VeloNews.com

As the year’s first issue of VeloNews reaches your mailboxes and newsstands around the country, you may notice something of a break with tradition. Indeed, the first cover of 2005 should have gone to Jonathan Page for winning his third straight U.S. cyclo-cross championship in Portland this month. Instead, we start the year with an issue dedicated to a topic that has dragged the sport of cycling through mud much deeper than anything Page encountered at ‘cross nationals.

Anyone who follows cycling has become accustomed to scandal, but with the turbulent 2004 season behind us and 2005 on the horizon, there is a different feeling about the state of doping in the sport. For reasons we hope to uncover in our series on drugs in cycling, which starts in the current issue of VeloNews with a look at the anti-doping agencies, 2005 will be a critical year for our sport.

An unprecedented number of high-profile stars were involved in drug scandals last season, and the result has been an undeniable erosion of interest in some corners. When American Tyler Hamilton was accused of blood doping in September - charges he has repeatedly denied and vowed to disprove - readers of this magazine reacted. Some expressed anger with the way VeloNews reported the story. Others said they felt cheated and were giving up on professional cycling altogether.

While the damage caused by the drug busts of 2004 was real, it should not be overstated. Fans of this sport, and sport in general, have proven resilient to all sorts of scandal. When Sports Illustrated asked its Web site readers in December if the news of baseball’s latest steroid scandal would affect their interest in baseball, 65 percent said no. For proof of cycling fans’ ability to forgive and forget, witness the legion of Richard Virenque fans that have lined the mountain stages of the Tour de France every year since his involvement with 1998’s “Festina Affair.” which nearly caused the Tour to be cancelled.

So even though the shock of seeing so many stars shamed by drug busts in 2004 is noteworthy, it’s only one small part of the equation. A more significant factor that makes this an important time in cycling’s anti-doping efforts is a recent change in tone from the organizations charged with cleaning things up.

The current issue of VeloNews includes a detailed look at the enforcement efforts both here the in U.S. and at the international level. VeloNews associate editors Jason Sumner and Neal Rogers take a look at the work of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, while news editor Charles Pelkey visits Canada for a conversation with often-outspoken Dick Pound, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

On December 1, Pelkey spoke with Pound in an exclusive 90-minute interview at WADA’s international headquarters in Montréal, Québec. Taking advantage of what the Internet has to offer, we can present that interview in its entirety here on VeloNews.com.