by Jacob Erker

I thought that this might be a good time to comment on the issue of doping that has taken hold of our sport. Having just flipped through the cycling websites and seeing that Vinokourov has tested positive for blood doping at the Tour de France, I admit to not being shocked or surprised. The World Anti Doping Agency has forged ahead in recent years to catch the cheaters. The International Cycling Union has pledged to eradicate doping. Testing labs have new weapons with more sophisticated tests. So for those who still choose to skirt the rules, I can only say that they deserve what they get. It seems though that more time will need to pass until cycling has fully eradicated this old win at all costs attitude.

There's a bit of a joke going around on the team right now that Symmetrics will soon get the call-up for the Tour, as Europe is quickly running out of squads and riders. While the situation is indeed sad, the atmosphere on the team remains evermore optimistic. There was a time, only a couple of years back when every rider on the team had little hope of one day competing in the world's biggest races. And yes, this even means powerhouse Svein Tuft. In not choosing to head down the doping path, many of us older guys on the team were more or less heading towards an uneventful and quiet retirement. Svein and Andrew Randell both stopped in 2003. The Saturn team dynasty ended for Eric Wohlberg. And I was shopping around for 2004 with limited options, despite a resume that I thought didn't look too bad. During this time, there really only seemed to be a few lateral or step-down moves for us.

In April of 2004, I headed off to the Vuelta de Bisbee in Arizona with Team Seasilver. We were doing our thing there, racing along, and then I noticed that a certain squad had missed a move and began to chase. It was the Symmetrics boys captained by Andrew Pinfold riding in an organized line, quickly putting right their mistake, and all the while not blowing each other out the back. I'd never seen a Canadian team before race with any sort of clue as to what they were doing. In July of that year, I ran into them again at Nationals. Svein had joined them and had just won the Time Trial. I later raced the Criterium there where I broke away with Cam Evans, who promptly dropped me and caught up to the field. 3 of us were left adrift still chasing until Svein pulled us back thusly guaranteeing the victory for Cam. In the Road Race, Symmetrics put 2 riders up the road in the early move. Now even an old dog like me was beginning to learn the new tricks of this powerful young squad, so I attacked to get up to the breakaway before the imminent show down happened behind, in the bunch. Another guy I've known since way back, Andrew Randell also sensed this and tagged along. And so did young Cam Evans. We eventually made it across to the break and were later joined by Svein, Eric Wohlberg and Gord Fraser. Symmetrics had put 4 riders into the winning move as a young start-up amateur team. I wanted in.

There was no question that this was the team I wanted to be involved with. All Canadian boys and 2 great guys that I've raced with in the past: Svein and Pinner. And even better, was my first talk with Kevin Cunningham. Svein says you're a clean rider and that is the most important thing to me I was pleased to hear it. Then I got word that Wohlberg had signed on too. This was getting really good now. I saw how good the young riders were during the season and now I was also going to ride with all of the guys that I'd done National Team projects with that clicked together; Wohlberg at Hokkaido, Svein at Okinawa, Malaysia, Beauce and Guadeloupe, and Pinner at Hokkaido and Beauce. And then Randell came aboard in 06 with whom I'd raced in Malaysia.

As each season passes, we become a tighter-knit group. We have bbq's during BC Superweek, and we call each other in between races to see what's up. I think our desire to do this sport clean and our successes have really been aided by the family network of the S-Team. We all feel like we can win a race clean because our teammates are in the same situation. The feeling is that, yes, there may be someone doping in a race we enter. Why would the races we do be immune to it? Well, we're not here to waste our time, so how do we beat them? The answer is that we can only win as a team and that a team of clean riders can beat a doper. Maybe that won't happen every time. But we won't be disillusioned. At the end of the day, I have a healthy lifestyle, riding my bicycle for a living with my good friends and doing it rather successfully from time to time. BC Superweek was extraordinarily successful for us this year, as has been the entire season. So when a doping positive turns up, I don't get down about it. I think it's good for the future for the young guys. I hope that they can see a light at the end of the tunnel where their abilities as super talents will be truly recognized.

And I hope that Canada will stand up and support these guys too. We have a couple of great Canadians that already do in Kevin and Mark Cunningham. None of this would be possible without them. Of course, the same must be said to all of our incredible sponsors. This wonderful family continues to grow every day and everyone involved is helping the S-Team realize something special. I am extremely thankful to be a part of it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Jacob Erker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.