The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside Communications, Inc.

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Basso’s ‘confession’ does more harm than good
Editor:
I suspect that Ivan Basso's recent twinge of guilt and ’fessing up to "attempted" blood doping is motivated more by the prospect of imminent discovery (no pun intended; it just couldn't be avoided) than any strength of character. Mr. Basso has "seen the light" and it is the prospect of the blinding glare of full public exposure.

It has been almost one year since he had the opportunity to show true strength and acknowledge at the Tour de France his involvement in the Puerto "affair." Now, his belated confession casts doubt on any cyclist accused of doping who may be innocent. There is a tragedy here; we may in the future be reluctant to presume innocence.

Ron Weis
Springfield, Missouri

Basso lost his chance at redemption
Editor:
Basso's cynical attempt to avoid tainting his record leading up to the uncovering of his involvement in Operación Puerto only casts more doubt on those victories.

The sad reality is that he will never be able to shed all the doubt, and disbelief in his achievements up to this moment. Equally sad, if not more so, is that his last fleeting chance to regain his honor was lost in his pathetic confession.

Juan Cagampang
Portland, Oregon

Heard it before; didn’t believe it then, either
Editor:
I liked Bill Clinton, but I never bought the "didn't inhale" bit from him, either.

David Neale-Lorello
Edgewater, New Jersey

Give me a break
Editor:
I first thought that Basso's confession was going to be genuine even if it was his last resort, i.e. shaking, crying in front of lawyers. I told my wife that at least he could have a clear conscience the rest of his life. I really felt good for him that he, even though humiliated, would be able to serve his sentence and move on.

What was I thinking? This is, after all, professional cycling, akin to pro wrestling. Stand up and take your licks like a man! "I only attempted to dope." He ought to know that you only use a line like that when you are running for a government office. Give me a break.

Anthony Birdsong
Charlotte, North Carolina

Basso copped only to what was provable
Editor:
Well, he actually is telling the truth — the truth that can be proved, that is. Up until the day he made the admission of “attempted” doping there was no proof that he had doped. This admission he made, that his blood was drawn and hanging in a bag in Madrid, can only be proved with a DNA sample provided by Basso. Basso's lawyer told him to admit to whatever could be proved and nothing more. It would be stupid of him to admit to something that has no basis in fact. We can suspect he doped in the past but this is all we can do. And he might be competing soon.

Richard Baughn
Austin, Texas

Amnesty, not punishment, is the solution
Editor:
Now that Ivan Basso has, albeit at gunpoint, confessed his involvement in the Operación Puerto affair, it is time for the governing agencies of cycling to decide what their real goal is.

Is it to eliminate doping and other means of artificially improving performance from the professional peloton, or to exact revenge and inflict punishment upon riders who cheated? Make no mistake, aspects of each of these goals run contrary to achieving the other.

If WADA and UCI are only interested in punishment, there is no incentive (with the exception of the aforementioned gun) for riders to come clean, as they would fear losing their livelihood. If, however, the goal is to eliminate these forms of cheating from cycling, then a program of one-time-only amnesty should be considered.

Amnesty should only be given after the rider’s full cooperation on the means and sources they used to cheat. This would let riders come clean and keep their jobs, and give cycling’s governing bodies a fuller understanding of the nature of the beast that they are battling.

If UCI president Pat McQuaid pushes for a full two-year suspension on each rider involved in this unsightly affair, then those riders who have managed to avoid exposure in this specific investigation will be less likely to come forward and get clean.

It is time for cycling fans to step forward and demand transparency on this issue through voluntary testimony by the riders (who know what and how cheating has been done) without the disincentive of revenge by the governing bodies of cycling.

Pete Watson
Denver, Colorado

And what about the rest of them?
Editor:
And for all the talk about Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, one wonders: Where are the rest of the athletes supposedly implicated in Operación Puerto?

Bruce Johnson
San Francisco, California

Regarding the rant
Editor:
Will somebody please nominate Patrick O'Grady for a Pulitzer Prize? His diatribe about Basso was brilliant and dead-on accurate. Bravo!

Paul Sampson
Keystone, Colorado

Paul, the closest O’Grady ever got to a Pulitzer was working for a Pulitzer-owned newspaper, where he was considered no prize. — Editor

Beers (but no blades) for O’Grady
Editor:
Patrick has done it again. Please take him out of the straitjacket for an hour and give him a brace of properly chilled Dos Equis Amber lagers and a lime.

Do not, however, give him a knife. Cut the lime for him.

Pat O'Brien
Arizona

Well done (O’Grady, not Basso)
Editor:
Well done and well said, Patrick O'Grady.

I'm not sure who Basso is selling his story to. Maybe we'd have to smoke some of the aforementioned teen-age boys' fatties to buy the crap he's slinging.

Seriously, Basso? Come on.

Claire Milto
York, Pennsylvania

Rantless in Tennessee
Editor:
Wow. For once I completely agree with everything O'Grady says. I was going to write something along these lines but now I need not. For once, thanks, O'Grady.

Thomas Williams
Cookeville, Tennessee

What’s to rant about?
Editor:
The only thing surprising about O'Grady's latest rant was that the topic of another "hero" falling from grace merited a rant at all. Isn't there some laundry to do? Shouldn't O'Grady be curling his hair?

Michael Gardiner
San Diego, California

He doesn’t have any, Michael. Hair, that is. And as regards his laundry, O’Grady’s still wearing the same Kucharik wool kit he had on when we hired him back in 1989. This is only one of the many reasons why we insist that he work from home. — Editor

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The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside Communications, Inc.