Yes

In their unending quest to gain a competitive edge, cyclists have been known to ingest chloroform, amphetamines, alcohol, aspirin, cocaine, caffeine, steroids and strychnine.

No doubt they would drink dish soap and eat elephant dung if they were convinced doing so would buy them a fraction of a second or, even better, position on the podium.

You could argue the world's top cyclists are superb athletes who push their bodies to the breaking point and beyond. All that might be true, but it still fails to legitimize the sport, considering you could also say the same about legendary professional wrestlers with names such as Hulk Hogan, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake and "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka.

In terms of sports hierarchy, cycling, with its peloton of cheaters, ranks just below the scripted theatrics and steroid-bloated superstars of pro wrestling. At least pro wrestling, years ago, quit pretending the winners and losers weren't predetermined.

Yet the charade continues in cycling, where retired seven-time winner Lance Armstrong insists he's Mr. Clean in a pig pen sport despite unending allegations that suggest otherwise.

You can find a "Tour de France Doping Timeline" online that starts in 1903 and includes a 1978 incident involving Michel Pollentier, who officials discovered to be drug free and pregnant after submitting his wife's urine as a sample.

Deathly serious was a four-year run in the late 1980s and early '90s in which 18 European cyclists "mysteriously" died not long after the invention of EPO, a drug that boosts red blood cells.

Several top riders, including favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, were barred from this year's race because of an ongoing doping investigation.

"The riders tell me: Doc, if you want to go hunting, you take a rifle. If you don't want to use a rifle, you don't go hunting. Everyone is looking for a magic potion," said Dr. Max Testa, an Italian exercise physiologist and UC Davis sports medicine expert, in a recent Sacramento Bee article.

The latest black eye comes courtesy of Murrieta's Floyd Landis, this year's Tour winner who was discovered to have high levels of testosterone on a day in which he had a "superhuman" ride.

"I wouldn't blame you if it was a bit skeptical because of what cycling has been through in the past and the way other cases have gone," Landis said last week in a news conference.

Skeptical? Nah. I never believed in cycling in the first place.

Loren Nelson, sports editor, can be reached at (760) 740-3551 or lnelson@nctimes.com. To comment, go to nctimes.com.