NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Sport / Cycling

Grant Chapman: The Tour de France is an inhumane event, so dope away

NZ Herald
19 Jul, 2017 10:08 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Stage 9 Jesus Herrada of Spain comes off his bike. Photo / Getty Images.

Stage 9 Jesus Herrada of Spain comes off his bike. Photo / Getty Images.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

By Grant Chapman

The longer this particular edition of the Tour de France drags on, the more inclined I am to cut Lance Armstrong some slack.

Just a little, though.

Because if there's one sporting event where you absolutely should be doping, this is it.

The graphic Instragram image of Pawel Poljanksi's burnt, swollen, vein-popping legs after completing yesterday's stage 16 should bring that home to even the most casual observer.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

That same stage also spelt the end of our own great Kiwi hope, George Bennett, who had risen as high as ninth in general classification last week, but had slipped to 12th and was losing ground, when he finally climbed off his bike and said no more.

"I am empty," he said. There were still five stages to go.

Now, seven-time Tour winner Armstrong became the most reviled figure in modern sport, not just for being a drugs cheat, but mainly for the grand scale of his deception, including the bullying of team-mates to comply or keep his secret.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

I don't have too much sympathy for the riders he supposedly cheated out of race victories, because many of them were cheating too, and those that weren't had made their choice and decided to be peleton riders.

Because if this year's Tour de France has shown us anything, it's that you need to be on something a bit stronger than your daily vitamins, if you want to be anything more than just a survivor.

Armstrong himself alluded to this, as he considered Bennett's withdrawal on his daily "Stages" podcast.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Paweł Poljański (@p.poljanskiofficial)

"This is not a human event, this is an inhumane event. What they put their bodies through is unlike anything the world of sports knows, so it's easy to get sick."

Discover more

Cycling

Sympathy for Bennett: 'What he's done is amazing'

19 Jul 05:32 PM
Sport

Another close call with shark for Mick Fanning

19 Jul 06:04 PM
World

'Go home f****** tourists': Banner flies over French beach

19 Jul 06:22 PM
Tennis

$354k for two weeks' work: You cannot be serious!

19 Jul 06:53 PM

You can take that as an attempt at self-justification if you like, but if you've followed the race at all, you will realise it's true.

Four years ago, I cycled New Zealand's toughest one-day event, known as K2 - it's 200km (actually, slightly less) around the notoriously hilly Coromandel Penninsula. I had trained for a year and it took me eight hours.

The Tour de France is essentially riding K2 every day for three weeks, with some horrendous mountains added and a couple of rest days chucked in along the way.

At the end of my ride, I sat on the grass and watched my legs pulsing involuntarily from the effort. Poljanki's photo made me think about that.

Tour de France is simply carnage on wheels. Every day, there's a new challenge and the vast majority of the field are just hanging on for their lives.

Since day one, way back on July 2, the 196 starters - we've lost 27 along the way - have shown us a wide variety of ways to lose that battle.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Stage One: Former Tour of Spain winner Alejandro Valverde crashed in wet, slippery conditions during the opening time trial and withdrew with a fractured knee cap.

Stage Four: Former world champions Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan clashed in the sprint finish - Cavendish, who has won 30 individual stages of the Tour, crashed and withdrew with a fractured shoulder blade, while Sagan was disqualified for causing the accident.

Stage Nine: Probably the first really tough stage of the Tour destroyed the hopes of 12 riders, including Welshman Geraint Thomas, who had led through four stages and sat second, Australian favourite Ritchie Porte and French speedster Arnaud Demare. Thomas and Porte both crashed out, while Demare, who had won the stage four sprint, could not finish within the time limit. The next day, Olympic bronze medallist Rafa Majka also withdrew, after he was caught up in the Thomas crash.

Stage 11: Olympic silver medallist Jakob Fuglsang was in fifth place, when he crashed at a feed station, and broke his wrist and elbow. He tried to battle on the next day, but had to withdraw from his wounds.

Stage 16: Bennett had fallen ill a few days earlier and finally succumbed after the second rest day, when he fell behind the sprinters on the first climb. Former world champion Philippe Gilbert also pulled out with viral gastroenteritis.

Stage 17: Points leader Marcel Kittel, who had won five stages on this Tour, crashed in the peleton and pulled the plug soon after with a shoulder injury.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

There is no question Tour de France is one of the world's premier sporting events. Every year, we are held spellbound by the French scenery, the courage of the riders and, in many cases, the spectacular nature of their demise.

These athletes do things that are unimaginable to most of us, so surely we can spare them the outrage when we discover they needed a little help to achieve them.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Cycling

Premium
New Zealand

Kiwi athletes urged to watch what they wear - or risk falling foul of drug testers

29 Jun 12:00 AM
Cycling

Kiwi cyclist wins prestigious US race

02 Jun 02:43 AM
New Zealand

'I didn't give up on myself': BMX Olympian receives 'special' honour

01 Jun 07:00 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Cycling

Premium
Kiwi athletes urged to watch what they wear - or risk falling foul of drug testers

Kiwi athletes urged to watch what they wear - or risk falling foul of drug testers

29 Jun 12:00 AM

Athletes are warned to avoid wearing others' sports gear to prevent contamination.

Kiwi cyclist wins prestigious US race

Kiwi cyclist wins prestigious US race

02 Jun 02:43 AM
'I didn't give up on myself': BMX Olympian receives 'special' honour

'I didn't give up on myself': BMX Olympian receives 'special' honour

01 Jun 07:00 PM
‘I was doing s***loads of cocaine’: Sporting great opens up on addiction

‘I was doing s***loads of cocaine’: Sporting great opens up on addiction

13 May 06:23 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP