Tag: Tour de France

The Final Stage of the Tour de France and Compliance

It was a brutal year for the cyclists in this year’s edition of the Tour de France. It’s always a brutal three weeks of racing, but teamwork helps separate the winners from the rest. Geraint Thomas came across the finish line in Paris as the first winner from Wales. His teammate and favorite to win, Chris Froome came in third. Tom Dumoulin came in second place which is the position he finished in earlier this year in the Giro d’Italia.

The big suffering came in the group of the fast men competing for stage wins and the green jersey competition during the Tour de France. Mark Cavendish, Andre Greipel, Fernando Gaviria, Dylan Groenewegen, and Marcel Kittel never made it to Paris. Peter Sagan had a huge margin of victory in the green jersey competition, but a crash on stage 17 descending the Col de Val Louron-Azet in excess of 40 mph left him battered and bruised.

I would give the award for the most suffering to the American Lawson Craddock. He crashed hard on the first day and fractured his scapula. He finished riding that day and got on his bike every day to reach the streets of Paris. He used his suffering for good, raising money for his favorite charity, by asking donors to pledge money for each day he continued to ride.

A Long Flat Stage by Greig Leach, available for purchase here: http://www.greigleach.com/

It’s teamwork that gets the riders to the finish line. Geraint Thomas had Team Sky pacing him up the mountains for as long as they could, burying themselves to give the yellow jersey as much help as possible, then leaving him to finish strong over his rivals.

The team mechanics have the bikes in perfect condition. When a flat occurs or a crash happens, the mechanics quickly jump to help and get the rider back into the race.

The team chefs get needed nutrition into the cyclists for the brutal three weeks. Just keeping calories in your body and recharging your body for another day on the bike is a huge task.

Compliance is the same way. The lone cyclist on the road is unlikely to achieve success. It takes a team to be successful. Not just a team of compliance personnel, but a multi-disciplinary team across the whole organization.

One failing of the Tour de France is not having a female equivalent. That didn’t stop Donnons des elles au Velo Jour-1 from riding the entire route of the Tour de France. J-1 are a group of high-level amateurs riding the day before. There is a short La Course for professional racers. But it was just a single day of racing on a much shorter route than the men. It’s time to change this.

I realize that only a handful of you have likely read this far. The venn diagram between cycling and compliance is very small. (Hello Tom!)

Like Lawson Craddock, I too will be biking for charity.  I’m riding across Massachusetts to raise money in the fight against cancer. I’m only riding 300 miles over 3 days, compared to the 2,082 miles in the Tour de France. Donations can be made here: http://profile.pmc.org/DC0176

Froome, Teamwork and Success

Professional cycling is not a mainstream sport in the U.S., so I would guess that few reading this story share my love of the Tour de France. (With the notable exception of Tom Fox.) The race has several different competitions going at the same time, with a confusing mix of skinny guys, tarted up with sponsors like a NASCAR racer. I became a fan two decades ago and continue to be enthralled by drama and athletic heroism on display.

On Sunday, Chris Froome was once again adorned with the “Maillot Jaune” on the Champs-Élysées as the overall winner of the 2017 Tour de France. This is his fourth win and puts him in the cycling pantheon as one of the greatest.

In his previous victories in 2013 and 2015, Mr. Froome dominated his rivals and was clearly the strongest overall contender. Last year, he seemed beatable, but still won. In 2017, Mr. Froome squeezed out his winning margin of 54 seconds on Rigoberto Uran and 2:20 on Romain Bardet during the two time trials in Dusseldorf and Marseille. He lost time to his rivals on the three mountain finishes. For one day he lost the yellow jersey to Fabio Aru in the Pyrenees when he was clearly out ridden and outwitted by his rivals. Mr. Froome completed the rare feat of winning the Tour de France without winning any of the individual stages.

Mr. Froome won this year because of teamwork. Team Sky was clearly the best team in the Tour de France. Rarely did we see Mr. Froome without teammates to support him, while his rivals were isolated on the road. In fact, his teammate Mikel Landa was only 1 second away from being on the podium in third place.

The results are a stark reminder of the importance of teamwork. It’s not good enough to be the best individual compliance officer. You need a team to win. You need the support of the compliance team around you. (Assuming you are big enough to have a team.) You need the support of the entire organization, working together, to make sure everyone works within the rules.

A typical Tour de France day will have a small breakaway of riders charge away from the main group of riders. The breakaway will be allowed to have the small wins along the stage while the main group conserves energy for the final victory. The leading riders will task their supporting riders with charging forward near the end to pass the breakaway and position them for victory.

Compliance is about teamwork and not the individual victory.

Sources:

I’ll being doing my own bike ride in a dozen days, although it will be far less of a feat than the Tour de France. On August 4 – 6, I will saddle up to ride with 6,200 other cyclists to raise money for life-saving cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. 100% of your donation will go to cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through its Jimmy Fund. I have made a personal commitment to raise $8000.00. I hope that as a reader of Compliance Building you will support my fundraising effort. You can donate through any of the following links:

Thank you,
Doug

 

Compliance, Cycling and the Tour de France

For me, July starts with the red, white and blue, then quickly turns to yellow. The yellow jersey worn by the overall leader of the Tour de France.

 

compliance-and-the-tour-de-france

I’ve been a big fan of the Tour de France for the past decade and a half. I admit that it was the success of Lance Armstrong that brought me to it. The dethroned champion taught us a few compliance lessons. The cheating did not keep me from sticking with the sport.

Any fan of professional cycling knows that there is long history of drug abuse in the peleton. Many Tour de France riders had been subject to disciplinary action for doping. Only two of the podium finishers in the Tour de France from 1996 through 2005 have not been directly tied to likely doping through admission, sanctions, public investigation or exceeding the UCI hematocrit threshold.  The sole exceptions were Bobby Julich – third place in 1998, and Fernando Escartin – third place in 1999. The official records have no winners during the Lance Armstrong years.

You can’t ignore the history of cheating in the Tour de France, just as you cannot ignore the steroid era of baseball. The cheaters were ahead of the organization’s will to enforce and ahead of the organization’s ability to catch the cheaters.

Those with incentives to win are going throw resources at staying ahead of the regulators. We saw that in cycling. We saw that in baseball. We saw it on Wall Street.

It now seems that cycling’s governing bodies are serious about keeping doping out of the sport. It also appears that the science of detection has caught up to the science of cheating. There is less incentive to cheat if you think the chances of getting caught are remote. Mr. Armstrong was tested hundreds of times. The few times that an anomaly was spotted, it was washed away by the poor testing or whitewashed by the governing body.

Sports, as with finance, are filled with rules that don’t always make sense. We can look at football and the enforcement being levied against Tom Brady and the Patriots organization. Missing from all of this is whether it matters how the balls are inflated.

I think some will see some parallels between the competition of sports and the competition of finance.

Compliance and the Tour de France

tour de france

For me, July starts with the red, white and blue, then quickly turns to yellow. The yellow jersey worn by the overall leader of the Tour de France.

I’ve been a big fan of the Tour de France for the past decade and a half. I admit that it was the success of Lance Armstrong that brought me to it. The dethroned champion taught us a few compliance lessons.

You can’t ignore the history of cheating in the Tour de France, just as you cannot ignore the steroid era of baseball. The cheaters were ahead of the organization’s will to enforce and ahead of the organization’s ability to catch the cheaters.

It now seems that cycling’s governing bodies are serious about keeping doping out of the sport. It also appears that the science of detection has caught up to the science of cheating. There is less disincentive to cheat if you think the chances of getting caught are remote. Mr. Armstrong was tested hundreds of times. The few times that an anomaly was spotted, it was washed away by the poor testing or whitewashed by the governing body.

You can’t have compliance if the rules are not backed by testing and enforcement.

—

If you like the watercolor above, there is a kickstarter project for a book of these paintings: Book de Tour. The artist, Greig Leach, painted that scene from the 2013 edition of the Tour de France and I purchased it from him. Mr. Leach is painting key scenes from the 2014 edition of the Tour de France and compiling them in Book de Tour. If you like cycling, it’s a great project to sponsor.

Compliance, the Tour de France, and Doping

tour de france

One of the biggest challenges with any compliance program is proving effectiveness. It’s really hard to prove that you prevented a bad thing from happening. You may be able to detect bad things when they occur. But most policies and procedures cannot prove they capture 100% of the bad things. Cycling is a case in point.

The disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong never failed one of this tests for doping. There were hundreds of tests and none of them proved he was cheating. It turns out the tests failed. Armstrong was doping. He was a liar. He cheated.

On Sunday, Chris Froome of Team Sky crossed the Champs Elysees as the winner of the 100th edition of the Tour de France. He dominated his contenders since the first mountain stage, finishing atop Ax-Trois-Domaines well ahead of his rivals.

Was he too dominant? Was he doping?

He passed the tests. Tests which are much more likely to detect illegal substances than years ago.

Froome is stuck in the position of trying to prove he is clean and did not break the rules. How to you prove that you didn’t break a rule?

Cycling fans, like me and Tom Fox, have been heartbroken to learn that some of our favorite riders were breaking the rules. That makes it hard to have 100% faith in Chris Froome.

It’s not a lack of faith in him; it’s a lack of faith in the testing system. Clearly, the testing regime failed to detect nearly a decade of cheaters. Armstrong’s titles did not fall to the next placed riders during those years, because nearly all of those who stood beside him on the podium were found to also be cheaters.

In looking at a compliance program, do you have faith that it is catching all the cheaters and deterring possible cheaters? Do the regulators and leaders of your firm have faith in your systems? Can you prove compliance? Or merely show that you haven’t caught anyone cheating?

 References:

Lance Armstrong – A Lying Liar Just Like Madoff

sad lance armstrong

It’s tough to see a hero fall. I didn’t consider Lance Armstrong to be a hero for riding. But what he did for cancer survivors was remarkable.

Until recently, cycling was filthy with doping. Take a look at the podium finishers for the Tour de France. Only two of the podium finishers in the Tour de France from 1996 through 2005 have not been directly tied to likely doping through admission, sanctions, public investigation or exceeding the UCI hematocrit threshold. The sole exceptions are Bobby Julich – third place in 1998 and Fernando Escartin – third place in 1999.

I could forgive Armstrong for doping. It seems clear that everyone was doping. It leaves open the question of whether Armstrong was one of the greatest cyclists or merely one of the greatest dopers. We have no way of knowing whether his regime of doping merely leveled the playing field or elevated him above the level of his also doping competitors. Were his competitors lesser cyclists or merely less capable at doping?

What caught my attention about the Armstrong interview was the window into the mind of a pathological liar. Armstrong had been telling the lie over and over and over. He lied to the public. He lied to the press. He lied to cancer survivors. He lied under oath.

Beyond that, he attacked those who accused him of doping. He ruined the careers of journalists who dared accuse him of doping. He ruined the careers of riders who accused him of doping.

I put Mr. Armstrong in the same group as Bernie Madoff. Two men who lived their lies for decades. They both seem to regret that they got caught, not that they were lying and stealing money. Granted Mr. Armstrong’s theft was a bit more indirect.

I don’t believe most of what Mr. Armstrong told Oprah in the interview. He’s been lying too long to think that he is now telling the whole truth. But there may be bits of truth mixed in his interview. He did clearly admit to doping.

As with most pathological liars, Mr. Armstrong expressed more remorse that he was caught, than for the harm he caused. He found justification for his bad acts.

Sources

Cycling and Compliance

During the summer of 2001, Mrs. Doug was stuck on the couch recovering from knee surgery. She stumbled across the coverage of the Tour de France, and especially Lance Armstrong, on the Outdoor Life Network. We were hooked, and ever since have been glued to the television during July to watch the beauty and competition of the Tour de France.

The US Postal Service team was a well run dynamo helping to support Lance Armstrong during his dominance of the race for seven years. It was clear that Mr. Armstrong trained harder and was more focused on winning than any of his competitors. Unfortunately, the evidence has become almost overwhelming that the US Postal Service team was involved in doping, including Mr. Armstrong.

Any fan of professional cycling knows that there is long history of drug abuse in the peleton. Many Tour de France riders had been subject to disciplinary action for doping. Only three of the podium finishers in the Tour de France from 1996 through 2005 have not been directly tied to likely doping through admission, sanctions, public investigation or exceeding the UCI hematocrit threshold.  The sole exceptions were Bobby Julich – third place in 1998, Fernando Escartin – third place in 1999, and Mr. Armstrong.

I always thought Mr. Armstrong was above this. After all, he fought cancer. He looked death in the eye and said he was not ready yet. There were rumors that Mr. Armstrong was doping. Most of those came from other rides with a grudge against him or were otherwise relatively unreliable.

The US Anti-Doping Agency released its report implicating the riders of the US Postal Service Team in wide spread doping. My heart was broken when two of my favorite riders George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer admitted to doping.

Because of my love for the sport, the contributions I feel I have made to it, and the amount the sport of cycling has given to me over the years, it is extremely difficult today to acknowledge that during a part of my career I used banned substances. Early in my professional career, it became clear to me that, given the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs by cyclists at the top of the profession, it was not possible to compete at the highest level without them. I deeply regret that choice and sincerely apologize to my family, teammates and fans.

George Hincapie

The cycling team had a culture of doping, set with tone from the top to push your body with medical treatment to improve performance. I’m still sorting through the extensive material to find direct evidence of Mr. Armstrong’s doping. So far the evidence is fairly light about his use. However, the evidence of the USPS team’s acceptance of doping is overwhelming.

It seems that doping was widespread, but has since decreased since 2008. Jonathan Vaughters, a former USPS rider and self-admitted doper, offers decreased riding times as evidence of doping.

  • L’Alpe D’Huez
    • Fastest: 22.43 kph, 1,900 vertical meters per hour by Marco Pantani in 1997
    • Fastest since 2008: 19.98 kph, 1,670 vertical meters per hour by Carlos Sastre in 2008
  • Plateau De Beille
    • Fastest: 22 kph, 1,812 vertical meters per hour by Marco Pantani in 1998
    • Fastest since 2008: 20.57 kph, 1,678 vertical meters per hour by Jelle Vandenert in 2011
  • Fastest Grand Tour Climbing Rate
    • Fastest: 1,769 vertical meters per hour by Roberto Heras in 2004’s Vuelta a Espana
    • Fastest since 2008: 1,682 vertical meters per hour by Bradley Wiggins in 2012’s Tour de France

The data shows a 10% drop in average fastest times. This correlates to the 10% drop in hemoglobin rates reported by UCI doctors from 2007 until 2010.

Perhaps that still leaves us with Mr. Armstrong as the greatest rider of his time. He was competing against dopers, while probably doping himself. The playing field was level for the elite riders. It was just a medically elevated playing field.

Sources:

Veni… Vidi… Wiggins!

Wiggins and Cavendish stuck together all day. Photo: Casey B. Gibson

I would guess that most of you reading this story do not share my love of the Tour de France. (Except Tom Fox.) The race can be a confusing mix of skinny guys, tarted up with sponsors like a NASCAR racer, with hard to pronounce names, following tactics unusual outside of cycling. But I since I became a fan a decade ago, I continue to be enthralled by drama and athletic heroism on display.

This year, Bradley Wiggins and his Team Sky dominated the race in a way that has not been seen for several years. In a act of selfless teamwork, the yellow jersey was the second to last lead out man for his sprinter Mark Cavendish as he wheeled across the finish line on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

George Hincapie led the peloton into Paris Sunday, a celebration of  the American’s 17th Tour de France — the most ever, by any rider — and his last. He completed 16 of the 17  Tours.  (Just for perspective of the 198 riders that stared the race, 47 dropped out or crashed out of the race.) The big American was part of nine Tour de France wins: seven with Lance Armstrong; one with Alberto Contador; and the final with Cadel Evans, in 2011.

The race was not without its incidents. A spectator threw tacks in the road a top a mountain pass causing dozens of flat tires. An owner let his enormous dog off his leash causing a high speed crash. Frank Schleck was kicked out of the Tour for a possible doping violation.

Compliance Bits and Pieces – Viva Le Tour

Saturday is the start of Tour de France as most of the world’s best cyclist queue at the starting line in Liège, Belgium. This week’s gathering of compliance stories starts with my story in Wired.com.

A Geek’s Guide to the Tour de France

The 99th edition of the Tour de France starts Saturday in Liège, kicking off three weeks of bicycle racing. Twenty-one teams of nine riders each will have to endure 3,497 kilometers of racing and 25 high mountain passes to reach the finish line on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. It’s an event full of incredible human achievement and endurance. Although it’s one of the largest sporting events in the world, it’s not widely watched in the US. It’s worth your time to watch it. Here is a geek’s guide to the Tour de France to help you get started: …

French Legislation Taxing Non-Resident Investment Funds While Exempting Domestic Funds Violated EU Law on Free Movement of Capital in Jim Hamilton’s World of Securities Regulation

French legislation taxing dividends paid to non-resident collective investment funds at 25 percent, while exempting domestic funds from the tax, violated EU law prohibiting restrictions on the movement of capital between Member States and between Member States and the US, ruled the European Court of Justice. A difference in the tax treatment of dividends according to an investment fund’s place of residence may discourage non-resident funds from investing in French companies and also discourage French investors from buying shares in non-resident funds.

2012 First Half FCPA Enforcement Round-Up: Part I and 2012 First Half FCPA Enforcement Round-Up: Part II from fellow cyclist Tom Fox

The first half of 2012 is reaching to a close and we have had several significant enforcement actions so far this year. So to commemorate all those June Bride and Bride-Grooms out there, including my parents who celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary on June 30, I have put together a couple of posts reviewing my top 6 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions for the first 6 months of 2012. At this point I cannot see any clear trends but there are some key points that provide solid advice for the compliance practitioner going forward.

How Giro Made a Cooler, Faster Helmet by Chuck Squatriglia in Wired.com’s Playbook

When it comes to bicycle helmets, protection is paramount. Everything else — cooling, aerodynamics, light weight — is a compromise. If you want more of one, you’ll surrender a little of the others. But Giro says it has achieved an ideal combination of excellent cooling, low drag and light weight in a bicycle helmet that actually makes you faster.

Bernard Madoff’s Brother Expected to Plead Guilty to Criminal Charges by Chad Bray in WSJ.com’s Law Blog

The brother of convicted Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff will plead guilty to criminal charges Friday, marking the first time a family member has admitted guilt since the massive fraud came to light three-and-a-half years ago.

Pedaling and Charging by Daniel Hamermesh in Freakonomics

People multitask (in economists’ language, “engage in joint production”) in a surprising variety of ways. A neat example appeared in Brussels Airport, with a sign saying “charge your phone and laptop.” But the charging was done by you sitting on a saddle and pedaling a machine that generated the power charging your device.

Wandering Cape Cod bear captured in Boston suburb by Ros Krasny for Reuters

He’s baaack: A male black bear captured on Cape Cod earlier this month, where it was tranquilized and moved to central Massachusetts, showed up again on Tuesday just six miles from downtown Boston.

Compliance Lessons from the Tour de France

I would guess that most of you reading this story do not share my love of the Tour de France. It can be a confusing mix of skinny guys, tarted up with sponsors like a NASCAR racer, with hard to pronounce names, following tactics unusual outside of cycling. But I since I became a fan a decade ago, I continue to be enthralled by drama and athletic heroism on display.

I also saw compliance lessons.

Stage 18 was a brutal day of riding up big mountains in the Alps. The riders started with the Col Agnel, a climb of almost 24km, averaging 6.6 percent, but most importantly averaging 10 percent for the final 9km. Down, then up the Col d’Izoard 15km at 7.1 percent gradient. Down and then up to the 23km to the finish on top of the Col du Galibier. A moonscape at 8,678 feet that had a fresh snowfall just days before the cyclists arrived.

One of the rules of the Tour is that riders who finish too far behind the winner get eliminated from the race. In these big mountain stages the non-climbers fall off the back of the peloton and form a group of riders form that just hopes to finish the stage. Their primary concern is beating the elimination time to ensure the can ride the next day. effectively, the riders self-organize to fight the rule.

At the end of stage 18, 80 riders (nearly half the racers) arrived in the grupetto more than 35 minutes after the winner. This was after the cut-off time. They were not kicked out of the rice, but some were given meaningless penalties.

Stage 19 was another brutal climbing day, going up the Col du Telegraph, back up Galibier, and then scampering up the legendary Alp d’Huez. For the second day in a row, the huge grupetto finished beyond the time cut, with 82 riders crossing the line beyond the limit. The day’s time cut was set at 13 percent of the winner’s time. The race officials allowed the group to remain in the race. All riders in that group were penalized 20 points in the points classification, but both green jersey contenders, Mark Cavendish and Jose Rojas, were in the group. The one poor victim was Bjorn Leukemans, who finished well behind the grupetto and was eliminated.

A rule was broken by almost half the participants but there was no meaningful discipline. How would that work inside your company? If the rule is being broken by that many people, maybe it’s a bad rule?

Photo: Casey B. Gibson | www.cbgphoto.com