Amateur doping

[Graeme]

EPO in amateur racing. Oh how depressing.

Grauniad article.

I'm guessing that residents of this parish wouldn't take EPO, so I'm preaching to the converted - but obviously some people think it is okay, okay enough to take further action and actually source and buy the stuff. I wouldn't know where to look and I don't want to find out where to look - just not interested.

(I'll come clean on paracetamol and the occasional fermented iso-tonic sports drink though)

[Ruthie]

I've used EPO therapeutically on people who need it for medical reasons and it's horribly expensive.  Sad that people would take such a risk with their health.  Madness.

[woollypigs]

My former boss's husband, back in 1996, was a keen cyclist. He, was then in his early 30s, reported that young,18-20 year olds, riders at races he went too, where high as a kite. Openly talked about what could give them the edge. So they could get win and be found by the pro teams.

[Ivo]

The rumours about amateur doping have been very consistent over the years. Also for the master's level. So I'm not suprised at all.

[sojournermike]

It's said to be common and open on the start lines of European gran fondos. It's shockingly easy to find out what to use and how much, and it really is big business I'm afraid.

It isn't just cycling either. Athletics is often unbelievable and the need for new records to keep the TV money coming is a great disincentive to really address it. Of course, sometimes a record is set that moves the bar so far that it seems impossible for anyone to follow and (should probably) raise its own questions.

[contango]

It's so much cheaper to make a track log with a data point every second, then throw away most of the points and tweak the timestamp on the remaining ones so that, say, every 11th data point is marked as if it were the 10th. You've got a track log that shows just where you went, you've gained a full 10% performance boost, you get all the kudos on Faceache or wherever else you post your track logs, and you don't have to stick pointy things in yourself.

Of course for some of us it's cheaper to eat less lard than to look for chemical enhancements.

[Nick H.]

I shall use this as my excuse for continuing to ignore the entire sportive movement. Presumably there are plenty of idiots doping even for a sportive?

I bet there's a demand for EPO from the people who do laps of Richmond Park. I shall get an ice cream van as cover and become a dealer.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The chances of getting caught are much smaller than even the small risk for those in the pro ranks (and we know lots of them dope). If winning/ performance is very important to somebody (leaving aside moral questions), why wouldn't they dope?

[mzjo]

A clubmate who used to do doping controls for FFC events told me that long ago. One of the major problems with amateur racing, at least over here, is having enough volunteers who are prepared to hang around long enough to man the controls (and riders who are prepared to not dash away straight after the event).

We have already had a winner of the sportive at La Souterraine disqualified through a doping offence. They had to wait until the next year's event to present the real winner (who said afterwards that being told 12 months later that he had won was meaningless). The organiser said that the problem with controls for a sportive was cost and personnel.

[Exit Stage Left]

There'll always be a market for an elixir of youth, holding back the years through exercise is the first stop. Driven personalities aren't going to accept a decline in performance as they age, so there's money to be made from their vanity.

[David Martin]

i'm tempted to get a UK antidoping sticker and put it on a van in the car park at the next road race. Then see who feels ill and doesn't sign on..

[Otto]

I used to have a triple espresso before a cross race if that counts

[Tigerrr]

This explains why I am being passed so much these days.

[Tigerrr]

I am cycling in Spain at the moment. Apparently you can just go into the chemist in Benidorm and buy most of the 'gear'. The cyclists out here are incredibly well muscled and go very fast indeed uphill. I wonder how many of them are out here for steroid enhanced training?

[Exit Stage Left]

I was chatting with a fellow rider at a control recently. He said he'd been prescribed the same stuff as Froome has for his athsma. He said he was hitting Strava PBs all the time, and couldn't understand why it was legal with a TUE.
We live on a medicalised society, problems can be solved using the right pills.
I doubt that any of the amateurs doping see themselves as cheats.

[Dibdib]

Iw as chatting with a fellow rider at a control recently. He said he'd been prescribed the same stuff as Froome has for his athsma. He said he was hitting Strava PBs all the time, and couldn't understand why it was legal with a TUE.
We live on a medicalised society, problems can be solved using the right pills.
I doubt that any of the amateurs doping see themselves as cheats.

I'm in two minds about this - Salbutamol/Ventolin is what pretty much every asthmatic gets given, as far as I know, and used according to doctors instructions the effect on me certainly isn't noticable enough to be smashing Strava PBs. 1600mg is a LOT, I think my inhaler dispenses in 100mg "puffs" with the instruction to take one or two puffs to relieve the symptons. I don't think I've ever felt the need to take sixteen puffs on a ride, and I'm fat, slow AND asthmatic ;-)

[Graeme]

If you know that something helps, and you take it for that purpose then you totally know what you're doing. Psychologically, stopping for a pint and a meal on the first evening of a 600 is helping me enjoy myself and improving my performance. As is stopping for a pint Sunday lunchtime with only 150km to go. Ibuprofen and paracetamol make a big difference IF my knees are complaining.

I think what bothers me about taking EPO or over inhaling on ventolin is that it is outside my own frame of reference. So perhaps I only consider it doping because I don't do it and I don't know anyone who does it. Maybe those, like he-who-shall-not-be-named, don't consider it doping.

And then I flip/flop in opinion back to thinking that these drugs have no other purpose that making you faster than the next guy. So that sounds more like cheating. And doing that when there is nothing more at stake than a strava PB seems ridiculous.

[Graeme]

I doubt TG or Tarzan would stoop to doping but I wonder if they'll be tested.

[Nick H.]

Can you go faster by getting a false diagnosis of asthma so you can get prescriptions you don't need?

[L CC]

And then I flip/flop in opinion back to thinking that these drugs have no other purpose that making you faster than the next guy. So that sounds more like cheating. And doing that when there is nothing more at stake than a strava PB seems ridiculous.

I'd take EPO and HGH like a shot if I knew where to get it from/ could afford it.
Not for Strava PBs (who cares?) but for going faster- because faster is fun-ner, and recovering faster- because MOAR riding is what I'm all about.

I'm not competing, so how is it cheating? It's no more cheating than those people who have faster metabolism, longer legs, more time to train, can go further without pee stops, drink more caffeine, more money to spend on lighter bikes, whatever.

TG and Tarzan are competing. I doubt either of them would dope.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Iw as chatting with a fellow rider at a control recently. He said he'd been prescribed the same stuff as Froome has for his athsma. He said he was hitting Strava PBs all the time, and couldn't understand why it was legal with a TUE.
We live on a medicalised society, problems can be solved using the right pills.
I doubt that any of the amateurs doping see themselves as cheats.

I'm in two minds about this - Salbutamol/Ventolin is what pretty much every asthmatic gets given, as far as I know, and used according to doctors instructions the effect on me certainly isn't noticable enough to be smashing Strava PBs. 1600mg is a LOT, I think my inhaler dispenses in 100mg "puffs" with the instruction to take one or two puffs to relieve the symptons. I don't think I've ever felt the need to take sixteen puffs on a ride, and I'm fat, slow AND asthmatic ;-)

So if you took 1600mg, you'd only be fat and asthmatic. 

But ESL is right that we live in a medicalised society. Students are taking pills to get them through exams. People are doping on PBP (so I'm told, and I believe it). Not to mention all the drugs (some of them probably the same ones) people take just for fun.

[Exit Stage Left]

Iw as chatting with a fellow rider at a control recently. He said he'd been prescribed the same stuff as Froome has for his athsma. He said he was hitting Strava PBs all the time, and couldn't understand why it was legal with a TUE.
We live on a medicalised society, problems can be solved using the right pills.
I doubt that any of the amateurs doping see themselves as cheats.

I'm in two minds about this - Salbutamol/Ventolin is what pretty much every asthmatic gets given, as far as I know, and used according to doctors instructions the effect on me certainly isn't noticable enough to be smashing Strava PBs. 1600mg is a LOT, I think my inhaler dispenses in 100mg "puffs" with the instruction to take one or two puffs to relieve the symptons. I don't think I've ever felt the need to take sixteen puffs on a ride, and I'm fat, slow AND asthmatic ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prednisolone is what you need.

[yoav]

Actually it's 100 micrograms per puff (not milligrams) but is it really worth risking your life for a PB?