Team Sky have slipped, but not fallen. A review of the 'scandal' as I see it

I told myself I wouldn't bother writing about this whole Team Sky mess. Not this close to Christmas. Not with two children under four both hyper and my wife's present still to buy. Yet here I am, rattling away on the keyboard in an attempt to squeeze in some thoughts before Christmas. After that, I'm not sure I'll care enough. But there has been so much outrage that I wanted to give my own perspective to some degree or other.

If you're still reading now then chances are you know the background and the details, so I'll spare you a run down. Suffice to say, it has been an ugly year for Team Sky away from the racing. In fact, on the bike it's been quite memorable. Another Tour victory, and their first Monument win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. But the year draws to a close with their reputation on the line and a scandal at hand. One in which they have prolonged by failing to present an adequate response.

I must say though, I find it hard to call the whole mess a scandal in the traditional sense of the word. Knowing where the sport has been before, and all that.  An ugly situation for sure, but classified by your own personal perspective of it only. And that's the difference with this one. In the old days it was a full-blown back and white objective doping scandal. This is more a subjective shade of grey; one of ethics and morals and where each individual sees the invisible ethical line in their own mind. With no violation of the rules taking place, where does Sky's failure in ethics sit in proportion to your own standards? Or do you care about some fictional line if they haven't broken the hard line that is the letter of the law? As such the outrage here is subjective to what you think is and isn't wrong from a moral point of view.

2016 season in review: The year of Monument firsts

2016 was the year of Trump, Brexit, Zika, the Rio Olympics, Russians in Syria, terror in Brussles, terror in Nice, Climate change and nuclear deals, Pokemon Go, and Celebrities dying. It was also the year that Peter Sagan won his first monument and retained his world title, and Chris Froome ran up Mont Ventoux on his way to winning a third Tour de France.

I was in tough to pick a name for this years year in review. At first I was going to go with 'the year of the Brits'. I mean, Froome won the Tour again, he was second at the Vuelta and he won an Olympic medal. The British track team dominated those games with some record breaking and historic moments. Geraint Thomas won the Paris-Nice and Team Sky got their first Monument win by way of a non-British rider. But it was the later that got me thinking of another kind of year this was: The year of first time Monument winners. And given that the majority of my focus is around road cycling, I figured that might be more apt.