I think it's inevitable that riders will feel pressured or tempted to put themselves on individual programs, and there's not much you can do about that except to have a rigorous testing program. Most riders on their own probably aren't smart enough or disciplined enough to avoid detection for long, however. My contention is that the bigger problem is with organized, team-sponsored or private performance specialists. These are not doctors who are focused on health-based medicine and injury recovery, but doctors who are employed to supercharge the athletes. This in itself is a gray area, as often riders are subjected to unproven therapies and treatments, just in case it "might work." Then you layer in the incentive to proscribe substances and build programs to beat the testing protocols. These doctors are going to profile as competitive, driven individuals... and if they don't deliver results they will lose their prestige, status and pay.
My contention is just ban any and all performance programs like this. I'm not sure how to prevent it, but you look at state-sponsored doping programs such as those that exist in the Olympics, and it's a total nightmare for fair competition. If you're a nation-state that wants to boost the morale of your country and increase nationalistic pride for a couple weeks, you don't care about fair competition obviously.
It feels more and more that we're not watching competitions between athletes, we're watching a battle of doctors and their doping programs. Who's willing to go further? Who has the bigger budget to spend on TUE bribes? Who has access to the latest drugs through their connections to pharmaceutical labs?
With the relatively small amount of money involved, you'd think cycling would have a decent chance of remaining cleaner than sports like NFL, NBA, Premier League etc. And maybe it is, but the top teams can clearly afford to build "the program," at least for a subset of their riders.
Counterpoint I guess is maybe humanity over all benefits from the doped athletes putting their health on the line to discover the boundaries and frontiers of this type of medicine... Maybe the next performance drug actually helps real patients with their debilitating disease or condition. Human lab rats, so to speak.
I just don't think we need these people at all. Thoughts? I'm not 100% convinced of this point of view, but more looking for other viewpoints or solutions.
My contention is just ban any and all performance programs like this. I'm not sure how to prevent it, but you look at state-sponsored doping programs such as those that exist in the Olympics, and it's a total nightmare for fair competition. If you're a nation-state that wants to boost the morale of your country and increase nationalistic pride for a couple weeks, you don't care about fair competition obviously.
It feels more and more that we're not watching competitions between athletes, we're watching a battle of doctors and their doping programs. Who's willing to go further? Who has the bigger budget to spend on TUE bribes? Who has access to the latest drugs through their connections to pharmaceutical labs?
With the relatively small amount of money involved, you'd think cycling would have a decent chance of remaining cleaner than sports like NFL, NBA, Premier League etc. And maybe it is, but the top teams can clearly afford to build "the program," at least for a subset of their riders.
Counterpoint I guess is maybe humanity over all benefits from the doped athletes putting their health on the line to discover the boundaries and frontiers of this type of medicine... Maybe the next performance drug actually helps real patients with their debilitating disease or condition. Human lab rats, so to speak.
I just don't think we need these people at all. Thoughts? I'm not 100% convinced of this point of view, but more looking for other viewpoints or solutions.
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