Michael Barry’s Diary: The very bad news
- By Michael Barry
- Published Jul. 22, 2007
The atmosphere at our T-Mobile team camp in Badenweiler, Germany took a serious dive as we learned of Patrik Sinkewitz’s positive drug test. Like one of those moments that get etched in the memory for life, I will likely not forget where I was when I found out. I hope that in a few weeks the consequences of this test will not be as drastic as we fear and that the memory will fade.
We were out on a ride, having just finished up an interval, when Jan Shafferath, our director who was following in the car behind stopped us, to tell us the news. It was also being announced across the country on every German channel. We stood there in shock but no longer in disbelief; this has been a tumultuous year in our sport, and within our team—the team that is trying to make a difference.
We climbed back on our bikes and, slowly, got rolling again. The energy was zapped from the group and we all started worrying, and talking, about the consequences of Patrik’s positive test. Sadly, they are likely not good and for our beleaguered, dented sport and I pray this was not one of the last nails in the coffin.
As we rode, we talked about the future. Ten riders were together pedaling in pink thinking about where we would be next year. Innately our minds went to the worst possible scenarios and we joked about finding jobs cutting lawn, working in kitchens grilling sausage. And as the kilometers passed we laughed and made the most of a very bad moment and day.
Together, while riding along with the eight guys I had just finished riding in the Tour of Austria, we were still a team; and, we were dealing with the dropped bomb. The eight of us had been successful in Austria due to some great morale in a race that was not all that easy. This is what this team is to me, and I think, to most of us: a team that wants to make a difference in a sport that is struggling to change its direction. It is simply sad that one stupid—putting it lightly—decision by one rider can completely change the public’s view of the whole team. Hopefully, the bad kids in the class don’t give the whole school a bad image. I believe in Bob Stapleton, what he is trying to do in our sport with this team, and feel sorry that he has had to deal with a dozen hurdles he didn’t even know existed.
Two riders, Cavendish and Ciolek, who are the future of the sport and our team, have achieved the majority of the victories this season. They are potent sprinters that can beat the best even though they are still young and inexperienced. With the right group of riders around them they can go the distance in the toughest races. The team has held the pink jersey in Italy and the yellow in France and those two leaders; Pinotti and Gerdemann are strong ambassadors for our team and the sport. It is sad those successes are being tarnished by selfish acts.
The team camp is sandwiched in between two races, the Tour of Austria and the Sachsen Tour. For our training sessions the team is split into two groups of ten. The riders going to the Sachsen Tour comprised the second group and their training was tough for the first days of the camp, while our group, the first, is taking the first days easier and has picked up our volume during the second half of the camp. The majority of the team staff and riders are here except for the Tour nine and the staff along with them.
Each day, we have gathered in front of the television to watch the final forty kilometers of the Tour. It has been the ultimate week of highs and lows for the Tour and especially for our team. Nothing seems to be steady or predictable right now. In the Chinese calendar this is the year of the “golden pig’; the golden pig only comes around every seventy years and supposedly brings serious swings of positive and negative with nothing in between. This seems to be the pattern of my year and our year in cycling.
The same team vibe and atmosphere that brought us the victories in Austria, and since the start of the season, remains alive. Each night we fire up the George Foreman grill on the hotel patio and we sit back, grill Bratwurst, drink a Weiss beer and put our legs up. The conversation is not about the future but jovial and inane. Tomorrow is another day and I only wish the public could see what a good team and group of guys are here pedaling because they love it, have fun and, most of all, believe in the sport they practice.
FILED UNDER: Rider Diaries
