For You Bike Racers

[TKennedy]

Surprise surprise-- Floyd was actually lying all along. Who woulda' thought it.

www.cyclingnews.com/news/landis-confesses-to-doping-implicates-armstrong-and-bruyneel

I think all that stuff should be legal, hell they are adults and can decide what to put into their bodies. In the record books you could just list all the drugs they took after each win. Like: "2003 Tour de France Winner: Lance Armstrong (EPO, Autologous Blood, HGH, Testosterone, and a pinch of amphetamines. Starting hematocrit 43, final hematocrit 50))" Could do the same for baseball etc.

[mnhermit]

So - they aren't actually super human? who'd'a'thunk'it.

[Deleted]

As a bike racer I find this heartbreaking. This guy has been claiming he was framed for about four years now, and even published a book proclaiming his innocence. He's now running around pointing fingers at everybody else, saying he only did it because everybody else was.

I don't know how ubiquitous doping is in cycling. I do know that the reason it seems that way is because of how hard the international cycling organizations have been cracking down on it. Here's hoping they're making progress. The fact that Floyd was a cheater for so many years, and only got caught when he was being desperate, makes me a little less optimistic than I've been in the past...

As for legalizing doping, that's a horrible idea. Many riders have died because of various forms of doping, and countless have ruined their health for life. This stuff is not worth joking about. At least now we make it crystal clear that it is cheating, and have good information on the health effects. Hopefully the newer generation of riders is paying attention to what's happening to the older generation of riders.

Anyhow, that's my thoughts on this tragedy.

[Village Idiot]

May 20, 2010 9:26:16 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

I think all that stuff should be legal, hell they are adults and can decide what to put into their bodies. In the record books you could just list all the drugs they took after each win.

Or just make doped-up bike racing its own category. You could have doped up bike racing, and regular bike racing. This would work for about any sport.

[TKennedy]

I agree with you Paul, I was just being sarcastic. I raced road bikes seriously through the 80's and early 90's and have been to two tours and ridden many of the classic climbs. What the pros do boggles the mind. I think a lot of them see drugs more as "taking care of yourself". When they take their bodies to places that are totally unreasonable the body rebells and stops making red blood cells, hormone levels drop, the immune system gets screwy etc. etc. They seem to see it as just restoring normal physiology. At least I think that's what they are told by the docs.
A kid that used to ride with us wound up racing in Belgium and did very well. He was signed by a level II Pro team and the first thing the team Doc did was tell him to take a bunch of pills and injections calling them "supplements". He came home. His stories about doping at the amateur level in Europe were amazing. A great book you would enjoy as a bike racer is "A Dog In A Hat" about another American's experience racing in Belgium.
Drugs are such an established culture in European cycling that it's really tough to crack but they have made amazing progress in the last few years. Hope it continues. Good luck in your racing!

[Deleted]

Funny, I'm readying "A Dog in a Hat" right now, and apparently a sequel came out to it this year too. I just do old man racing, it keeps me in shape but I don't have to pretend to actually train... The pro tour riders do stuff to their bodies that I can't even imagine. My hardest day ever is less than an average Tour day...

Anyhow, I'm off for the weekly crit!

Paul