Maintaining an Aberrant Practice in a Contradictory Environment: The Case of Doping in Professional Road Cycling

Abstract

Sports doping is a practice that continues, despite hostile public opinion and counter-efforts to close it down. In this paper we explore the maintenance of doping in the sport of professional road cycling. While studies of controversial practices find that they often benefit from levels of acceptance and even perceived value, we supplement such research by providing one of the few studies of practices that are subject to powerful social controls. In our case, the continual threat from anti-doping organizations means that the maintenance and disruption of doping represents a kind of dialectical pair. We utilize and extend a model of types of institutional work that has advantages as an analytical tool, exploring the support required in this setting. Sustaining work was highly dynamic, relying on distinct groups within cycling teams to marshal organizational skills and cope with disruption, while repairing internal defences and concealing activities.