Industry vet and leader of the Tomac brand Joel Smith dropped this quote on me from Johnny T this morning. A fan of his asked him on Tomac's Web site if doping existed back when he was racing and collecting trophies, and if he was ever tempted to use?
Here's his answer:
"I will keep this very complicated subject a bit short and sweet. Dopers suck and they are cheaters. They take the easy way out, and what good is a win if it is not real. Early XC mountain bike racing was clean, but it changed in the early to mid 1990s in my opinion. When I was road racing as a pro in Europe in 1990 and 1991, I knew it was not on the level, so I left that sport and went back to full time mountain bike racing. Then it crept into mountain bike racing which sucked, but at least mountain bike racing was a bit technical and you can’t dope up skills. I was never really all that tempted because I made a moral decision not to do it early on. Once I decided that, I just did the work and did the best with what I had."
