Movement for Credible Cycling — what’s the credible part?

//Movement for Credible Cycling — what’s the credible part?

Movement for Credible Cycling — what’s the credible part?

 

Doping. That's enough!

Play the scenario out: you’re the manager of a WorldTour or Pro Continental squad in Russia or Italy or Kazakhstan.

You have significant doping issues on your squad, suspended riders, riders with bad histories and team personnel — maybe including yourself — with a questionable dirty past.

Sponsors are difficult to find, UCI licenses are hard to maintain and all around you is revolution and crisis as the sport deals with the colossal damage of the USADA Reasoned Report.

So being the sharp, cynical, desperate manager you are, you look for some instant ethical credibility, some badge of good behavior, the equivalent of a pro cycling Good Housekeeping seal.

You join the Movement for Credible Cycling and now you’ve suckered everybody.

The MCC used to be practically a French-only club on the fringes of the sport, guys wearing scarves and bemoaning the drug use in cycling. They had no power, no influence, and no interest from the big boys. The original seven squads  were the ones at the bottom of the UCI win list: AG2R Prévoyance, Agritubel, Bouygues Télécom, Cofidis, Crédit Agricole, Française des Jeux and Gerolsteiner.

They campaigned for stricter anti-doping measures and not immediately hiring riders coming off suspension and never ever riding for a Spanish team — just kidding on that one. Although it’s worth noting that neither Movistar or Euskatel are on the member list.

In one year the MCC went from nobody to somebody to nobody again. What happened? With the inclusion of dirty squads like Katusha, Astana, Lampre-Merida and Androni-Giacattoli, the “credibility” of the organization vanished.

Take the middle C away because now the name is simply Movement for Cycling. They’re a meaningless rubber stamp that exists so that teams with doping problems can pretend they’ve cleaned up. The MCC is officially a joke.

Sure, you can say those four teams were admitted on a probation period but they shouldn’t be there period. All you’ve accomplished is destroying your own integrity and giving them a safe place to hide.

We liked the MCC better when they were just a bunch of Frenchmen meeting once in a while to drink copious amounts of red wine and rail with poetic fervor about drugs in cycling. Now, they’re simply another compromised and confused cycling organization — and we’ve already got plenty of that.

 

By |2019-02-03T16:06:34-08:00February 27th, 2013|Uncategorized|2 Comments

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2 Comments

  1. Higgins February 27, 2013 at 1:26 pm - Reply

    I want a movement for incredible cycling, which would involve unicycling up Mont Ventoux and insisting on all riders in the TDF using only fixies. All commentary would have to be provided by Liggett and Sherwen.

    Oh, wait a minute….

    • walshworld February 27, 2013 at 5:28 pm - Reply

      Higgins. That’s a brilliant idea for MCC as a fundraiser and PR coup. You should sell them that idea. Matt

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