Tom Boonen - you gotta love this guy!

Who would have thought that in this week of disastrous cycling news, there would be a report that would make me laugh out loud?

Tom Boonen, now riding for Omega Pharma Quick-Quick-Slow, Slow,Quick-Step, has been doing really well in the Tour of Quatar, which I'm hoping to watch this weekend, as LLB has been recording it all week. He's heading into the final day with a good lead - that's Tom Boonen, not LLB, obviously - but his performance has been a bit overshadowed by the Armstrong-Albertador-Ullrich business.

(As an aside, I am beginning to wonder if CAS haven't just decided "That's it! Let's get it all over and done with" and have told their committees to damn well make decisions, issue statements, confuse the press by having so many announcements out there all at once, and hopefully we can all get on with the cycling now.)

Back to Tom Boonen - he's refused to comment on doping decisions all this week so far, and has said in an interview for CyclingNews that he has largely ignored the furore, and was focused - quite rightly - on winning in Quatar.

"I haven’t really paid too much attention to the soap operas surrounding Contador and Armstrong," he said. "It’s been going on for a while and nobody actually really cares about it anymore. Every time you open your mouth about these cases you get a great pile of shit over your head. I like Alberto and I hope that everything turns out ok for him, but that’s all I have to say about it."

ROFL!  "Every time you open your mouth about these cases...."  Oh Tom, you did make me laugh this morning!

Talking of Jan Ullrich, he's been found guilty, by the way, no surprise, but I do give him props (note for non USA readers: apparently that strange expression is an abbreviation of "proper respect" and I can't believe that I am now using it in everyday language....) for his stance on not appealing the verdict.

This is what the report said:

In a statement released on his personal website, Ullrich said that the lengthy legal wrangling over his case was "incomprehensible" while explaining that he would not appeal the CAS decision, "Not because I agree with all points in the court's opinion, but because I want to finish the issue definitively," he said.

Albertador, are you listening? Please, please don't appeal the CAS verdict.

I think that we all know that you are not a deliberate doper, that you have stood up to this dreadful ordeal like a man, that you really are quite possibly the best all-round, strongest rider out there at the moment, and yes, you are - or at least were, last year - better than OGL: but can you please be enough of a man to let it drop now?

Like Ullrich says, not because you agree with the ruling, but to finish the issue. Cycling really needs to move on now,  but I damn well hope that the UCI have learnt a few lessons along the way - not least being the harm that is done by dragging out these cases. Their own rules (*shudders* - I'm still in therapy after spending 20 minutes yesterday reading through them) give deadlines for other people and organisations: really strict ones, with penalties for missing deadlines for submission of evidence, etc etc. They really need to look hard at how this case was mis-handled, and how they can prevent anything like this happening again.

In fact, I would almost say that in Albertador's case, the duration of the enquiry has done far more harm than the original offence. It's made cycling look weak and shifty: it's raised the issue of "friends in high places can make drug charges go away", not to mention the UCI's initial massive mistake of saying "Don't worry, Bertie, we'll lose this result". Plus there's the unforgivable leak by the lab staff - oh, and numerous other stuff.

So come on, UCI, get some procedures in place, cut down this red tape, and sort your act out.