I've been putting off writing about this, but as more people seem to get into cycling this time of the year (The Tour de France is well into its second week for those who don't know), we hear more and more about how tarnished the sport is by use of blood-boosters and other PEDs. Now, I've not ranted on this subject before, though it comes into play in nearly every sport I watch, especially baseball, but I'm ridiculously tired of people dismissing cycling because of "rampant" drug use.

Let's explore this a little, shall we? So far this year, 4 riders have been kicked out of the Tour and arrested for EPO use. Four of 168. That's 2.38% of all participants. While not every professional cycling team is invited to the Tour, or the Giro d'Italia, all the relevant ones are. These are the best of the best riders in the world. Look at it this way, if this were professional baseball (just in America), this would amount to 381 players caught using PEDs (2.38% of 16,000 players). And cycling is the dirty sport? Please. If you believe for a second that under 400 players in baseball were using steroids, HGH or even amphetamines throughout the Steroid Era, you're only fooling yourself.

And yes, I understand that the people who are being found to use are the ones winning stages, but isn't that the whole point? They use to win, and it works. Just ask Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire how it worked out for them. The governing body of cycling, the International Cycling Union (UCI), has done more to actively eliminate EPO and other PEDs in its sport than any other professional body, maybe outside of the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

There are even entire teams committed to clean riding, who face more strict blood testing than the average rider.  Most notably the America-based Team Garmin-Chipotle (formerly Team Slipstream) which has hired only clean riders for their team, has Christian Vandevelde in 6th place at the Tour right now, less than 5 minutes off the pace, as well as Denmark-based Team CSC-Saxo Bank, which holds the Yellow Jersey and is the number one overall team in the Tour, has faced 1000 tests over the last year and a half.

I defy you to identify one sport, much less two teams that are doing as much to fight PED use in their sport as Team Garmin-Chipotle and Team CSC-Saxo Bank are. This bashing of the sport is silly, and though I am a newcomer to it, I'm already tired of hearing the crap.

EDIT: An interesting in-Tour blog by Team Garmin-Chipotle rider David Millar: "If you’re close to giving up on cycling, I can understand that. I almost did after all; but please don’t give up on us. And when I say us, I mean them. Because I am an ex-doper, I have to earn my right to be believed and trusted. But there are many who don’t. They need to be believed in. Christian [Vandevelde] is going to need every ounce of his being to pass the Alps. I believe he will do it. I hope you believe he can and will and that he is doing it with our dreams in his hands. Vive Le Tour."