Procycling, one of BikeRadar's sister magazines, has come under fire from readers after hiring Frankie Andreu as its pro bike tester. Andreu confessed to EPO use while riding for the US Postal Service team, which made him an unpopular choice among readers who want the magazine to have a clean agenda. But Daniel Friebe, Procycling's features editor, defended Andreu's hiring in his latest blog:
"In our view there are three categories of, well - we might as well be blunt - dope cheat: there are the guys who spent years juicing to earn a pretty penny and still deny it today; there's another category of rider who has been dragged kicking and screaming into the confession booth, resenting every second; and there's a third category who bowed only to pressure from their own conscience, and who usually go on to become outspoken critics of doping. We'll leave to you to find a slot for the Bassos, Landises, Hamiltons and Herases of this world, but we can tell you that Frankie Andreu fits very much into the third category.
"Frankie won't change the world testing bikes for Procycling, but let it be known that we hired him not only because he knows a sprocket from a seat-tube, but also because we wanted to express our solidarity with a guy who had the wherewithal to release a large skeleton from his own and the sport's overcrowded closet. The same honesty had already cost him at least one job, condemnation from his former team leader and team boss, several friends, not to mention a good number of sleepless nights. All for what? Because he cheated or because he had the audacity to put a fist through a very old, very thick wall of silence?"
To read the full blog entry, click here.
