Track cyclist Craig McLean has claimed that it is unfair that they keep tainting the sport and that the Olympics is not as important to the top road racers as events like the Tour de France.

 

In an article published in The Guardian today, the 2000 Olympic sprint silver medallist wrote: "I would be in favour of taking road cycling out of the Olympics if only so that the kilometre time-trial, which was dropped after the Athens Games, could be added back in.

 

"It seems unfair that although road cycling has been tarnished by so many doping scandals, it was track cycling that had to lose an event to make way for BMX when it was added to the Beijing Games.

 

"The trouble is, the Olympics is not the biggest event for road cyclists - unlike for track cyclists, for whom it is the absolute pinnacle; the be-all and end-all.

"In fact, you could argue that the Olympics aren't really that big a deal for road cycling which only makes it more frustrating for track cyclists when some road cyclists use drugs and drag the whole sport through the mud.

 

"Of course people make the assumption that there is a drugs problem throughout cycling; they just see cyclists, and read stories about them taking drugs, and don't differentiate between the disciplines even though track cycling has been relatively free of scandals.

 

"It is frustrating because our branch of the sport is just not the same - there aren't the same financial rewards, and there is not the same drugs culture.

 

"But what has been happening with road cycling, and its repeated doping cases, is having a massively detrimental effect on the sport in all disciplines and at all levels."

 

The sport in Britain is going through a golden period at the moment with the team having topped the medals table at the Beijing Olympics, including a victory for Nicole Cooke in the women's road race.

 

But McLean warned that the sport was suffering in the rest of the world because of the doping scandals, that had led International Olympic Committee vice-president Thomas Bach to call last week for cycling to be dropped from the Games.

 

It followed news that three cyclists in the Tour de France had tested positive for CERA(Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator), an advanced version of the blood booster EPO (Erythropoietin).

 

That number has since risen to four with the news yesterday that Austrian Bernhard Kohl, who had finished third overall and won the King of the Mountains jersey, had also been caught.

 

McLean wrote: "In Germany big sponsors have pulled out.

 

"The national federation has lost sponsorship and funding, meaning that riders have to buy their own kit and clothing.

 

"It was a series of drugs scandals in road cycling that created that situation, but the knock-on effects are huge and affect everybody, including track cyclists.

 

"Everybody suffers through the doping scandals."

 

To read the full article visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/oct/15/olympics2012-cycling.