I loved that early part today during the Oprah // Lance interview……..

Oprah – “…so you’re Lance Armstrong?”

Lance – pause “yes”. That was a hard answer to consider.

But I digress. Doping control – have you noticed how secretive this process is in cycling? The winner is rushed from the finish area to a secure room, doors are closed and ‘secret doping control business’ happens. Why is it such a big secret – is doping control so paranoid of making a mistake that nobody must know what’s happening? (I could be totally wrong here but…)

Last Saturday I photographed the Kellogg’s Nutra-Grain Ironman at Newcastle Beach. I took the following photos – first picture shows multiple Australian and World Champion Shannon Eckstein  (in yellow) having an old bloke chat to him. Note the old guy has an official piece of paper in his hand. The next image is a really quick shot of the paper and then a close-up…

So, it wasn’t until I got home and processed the photos that I realised what had happened in front of me.

The old guy was the Chaperone/Doping Control Officer from the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority. The process was taken care of, no fuss, no drama.

So what is cyclings problem?