News: The Pedal Club Lunch (July 2023)

Robert Dineen was the guest speaker for the July Pedal Club meeting, a ‘generalist’ sports journalist who has published three books on cycling

News: The Pedal Club Lunch (July 2023)

Most Pedal Club speakers are specialists in some branch of cycling; Robert Dineen, the guest speaker for this meeting, describes himself a ‘generalist’ sports journalist. However, since he has already published three books on cycling he certainly has some claim to expertise on the subject.

His main interest is in the ethical aspects of sport which, perhaps counter intuitively, means all the bad stuff. He suggested there are three main headings: illicit drug use, abuse of athletes and sport washing. It is beyond the scope of this report to go into these controversial matters in depth, but here is a brief description of the points made. Drug testing is not working well in any discipline, but it is almost certainly less comprehensive in many other sports than it is in cycling.

Abuse: it is no surprise that young and often vulnerable athletes attract some predatory characters in every sport. This curse has always existed and only small progress has been made to improve matters, but if it is true that we live in an era of openness there may be hope for the future.

Sport Washing: A relatively new problem, but one that is increasingly difficult to ignore with huge sums going into many sports, particularly football and golf. The main reason for sport washing appears to be to distract attention from human rights abuses, but cycling has the additional attraction of ‘green’ credentials and it has already been targeted by the fossil fuel industry. It is impossible to say where this will go, but there are some who find sport washing more offensive than drug abuse.

These problems are compounded by the fact that perpetrators generally ‘deny any wrongdoing’ even when caught red handed, and because public faith in the mainstream media is low – even when it is telling the truth.

If the members were not made more cheerful by this talk, they did come away better informed. On a happier note, the presence of Hope Inglis made for a significant reduction in the average age of the meeting. Hope is a promising young woman Cyclo Cross and Road competitor who is under the wing of the John Barclay Academy – on this occasion she was presented with a Pedal Club jersey.

The lunch was held at the Civil Service Club in Great Scotland Yard, SW1 and was attended by 45 members and guests.

Chris Lovibond, July 2023.