Jens Voigt is set to retire as we speak, having one final crack at a long break in some race in the Cycling backwater of the USA. Is it fair or fitting that he should go out like this, slipping out the back door with little fanfare, while others have been doing a farewell tour of all the big races, replete with fancy commemorative shoes and a song and dance? It’s probably apt that Jens is just doing what he’s always done: getting on with the job at hand and not saying too much. It’s almost like he’s been given the Golden Handshake, received his gold watch (well, another Trek), and gently herded out of the room, along with the elephant.
There’s no doubt that Jens is a hero to almost the entire cycling world; fans and contemporaries alike instantly warm to the big guy. He’s probably a great bloke to get on the beers with, keeping everyone entertained with his goofy German sense of humour (an oxymoron, I know) and regaling his enthralled audience with stories of that time he towed the peloton up the Galibier, dropping pure climbers like flies one by one. And because he’s a big, goofy, lovable German, no-one would even consider to question his morals or ethics when it comes to his role in the sport, and his considerable time in it. He’s Jens, he’s a bloody legend.
There’s always double standards applied when it comes to our Cycling heroes. Pantani: revered, matyred. Gunderson: condemned. Contador: forgiven, re-accepted. Valverde: despised. O’Grady, Rogers: well, they’re Australian, so even though they admitted/tested positive, no Aussie would ever cheat, right? They’re just lovable larrikins who got caught in the crossfire, and were unlucky or only “did it once”. Sir, your pig is fuelled and ready for take-off.
I’ve loved watching Jens going on crazy long breaks, laughed at the many soundbites he’s provided us, and he was even convinced to mouth our catchcry, although he probably had no clue as to what he was being cajoled into. He always has time for his fans, and that’s a sign of a true champion of the people. Imagine if Gunderson was a bit more humourous, if he’d cracked a few jokes instead of cracking skulls, if he’d told some part of his body to ‘shut up’ instead of telling other riders to do the same. Maybe he’d still be squeaky clean in the eyes of the fans, just like Jens.
While I respect a man who has ridden at the front of the peloton for 20 years and well into his 40s, and take inspiration from that, I can’t just sit here and digest every stock-standard quote that is rolled out. Jens came from one of the world’s most notorious doping programs in the East German system, but somehow wasn’t earmarked for the treatment. He rode professionally from 1997, the height of the EPO era, through Festina, through the Gunderson years, through the Landis/Rasmussen/Contador years. Yet he saw nothing. He rode on teams with more than a sprinkling of convicted and/or known dopers, yet he heard nothing. He rode under Directors Sportif who oversaw some of the biggest doping programs ever witnessed, yet he witnessed nothing himself. He continued to race at the same high level, and above, as the world’s best racers, well past the age when they threw in the towel, yet he wants us to believe he’s done it all on mineral water and sauerkraut.
While I love the guy, I’m not stupid, and neither are the cycling public. We don’t need to be treated like fools by every rider that ever rode in the Pro ranks, but we are, still. Even Gunderson has admitted he’d still be lying to us all, his family, children and cancer community if he hadn’t been outed. That’s the mentality of the Omérta in action. Jens is as old school as they come, and unfortunately he’s taking that mindset with him into retirement.
I wish Jens all the best, but I also wish he’d shown the same hardman qualities off the bike as he did on it, and spoken out about what he did actually see, hear and do. That would make him even more a legend.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/brettok@velominati.com/Jens/”/]
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
It's a fair appreciation - can't argue with any of it.
But I will offer a possible defence to his Sergeant Schultz "I saw nothing" act, which is that he has always been pretty self-contained and quiet, this isn't something new. Generally when you hear or read him saying something it's about him or his team, not somebody else. He's never set himself up to be the patron or some sort of figurehead.
So to deliver a valedictory commentary on the sport and doping for the last 20 years would be utterly out of character.
In that sense I respect his position. He deals with himself, with his own performance and his own issues. More die-hard fans might even say that tends to validate the idea that he really wasn't involved, but personally I think that's a stretch.
So while I would be fascinated to know all that he really does know, I think if he wants to keep schtum then he's earned the right to do so.
This is thought-provoking. I am not a "dude of cycling" having come to this sport (road, anyway) in the past year or so, so I have little context here. It sure seems like everyone winning was doping, or probably doping, as the author suggests with anecdotal proof that is compelling, but also still, anecdotal.
Can we just all get behind the 100k solo effort at the USA pro challenge when the dude was ... 39? OLD, anyway. That's enough for me, frankly. Team Jens.
Also, my 4-year-old, inborn mimic as kids are, does a great imitation of Jens' V face (having giggled at the funny German guy on youtube) when he rides up hills and i tell him to drop me, so don't let's ruin that, whatever happens.
Did Jens dope? If so, would that would make him a jackass? A funny jackass?
@Harminator
Watch the interviews, and read this (by McGee): http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cycling/how-dopers-stole-the-best-years-of-my-career-20121026-28aif.html
It's hard to say who did and didn't dope, but that reads like pain to me.
I've just finished Christophe Bassons book. He refuses to name other riders who weren't doping (apparently there were some), but McGee (who was his teammate) was one of the few riders he had anything good to say about at all (he called him much more talented than Chris Horner, who joined the team at the same time)
Interestingly, Bassons is much more positive about Armstrong than he is about many other riders.
(Bassons book is ok, but I wouldn't describe it as a must read. Laurent Fignon's book is better if you want a book by a French cyclist, and Hamilton's is better if you want one about doping. OTOH, at least this supports someone who didn't cheat)
Here's my take, and I'm certain many won't agree: who cares? Did he dope? Of course, it seems most riders were - this is no new revelation. Why try to drag down a good rider and nice guy for doing something every pro was doing (is doing?)? I don't understand the point of it. We call doping cheating, but this is not accurate. "Cheating" is getting an unfair advantage over the competition. If the competition are all doping too, then "cheating" isn't really the right descriptor is it? I think of it more as leveling the playing field.
Should we be mad that doping was so widespread? Maybe. We shouldn't be mad at the riders though. We love them because they are top athletes and they push the limits of human ability. They do what they have to do to ride at the highest levels possible. This is why we worship them. We demand they compete at superhuman levels and we demand they win - and they do it, which is remarkable. If we are to bitch and complain let it be at the governing body who allowed this practice to occur in the first place. Instead of complaining that some riders won't give us all the doping gossip we love to consume (I read it too, I'm not accusing) we should focus on putting pressure and shame on the group who allowed pro cycling to get so out of control in the first place. There is, after all, a group who is supposed to prevent this kind of thing from happening...
As for me, I say happy retirement and well done Jens.
Well done Brett, we are fans, we are cyclists but we know the world we live in. It's not an error to hope and acting trying to improve it a little bit.
Good one, Bretto. Dopers may take away some of the luster and integrity of the sport of cycling but they can't take away an ounce of the joy and pain I feel when I'm riding my bike.
@Jason
It's the naive expectation of clean-ness and 'fairness' in a sport riven with commercialisation and impossible expectations that cause this disappointed confusion when a popular rider is implicated.
'Revelations' of doping should never be a suprise when we approach the physical limits of what the human body can do.
@freddy
I see what you did there... Touche...
Well said. The hardmen of do seem to get a pass on this discussion... Mostly.