for not getting consistent top results you may as well try doping to get them) but that's hard to control as teams should be allowed to set their own targets for riders, they pay them after all.
As it is now cycling is still in a downward spiral and at the bottom is the collapse of pro cycling as we know it. Which multi-national companies in their right mind would risk sponsoring a pro cycling team in the current climate? Even if their team remains clean the crap from other teams having doping issues still hits them. The result being the money drains out of the sport. Along with that the fans also drift away as they can no longer appreciate cycling for what it should be and end up jsut speculating if the winner of a race was doping or not. If you have no sponsors and no fans you don't have a pro sport left.
If it takes permanent bans to avoid that it's well worth it in my eyes. To the guy that's talking about hanging - get a grip and try a reasoned argument...
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