2008 Cycling Lowlights: Worst Team, Gerolsteiner

Kohl and Schumacher, cheating together at the 2008 Tour de France

Once again, the sport of cycling was undermined from within, as several well known (and lesser known) riders tested positive for doping. The Gerolsteiner team, in the most audacious and flagrant of ways, had two of their top riders, Stefan Schumacher and Bernhard Kohl, test positive for the blood boosting drug CERA at the biggest cycling race in te world, the Tour de France. Kohl, in an attempt to salvage some integrity, freely admitted his wrongdoing after the race, while Schumacher continues to insist on his innocence to this day, even going as far as to sue the AFLD for slander.

If the two riders hadn't affected the outcome of any races while they doped, their transgressions probably wouldn't have been seen as reprehensibly as they were. But because Kohl won the KOM title and Schumacher the two individual time trials, they, and team Gerolsteiner, are EuroPeloton's choice for worst team of 2008. Worst yet, the Gerolseiner team was a German-registered team, and with the already terrible cycling climate in Germany, 2009 will see no registered German Pro Tour teams.

Dishonorable mention for worst team of 2008 goes to Saunier-Duval/Scott-American Beef. Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli, after having won stages early in the Tour, were found guilty of using CERA. Ricco, young and arrogant, flippantly admitted that he used CERA only for the Tour, and not for his 2nd place finish a the Giro. Piepoli, in a typical old school move, stayed mum and continues to protest his innocence. Both riders are out of the sport of cycling for the next two years, and Piepoli is too old to think about a comeback after his sanction ends. His last experience as a pro rider will have been as a cheater, disgraced, cast out as a fraud.