I am beginning to feel more and more sympathy for those cycling enthusiasts who have had to stand by helplessly while their beloved sport was being dragged through the gutter because of a series of cheating scandals.

They know, like millions of F1 fans and I do about our sport, the vast majority of teams and competitors are there to pit themselves against the best in a legitimate pursuit of excellence. And they cried, like millions of F1 fans and I am beginning to do, about the damage done to the credibility of their sport by those who appear to feel they can cheat their way to unfair victory.

Can the non-F1 world be blamed for regarding it not as a legitimate sport, where superb athletes fight for supremacy based on their incredible skills, but rather an activity where illegitimate methods are pursued to find an unfair advantage and where competition outcomes are manipulated (in other words, nothing more than sporting entertainment, like WWE) if it casts its eye over the following list, just in the last 25 years?

  • Lead balls to fake minimum weight (Tyrrell 1984)
  • Ramming a competitor out of the competition (Japan 1989)
  • Ramming a competitor out of the competition (Japan 1990)
  • Tampering with refuelling rig (Benetton 1994)
  • Access to illegal software (Benetton 1994)
  • Ramming a competitor out of the competition (Adelaide 1994)
  • Ramming a competitor out of the competition (Jerez 1997)
  • Manipulating the outcome of the race (Austria 2002)
  • Manipulating the outcome of the race (Indianapolis 2002)
  • Mass withdrawal due to inadequate equipment (Indianapolis 2005)
  • Deliberate obstruction (Monaco 2006)
  • Illegal acquisition of privileged information (McLaren 2007)
  • Illegal acquisition of privileged information (Renault 2007)
  • Deliberate lies to gain unfair advantage (McLaren 2009)

    I am sure this is not an exhaustive list (a damning statement in itself), but amazingly Formula One has somehow succeeded in coming up with another one: Allegations of a deliberate crash by one driver to the advantage of his teammate (Renault, Singapore 2008).

    Page 2 ... The final straw