General Doping Thread.

[troll hunter]

Another 'Healing Hans' miracle - https://torontosun.com/sports/hocke...clusive-details-matthews-medical-trip-germany

"Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews travelled to Germany recently, apparently to visit a superstar sports medicine physician, two former National Hockey League players have confirmed to The Toronto Sun.

Matthews has been out of the Maple Leafs lineup since Nov. 3. with a mystery injury that neither he nor the team have declared. He is expected to return to the ice shortly, possibly as soon as Saturday night in Tampa against the Tampa Bay Lightning."

 

[Sciatic]

would that mean d stands for dumbo?

😆 🤩!

 

[Sciatic]

The only logical thing I can think of is they mixed up the EPO's - otherwise d is for dummies!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darbepoetin_alfa

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5405152/

FYI, that “Black Box Warning” is meant for only the cohort of patients for whom the drug was approved—kidney disease/renal failure patients. When it’s prescribed for other types of anemia that is an “off-label” use, with doping the ultimate off-label use.

 

[peterfin]

This looks interesting. In the comments the researcher says he will follow up with specifics regarding cycling V02max impact for which he has the data.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1866603279360139663

View: https://x.com/oufeh/status/1866603279360139663

 

[Rob5091]

This looks interesting. In the comments the researcher says he will follow up with specifics regarding cycling V02max impact for which he has the data.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1866603279360139663

View: https://x.com/oufeh/status/1866603279360139663

Sounds like something for "that extra boost" -
https://www.biospace.com/press-rele...ive-crises-in-people-with-sickle-cell-disease

About etavopivat
Etavopivat is an investigational, oral, small-molecule activator of erythrocyte pyruvate kinase (PKR) in development for the treatment of sickle cell disease and other hemoglobinopathies.11 Etavopivat-mediated activation of PKR lowers levels of 2,3- diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) and raises adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels in red blood cells, which has the potential to increase oxygen affinity, reduce hemolysis, and decrease VOCs.11-13

 

[Sciatic]

Sounds like something for "that extra boost" -
https://www.biospace.com/press-rele...ive-crises-in-people-with-sickle-cell-disease

Just because a blood boosting drug exists doesn’t mean it will make an effective doping mechanism. There are other erythropoiesis-modifying drugs but they may be even more detectable, have more side-effects, and cost more than EPO.
And this product pales compared the potential from marine lugworm blood

 

[Rob5091]

And this product pales compared the potential from marine lugworm blood

WADA were in touch with the lugworm blood people but even though

a "well-known cyclist whose team participates in the Tour de France, contacted me because he wanted the product".

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/racing/are-fishing-worms-the-new-way-of-doping-at-the-tour-de-france

So I suppose next year will be the first doping bust for the lugworm blood doping.

 

[pastronef]

the general "doping" chat with friends here in Italy went up a notch after the new law you can get a mouth swab for drugs while driving your car for no reason, just a simple patrol check (while before you had to behave "stoned")
ffs

 

[Sciatic]

the general "doping" chat with friends here in Italy went up a notch after the new law you can get a mouth swab for drugs while driving your car for no reason, just a simple patrol check (while before you had to behave "stoned")
ffs

Racial profiling says hi.

 

[Netserk]

Racial profiling says hi.

Maybe even sex profiling and age profiling too!

 

[Rob5091]

the general "doping" chat with friends here in Italy went up a notch after the new law you can get a mouth swab for drugs while driving your car for no reason, just a simple patrol check (while before you had to behave "stoned")
ffs

Will they also be able to DNA test the sample as that opens up another legal can of worms?

 

[pastronef]

Will they also be able to DNA test the sample as that opens up another legal can of worms?

they won't

 

[Rob5091]

The Marion Sicot bust gives us two people to wonder about their identities -
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/10...rion-sicot-six-years-after-positive-epo-test/

A friend of Sicot's similarly received a 10-month suspended sentence at the trial for importing, administering and possessing doping products. A former semi-pro cyclist, he was also fined €10,000.

The third person convicted in the court south of Paris was a 51-year-old doctor suspected of writing prescriptions illegally. He was fined a significantly larger €20,000, alongside receiving a 10-month suspended sentence and a six-month ban from practising medicine.

 

[Unchained]

The Marion Sicot bust gives us two people to wonder about their identities -
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/10...rion-sicot-six-years-after-positive-epo-test/

What a truly truly sad story. And for me there is such heartbreak for how much was at stake for the amount of risk that people took!! And I always enjoy when writers\ reporters use semi- pro cyclist in the description!! And if you want to send a message, suspension of the prescribing doctor for 6 months says we don't really care.

 

[BullsFan22]

Good to see someone like Breezy Johnson winning medals at the alpine world championships….

 

[Sciatic]

Good to see someone like Breezy Johnson winning medals at the alpine world championships….

I wouldn’t read TOO much into that clinic-wise: it was a glider’s course, and even the slightest mistake off jumps or the correct line cost speed and there weren’t truly harrowing steep sections to make it up time lost. (Johnson’s run was perfectly clean). That’s a disadvantage to someone like Goggia. In addition the early starters seemed to have an advantage (she went off 1st), and all the Americans had good skis (although Wiley just skied off course while hitting fast intermediates).

 

[BullsFan22]

I wouldn’t read TOO much into that clinic-wise: it was a glider’s course, and even the slightest mistake off jumps or the correct line cost speed and there weren’t truly harrowing steep sections to make it up time lost. (Johnson’s run was perfectly clean). That’s a disadvantage to someone like Goggia. In addition the early starters seemed to have an advantage (she went off 1st), and all the Americans had good skis (although Wiley just skied off course while hitting fast intermediates).

You’ve heard of her case, right?

 

[Sciatic]

You’ve heard of her case, right?

Yes, and I’m not saying she’s not doping, I just assume they all are. My point is that if Johnson was ever going to do well, this would be the course for it. At least in the downhill, it was really telling that Goggia and Stukec, probably the best on the circuit, finished so low in the standing despite making no really big mistakes (I watched every skier’s run).

 

[AmRacer]

Norway

 

[iBanesto]

How come Francisco Mancebo a UCI WorldTeam/ProTeam contract after 2006?

He was only 30 years of age.

Obviously Operation Puerto played a part but he was still getting strong results in 2005 and 2006. Some other riders implicated got to continue at the highest level.

Also he continues to compete till this day.

 

[Netserk]

How come Francisco Mancebo a UCI WorldTeam/ProTeam contract after 2006?

He was only 30 years of age.

Obviously Operation Puerto played a part but he was still getting strong results in 2005 and 2006. Some other riders implicated got to continue at the highest level.

Also he continues to compete till this day.

They couldn't ban him, so he got black-listed instead.

 

[Unchained]

How come Francisco Mancebo a UCI WorldTeam/ProTeam contract after 2006?

He was only 30 years of age.

Obviously Operation Puerto played a part but he was still getting strong results in 2005 and 2006. Some other riders implicated got to continue at the highest level.

Also he continues to compete till this day.

Thanks for the post. What category does he race in? Don't know how masters works in Spain and Italy.
Once you relinquish your pro status some federations make you sit out for a year. In US you don't have to sit out so if you had a pro license in 2006 you can race as an amateur as soon as you want!! We have some ex pro racers who are decent masters racing at 50-65 years old!!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Thanks for the post. What category does he race in? Don't know how masters works in Spain and Italy.
Once you relinquish your pro status some federations make you sit out for a year. In US you don't have to sit out so if you had a pro license in 2006 you can race as an amateur as soon as you want!! We have some ex pro racers who are decent masters racing at 50-65 years old!!

He still races as a Continental Pro, over in Japan. Much like how Davide Rebellin and Óscar Sevilla keep on racing and can't let go.

A lot of the Puerto exiles that didn't get banned or go into retirement (likely being volun-told to go away quietly) would be persona non grata from big races and would find their way to other scenes. A few, at least those who hadn't been too obviously embroiled, would ride out an exile and make it back to the top tier after a while (take someone like Rubén Plaza or Ángel Vicioso as an example), and for a while the main area for them was Portugal, with the Volta being a haven of the Puerto exiles thanks to the Portuguese domestic teams at the time paying pretty good salaries compared to the neighbouring scenes, before a combination of the financial crisis and the successive large scale busts of LA-MSS and Liberty Seguros Continental and the withdrawal of Benfica saw the bottom fall out of the scene. People like David Blanco, David Bernabéu, Constantino Zaballa, Eladio Jiménez, José Pecharromán and Isidro Nozal, as well as other previous offenders like Santi Pérez, would congregate there.

In 2007 while Operación Puerto was still ongoing, some of the Spanish ProConti teams took advantage of these guys arriving on the market for cheap because of being too toxic in the circumstances, similar to what Savio used to do with Androni and its predecessors at the time. Nozal and Jiménez went to Karpin, and Relax-GAM had Sevilla, Mancebo, Vicioso and Santi Pérez. Bernabéu was at Fuerteventura-Canarias, a team formed out of the ashes of the fallen Comunidad Valenciana (formerly Kelme) team. However with the financial crisis impending and many of these riders being unwelcome at big races, both Relax and Fuerteventura ceased operations after 2007. By and large, these guys moved on into Portugal seeing as they could more or less ride the same calendar that way, but Sevilla (in 2008) and Mancebo (in 2009 after a year in Portugal) chose to go to the US and ride for Michael Ball's short-lived Rock Racing enterprise, a team which was focused primarily around presenting a "bad boy" image and celebrating former dopers like Tyler Hamilton and Kayle Leogrande, and also taking on guys from peak EPO era like Victor Hugo Peña and Santiago Botero as well as coaxing a way-past-his-prime Mario Cipollini out of retirement. It seems like this was what made them more blackballed than ever before, being part of a team that actively celebrated the presence of doping in the sport. However, while Sevilla married his Colombian wife and moved down there and remains there happily to this day, Paco travelled around a bit as a mercenary on a "have race licence will travel" basis, competing for random Greek, Emirati, US-American and Dominican teams, as well as in non-UCI races in club teams, through his mid- and late 30s before settling in Japan where he's been racing since 2019.

 

[Unchained]

He still races as a Continental Pro, over in Japan. Much like how Davide Rebellin and Óscar Sevilla keep on racing and can't let go.

A lot of the Puerto exiles that didn't get banned or go into retirement (likely being volun-told to go away quietly) would be persona non grata from big races and would find their way to other scenes. A few, at least those who hadn't been too obviously embroiled, would ride out an exile and make it back to the top tier after a while (take someone like Rubén Plaza or Ángel Vicioso as an example), and for a while the main area for them was Portugal, with the Volta being a haven of the Puerto exiles thanks to the Portuguese domestic teams at the time paying pretty good salaries compared to the neighbouring scenes, before a combination of the financial crisis and the successive large scale busts of LA-MSS and Liberty Seguros Continental and the withdrawal of Benfica saw the bottom fall out of the scene. People like David Blanco, David Bernabéu, Constantino Zaballa, Eladio Jiménez, José Pecharromán and Isidro Nozal, as well as other previous offenders like Santi Pérez, would congregate there.

In 2007 while Operación Puerto was still ongoing, some of the Spanish ProConti teams took advantage of these guys arriving on the market for cheap because of being too toxic in the circumstances, similar to what Savio used to do with Androni and its predecessors at the time. Nozal and Jiménez went to Karpin, and Relax-GAM had Sevilla, Mancebo, Vicioso and Santi Pérez. Bernabéu was at Fuerteventura-Canarias, a team formed out of the ashes of the fallen Comunidad Valenciana (formerly Kelme) team. However with the financial crisis impending and many of these riders being unwelcome at big races, both Relax and Fuerteventura ceased operations after 2007. By and large, these guys moved on into Portugal seeing as they could more or less ride the same calendar that way, but Sevilla (in 2008) and Mancebo (in 2009 after a year in Portugal) chose to go to the US and ride for Michael Ball's short-lived Rock Racing enterprise, a team which was focused primarily around presenting a "bad boy" image and celebrating former dopers like Tyler Hamilton and Kayle Leogrande, and also taking on guys from peak EPO era like Victor Hugo Peña and Santiago Botero as well as coaxing a way-past-his-prime Mario Cipollini out of retirement. It seems like this was what made them more blackballed than ever before, being part of a team that actively celebrated the presence of doping in the sport. However, while Sevilla married his Colombian wife and moved down there and remains there happily to this day, Paco travelled around a bit as a mercenary on a "have race licence will travel" basis, competing for random Greek, Emirati, US-American and Dominican teams, as well as in non-UCI races in club teams, through his mid- and late 30s before settling in Japan where he's been racing since 2019.

I made a really silly assumption that he would give up..30s for sure late 30s!! Man was I wrong....on March 9th he celebrated his 49th birthday!!
All the guys I know went to work as reps for bike companies or abandoned athletic life all together!!
Horner held on until he couldn't..Alexi Grewal tried at 50 years old after doing well in some rides and races..fizzled fast

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yea, there's very few guys in their age group still around, at least that aren't the kind of riders registered solely to get around licensing requirements (see the 50-year-old Guam natives signed for EuroCyclingTrips for example) or riders who are essentially hobbyists whose club teams have paid for a Continental license to do a race or two that have UCI categorisation local to them, or sometimes there will be an older ex-pro in South America who will ride a couple of noteworthy races a season, like the Vuelta al Táchira or something, because most of the best peak age talent from those countries has made it to the World Tour scene. José Rujano, for example, is still knocking about at 43, though he periodically retires and returns and hasn't been consistently active like Paco has, John Nava is still going annually aged 46 and Manuel Medina did his last edition of the race at that same age in 2023.

Médéric Clain showed up in the Tour du Cameroun and Tour de Réunion last year, he's the same age as Paco, but that was after six years of inactivity and having not raced at the pro level since 2004. Konstantin Fast was racing in South East Asia until the end of 2023 when he was 47, but he didn't race regularly at any kind of level until he was already 39, 16 years after his first tilt at the national championships. 49-year-old Dario Gadeo is a curio - his pro career was over after 3 years with Paternina in the early 2000s, then he resurfaced a decade later in Colombia to do the Vuelta in the early 2010s, almost a decade after his retirement... then a decade after that he returned again as a gravel racer and entered the national championships on the road too. Likewise 46-year-old Derek Wong of Hong Kong resurfaced on the Chinese domestic scene last season after 17 years of inactivity. Muradjan Khalmatov is quietly plugging away after 20 years on the Asia Tour scene at 42, as is Nariyuki Masuda, Naoki Mukaigawa, and Yauheni Sobal has been over in China for a while, and turns 44 next month. Plus there's still the occasional remaining Iranian motorbike from the glory days of Pishgaman Yazd and Tabriz Petrochemical Team - Mehdi Sohrabi is still knocking around at 43.

Perhaps most comparable to Paco would be Carlos Oyarzún, the Chilean who surprised us all with a highly competitive time at the 2010 Worlds ITT and got signed by Movistar. After not being retained, he bounced around Portugal and those small Spanish teams of the time that take registration elsewhere but mostly race the domestic calendar in Spain and Portugal before testing positive, since when he has continued to plug away in Portugal to the present day, he will be 44 later this season. However, Paco's resolve to continue competing over in the insular Japanese scene may be buoyed by there being a small community of older Spanish riders who largely went over there after the financial crisis pulled the rug out from under several smaller teams there, and have made a good living and a decent community for themselves. Benjamí Prades is still racing there at 41 having moved there in 2014, José Toribio is still there as well at 39 having arrived in 2013, while Marcos García was there for seven years from 2016-22, Salvador Guardiola from 2014-21, Airan Fernández from 2014-21 as well.