Doping in amateur cycling - BBC

[noddy69]

While I like the idea certainly its the upper echelons of cycling that need exposing to stop the amateur guys or at least try, but exposing the problem works.

However lazy journalism I hate. Putting a post up and expecting people to do all ,not some but all of the work is bad manners. Linkedin profile....I doubt you missed it you just didnt look.

No confidence that you will do the programme due to the lazy approach taken from what I can see. If I am wrong good but I doubt it .

 

[Winterfold]

I'd really like to know why the BBC is choosing to focus on amateurs and not on doping by Brits in the professional peloton and on the track.

Because the real evil of pros doping is that it creates a culture where low category amateurs from 19-63 think doping is part of the sport and start doing it.

When a sport has people doping to beat old masters like a lot of us on here it really needs to take a long hard look at itself.

This is an interesting angle.

Whereas you are on the same soapbox you have been on on this forum and many others for many years.

'Pro cyclists dope' is a dog bites man story...

And anyway they don't do it any more

 

[Briant_Gumble]

Because the real evil of pros doping is that it creates a culture where low category amateurs from 19-63 think doping is part of the sport and start doing it.

When a sport has people doping to beat old masters like a lot of us on here it really needs to take a long hard look at itself.

This is an interesting angle.

Whereas you are on the same soapbox you have been on on this forum and many others for many years.

'Pro cyclists dope' is a dog bites man story...

And anyway they don't do it any more

I'd say doping causes people to commonly dope from 15-16, look at Tyler Hooten or however you spell his name.

 

[esafosfina]

Just for curiosity's sake... any of you contact her?

 

[Darryl Webster]

While I think its fair comment to suggest concentrating on the Pro level recently I,ve been getting a fair bit of info suggesting doping at amateur level here in the UK is bigger issue than I,d previously thought.
Certainly back in the 80,s during my amateur career I saw or heard very little to suggest it was anything more than a very minor issue, most conversations around it came from riders who had spent time with French or Italian amateur teams and concerned the ease with which PED products could be bought over the counter in there pharmacies.
I'm not at liberty to post the info I've been given and as yet I'm unsure of its veracity but it has come from 3 independent sources so I,l keep digging around.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Because the real evil of pros doping is that it creates a culture where low category amateurs from 19-63 think doping is part of the sport and start doing it.

When a sport has people doping to beat old masters like a lot of us on here it really needs to take a long hard look at itself.

This is an interesting angle.

Whereas you are on the same soapbox you have been on on this forum and many others for many years.

'Pro cyclists dope' is a dog bites man story...

And anyway they don't do it any more

Nope, I've never said its either or. I'd like the BBC to look at both ends of the spectrum. If you are starting anywhere, why start with the guys at the bottom rather than the guys at the top (who the guys at the bottom are trying to be).

It seems to be less about 'interesting' angles as not biting the hand that feeds you. Just like you don't run a story on Jimmy Savile because it will **** up your xmas schedule.

 

[zebedee]

Prevalence of doping in non-elite sports?

Ask around the gyms about steroids. Once the meatheads have a sniff you've money to spend they'll be on to you like flies. Look at the steroid forums too.

 

[Cloxxki]

Would you guys agree with my experience that, although stakes are much smaller in amateur cycling, amonst riders it's much more hush-hush that among pro's?
I've been involved in unpaid cycling for a while. Many of my level weer on teams with team bikes and outfits, but were not paid. I did not see outrageous doping. I did see some guys who just would no go elite, and stuck to winning the minor league races, all of them. But no real talk of doping. Yes, one kid hit the MTB hard, lapped like the pro's, and vanished.
Still, all I heard other amateurs talk about was legal supplements, as was my own interest. You could tell a difference, sometimes, but nothing like the stuff the pro's were on, changing one of us into a superstar.

 

[fatandfast]

While I think its fair comment to suggest concentrating on the Pro level recently I,ve been getting a fair bit of info suggesting doping at amateur level here in the UK is bigger issue than I,d previously thought.
Certainly back in the 80,s during my amateur career I saw or heard very little to suggest it was anything more than a very minor issue, most conversations around it came from riders who had spent time with French or Italian amateur teams and concerned the ease with which PED products could be bought over the counter in there pharmacies.
I'm not at liberty to post the info I've been given and as yet I'm unsure of its veracity but it has come from 3 independent sources so I,l keep digging around.

This is spot on. PEDs are available anywhere just like a bag of weed or blow. It's everywhere. The biggest mistake in thinking by people on all these threads is that they think there is some clear difference between a pro and amateur.
There are guys all over the world that don't work and ride a bike for a living.

Cat1s that have a coaching job or two w triathletes or people who want to go up to the next level. The problem with the doping misunderstanding in my opinion is the CN Velonews,website profile of "pro" bike racers having big salaries, tour buses,personal assistants all over the place. My personal favorite is Sky's website that features videos of a chef with a nutritionist developing a menu for racers. This is a story of very few bike racers. Most guys are dirt poor and love racing and will do anything to keep doing it, including drugs.

If you live on sofas or in the back of a van trying to get to the next level, a small sickness or injury can plant the seed of PED use in order to bridge you through to what may be a washout in many months or years of training. Prepping for nationals or a big race and then getting bronchitis or a broken colar bone can really f-ck with your head. People think that bike racers are making money.untrue.

 

[DirtyWorks]

People think that bike racers are making money.untrue.

The starving racer is still out there. Keep in mind the UCI has structured the sport so that athlete's payout is at the elite level only. Doping below that level as you say will be no surprise.

While I agree with the highlights, the difference in 2012 is that cycling is the new golf. Coaches, $5000+ bikes, carbon wheels and such make it a bigger money sport for Shimano and a couple of OEM's than golf and very soon to beat skiing. The David Anthony case is the poster child of this.

The coach, the $20,000+ in gear **for a hobby**, what a few hundred bucks for PED's every couple of months?

The protocols are known and relatively safe as long as you aren't stupid. A friendly U.S. MD can supply the drugs and dosage, and they do. I don't blame the MD's that much. In the U.S. the big money goes to the anti-aging clinic for totally safe-ish PED use.

 

[bigmatt24]

You might be thinking about this VeloNews report: In search of relevance, a Cat. 3 turns to EPO and HGH
"David Anthony didn’t think they’d test him. It was a gran fondo, and he didn’t win. He’d never been tested before. Why now?"


Also worth a look:
Outside Magazine article by Stuart Stevens: Drug Test
"After the EPO kicked in, I rode a 200-miler and I felt strong, fresh, ready to hammer. The next day I easily could have ridden another 200."

Also worth reading is another Outside article by Andrew Tilin: I Couldn't Be More Positive
"Serving as his own lab rat, an amateur bike racer spent a year taking supplemental testosterone—rumored to be a peloton favorite—to find out if it could transform an average Joe. His conclusion? No doubt about it."

Andrew also published a book about his experience: "The Doper Next Door: My Strange and Scandalous Year on Performance-Enhancing Drugs"

I raced against the guy in the first article, David Anthony, at Tour de Tuscaloosa (AL) this year. In fact, I was in the break of the day with him, along with one of my teammates and another guy. He was the weakest of the 4 of us, and he raced like an idiot. And then he got popped for doping!!! How sh!tty must he feel -- he doped his way to mediocrity, but he was still a bad racer, and then he got caught cheating to achieve his mediocrity! What a miserable failure and a waste of resources.

 

[DirtyWorks]

I raced against the guy in the first article, David Anthony, at Tour de Tuscaloosa (AL) this year. In fact, I was in the break of the day with him, along with one of my teammates and another guy. He was the weakest of the 4 of us, and he raced like an idiot. And then he got popped for doping!!! How sh!tty must he feel -- he doped his way to mediocrity, but he was still a bad racer, and then he got caught cheating to achieve his mediocrity! What a miserable failure and a waste of resources.

I bet he was riding on some very nice kit though. What about you? How many pairs of carbon wheels in the garage and what's in the bin of discarded "heavy" gram-counted bike parts?

It's easy to attack Mr. Anthony. But part of the problem is the way the sport operates itself. Doping doesn't cost very much at all relative to the average Shimano/Campag/carbon habit. Doping is fair game if no one is testing and the environment is only about consuming gear related to the culture.

 

[SpannerBender]

Hello,
5 Live Investigates at the BBC is trying it find out if doping is an issue in amateur cycling.

Kirsteen, personally, as a License Fee payer, I'd rather 5Live spent their time not going for the easy option of sticking it to cycling. How about you spend the time treading where it might be uncomfortable. Look into football, the chronic lack of testing and pitiful sanctions. The links to well known dubious characters, already discredited within the cycling arena but 'active' around football.

Then maybe look at tennis............

 

[bobbins]

Kirsteen, personally, as a License Fee payer, I'd rather 5Live spent their time not going for the easy option of sticking it to cycling. How about you spend the time treading where it might be uncomfortable. Look into football, the chronic lack of testing and pitiful sanctions. The links to well known dubious characters, already discredited within the cycling arena but 'active' around football.

Then maybe look at tennis............

Soccer - bags of money so as to make it financially crippling for any agency to seriously start digging. Lets see what happens with the Puerto investigation.

Tennis - one of the last remaining sports in the BBCs sports portfolio. Again, lets see what comes out of Puerto.

Cycling - like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Cycling - like shooting fish in a barrel.

Entirely the UCI's fault. They deserve it.

There are more readers for those other sports. The media property doesn't want to chase them away.