Stolen, Never to be Replaced
05 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in Bicycle, Doping Tags: Bicycle, doping
Steve Tilford has an excellent blog post that really sums up doping and racing. Steve recaps a conversation with Nick Frey, professional racer with the Jamis pro team, about a stage in the Tour of Chile. Nick was the set-up guy, delivering Tyler Wren, the teams climber, to the base of the finishing climb. In spite of a 0:06:30 lead at the base of the climb, Tyler was caught with less than 1km to go by a single racer. According to Tyler, the guy was, “breathing through his nose” as flew past. Turns out the racer tested positive, and was only able to accomplish the feat because he was “supercharged.” That seems to be the story of pro racing these days.
While the story is interesting to read, a comment that Nick emailed to Steve really says it all, and is the main point of this post:
How could anyone be so stupid and selfish at this point? Don’t these guys love the sport like we do? If it was a matter of getting a job to make money, go f*ing wrench on cars or sell life insurance.
WADA, Bad Meat, and One Giant “WTF?”
30 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
If you follow cycling, you’ve surely seen the news: Contador tested positive during the 2010 Tour de France. The news doesn’t really surprise me. It’s just another chapter in an ever-growing saga of a seemingly endless battle. Then I read Contador’s excuse that the positive test was caused by “bad food.”
Are you kidding me?! Surely there’s a better excuse than “my food did this to me.” At least Floyd Landis was creative in explaining how his body became infected by enhancing compounds. Leaves me asking, “what will they think of next?”
While trolling the web tonight, I found an interesting spot on CNN that actually supports his claim. It doesn’t directly support it, but the doctor explains how clenbuterol, a drug that reduces fat while building skeletal muscle and the substance that was found in Contador’s urine sample, could be ingested by eating meat from an animal that was fed the substance. Eating meat tainted with clenbuterol typical results in illness, ranging from a headache to increased heart rate to muscle tremors. Doesn’t really sound like something that could be endured while racing around France. While the doctor claims it could happen, he also states that it could also be “a bunch of malarkey.”
I tend to side with the latter. But, reading these stories causes me to think “really?” When is enough enough? If things continue, professional bike racing will be limited to athletes that are born, raised, and trained in completely controlled environments. Where’s the fun in that?
Spanish Athletes Dominate in ’08
11 Aug 2008 Leave a Comment
in Doping Tags: doping, Iban Mayo, Manuel Beltrán, Maria Isable Moreno, Operacaion Puerto, Oscar Seville, Roberto Heras, Sports
It’s easy to determine that Spain has emerged as a sports powerhouse during 2008. Check out these recent results:
- Carlos Sastre won the Tour de France
- Nadal defeated #1-ranked Roger Federer at Wimbledon
- a European Cup win for Spanish soccer
- Over 60 medals in international sports during 2007
Some relate the string of success to the economic boom and Spain joining the European Union, which directly related to more investment in sports. Sport writer Oscar Fornet even claims that a diet more rich in protein is to blame. But, at the same time, it’s difficult to ignore the growing number of Spanish athletes that have been busted for doping.
Just today, Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno became the first athlete kicked out of the 2008 Olympics for doping. She joins a crowded list of Spanish dopers that includes Oscar Seville, Roberto Heras, Manuel Beltrán, Iban Mayo–and that’s only a short list of cyclist recently implicated of doping. And, let’s not forget about Operación Puerto, an international doping scandal that originated in Spain.
Athletes from other countries have been busted, too. But, it seems that the Spanish are dominating this area of sport, too. Is there a connection?
