There is evil in this world. I have seen it. The issues of doping in sport are not in the same galaxy of the true evil that men commit. Sorry, not even close. Question: why do you resent doping? I really don't "resent" it in the normal definition of resent. It damages the sport inwardly and outwardly in many ways, most notably it creates huge risk for the industry of cycle racing and the people in the sport.
The sport does not "benefit" by doping, per se, as the popularity of the sport would not rise or fall depending on the outcome of doping or not, specifically the change in speeds and believability of the performances.
Doping is only an exercise in managing risk, it is a business decision. As an internal cultural phenomenon of the cycling "workplace", when you are faced with needing a "program" simply to stay employed, and the prospect of not being employed means driving a truck, working a production facility, or back to University and into the general workplace, it is not a difficult decision. I find it highly dubious that the climate of resentment and contempt on this board is bourne from such a limited view and access to real knowledge and information, not just some rumor or "heard from a guy" stuff, but the real guts of it.
I find Joe Papp's insight, when his pseudo-mea-culpa is stripped away, to be a ray of light and truth about how the mechanics work. Clearly the drugs are not "hard" to get. From his view, rationalizing the decision to dope is easy to understand. I don't think anyone should bash Papp, or think them superior to him based on his decisions. At a minimum, he was caught, is paying a high price, and has accepted his fate.
Put it in the context of the things that really impact you and our life, face up to the idea that "doping" probably does not directly touch your life and mature your view. Since for most of us, cycling has a special place in our lives, our escape, the personal goal center, the way we've regained our health, or our sanity, etc. I think it is a sign of weakness and low intellect to take personal affront to the cleanliness of how the professional racing aspect of the sport makes its sausage.
The management of the sausage companies should be quite a bit better, and there should be a complete separation of church cycling and state IOC , though that is unlikely, since it appears the majority of the issues are bourne of root political topology, with parties like WADA, UCI, NGB's, national agencies of enforcement for a myriad of politically motivated laws and standards.
I feel for cycle racing to have a viable commercial future at the highest end of the sport, these parties must align around the idea that any "huge" doping bust would probably cast the sport into the gutter and I think that is coming despite some flare-ups. Results of recent issues have all but destroyed cycling in the countries of Germany, Austria, Portugal, and to a lesser extent in Italy and France.
These are core cycling "communities", where the culture of racing, the popularity of the athletes and the traditions of the sport. And they are damaged.
I see the attempts to win a "war" on doping to be surely winnable but any victory that is seen coming as a result of top-down teardowns would most certainly be pyrrhic. I am not directly or indirectly advocating use of dope, more that I feel the whole thrust of the issue is not a "just" moral fight and that it is the in-fightings and politicization of the issue, rather than the seriousness of the problem itself, that has made the issue so big, so polarizing that it has become the nearly the "story" rather than the racing itself.
Certainly, the stakeholder countries, and their internal cycling fans, markets for cycling goods, and athletes, could not endure another massive scandal. Knowing this, it will simply subsist on a steady diet of side-scandals, secondary busts, and a constant in-fight for the crumbs that make up the cycle racing industry.
The greatest change-agent you have is protest. Withhold the only things the sport has, fans and viewers with pocketbooks. To standby, cynical arrows drawn on your bows of moral superiority, you only add to the festering of the thing you resent most.
Take action but take the right action. These are my thoughts. Sep 10, 5, 0 0. My attitude is that I'm more than happy to give riders the benefit of the doubt but without being in the least bit surprised when any rider is found to be doping.
Evans, for eg: perfectly willing to believe that he's not doping, there's nothing linking him to doping, etc, but at the same time wouldn't be at all shocked to learn that he is. Must admit that it's a bit tougher to extend the benefit of the doubt to those in the gray area, like Contador or Valverde, ie riders who have been linked to doping.
Big thing for me, though, is that I can't watch a great individual effort anymore without the little voice whispering, "great ride, but clean? And that's how doping has imo, or for me at least ruined the sport. Back when I started following cycling, in the early '90s, I loved watching Chiappucci and Pantani and Virenque and Leblanc and Berzin etc and was completely naive to the fact that they and most of the peloton were doping.
Ultimately EPO is simply perfectly suited to boosting performance. What is different is that in the past the supply network was generally face-to-face; now the internet has changed things significantly. Now, however, there are numerous online outlets for PEDs. It took us less than 10 minutes to secure a source of EPO online. As for instruction on how to use it, the internet also provides an abundance of information. Numerous forums also provide a platform for advanced discussion of PED use.
One, Eroids. Although the majority of users are bodybuilders and gym-goers, some endurance users on Eroids. Readus found that a lot of the advice about dosages and detection he received from other riders rather than the internet was incorrect, meaning some athletes failed drugs tests despite all their efforts.
They may actually contain substances in greater or lesser quantities than they thought. The health risks for them are huge. Popular steroids such as GW have been studied and found to have strong causal links to cancer. Between and alone, seven European cyclists died because EPO thickened their blood so much that their hearts stopped, most in their sleep. So is there a solution?
UKAD is keen to stress that testing is expensive and its funds can only go so far. Essentially UKAD acts on tip-offs, much like law enforcement, with forums and websites selling drugs a primary source for finding potential offenders. But, of course, its remit goes far beyond cycling and the other sports that have traditionally been plagued by PED use. The recent CIRC report estimated at least 20 percent of the peloton is still cheating.
The CIRC report makes it clear that doping has waned but not disappeared in the modern peloton, with the first real drop in and the most impressive improvements coming after Drug use in cycling remains a serious issue.
Another professional, also unnamed, put the figure at 20 percent. Instead, riders are skirting the edges of the anti-doping system, taking advantage of Therapeutic Use Exemptions, using overnight gaps in testing and a deep understanding of the Biological Passport to micro-dose without getting caught.
It does not, however, provide much detail. Could the negative view of modern doping make clean riders believe that they must, once again, dope to win? If that is the case, the effect of the report could be precisely the opposite of the one desired. Amphetamines were found in his body post-mortem as well as in his luggage. Anabolic steroids were first used by the Soviet Union in the s to encourage muscle growth in strength sports, but they had also found use among endurance athletes to accelerate recovery.
By the s and early s these drugs had made their way into professional cycling. The substance was not banned by cycling, even though it was by the IOC, and thus no sanctions were imposed.
Delgado went on to win the race. Another rider tested positive for testosterone that year and received a time penalty. By the late s, a new technique made its way to the peloton. Researchers had long been interested in how red cell mass affected exercise performance. Erythropoietin EPO is a naturally occurring hormone that stimulates the bone marrow to produce red blood cells.
However, too much EPO can push the haematocrit to dangerously high levels, causing the blood to clot. EPO use was suspected in nearly 20 deaths of European cyclists over a four-year period. Although professional cycling maintained that it was clean, the use of rEPO, amphetamines, steroids, and human growth hormone remained common throughout the s. Team agents were caught with banned substances.
A few hotels were raided, and a few teams were disqualified. One rider was even caught dealing. A few riders came clean with what they used, how they got it, and how they eluded and cheated drug tests. Olympic champion Tyler Hamilton tested positive for donor blood after both the Olympics and the Vuelta time-trial. The IOC could not strip Hamilton of his gold medal, because his backup blood sample had been frozen, leaving too few red blood cells to analyze.
However, the Vuelta sample cost Hamilton a two-year ban from the sport. Hamilton faced a lifetime ban from the sport after testing positive for a steroid in early Adding to the scandals of the mid s was the cocaine overdose of superstar Marco Pantani in , after which it was revealed that he raced using rEPO throughout his career.
Even with all of the previous drama, the biggest scandals were yet to come. First, a Spanish investigation in May found evidence of a major doping operation in Madrid. Police seized steroids, hormones, rEPO, frozen blood, and laboratory equipment. In all, 58 riders were implicated. Five were arrested, and nine riders, including favorites Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, were ousted from the Tour. American Floyd Landis, who was not involved in the initial scandal, went on to make an amazing comeback to win the Tour.
But he was later stripped of his title after it was revealed that he tested positive for testosterone from a sample taken during the Tour. Similarly, Alberto Contador had his Tour win vacated after being found guilty of doping. By the end of the 20th century the sport almost seemed numb from the scandals, suspicions and accusations.
First, there was an incident where a trace amount of corticoids was found in Armstrong. It later turned out to have come from an externally-applied cream. Postal team.
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