Phillippe Gaumont - Heart Attack

[Alex Simmons/RST]

I never remember where I read things but wasn't there a study of old pros to see how long they lived as compared to the general population of the same generation. The findings indicted that ex pros lived 4 to 8 years longer. I just recall the article was addressing the Myth that racing Le Tour shortens your life.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21618162

 

[stainlessguy1]

You are right, of course, because the riders don´t take EPO, GH and testo to stay healthy. They take it to ride faster and to win races.

From a health point of view, I´m convinced, it would be like this in world class pro cycling:

1st healthiest:
Taking small doses of hormones, controlled, just to reach natural levels, which got lost via training and racing hard and constantly.

2nd healthiest:
Taking no hormones.

3rd, so unhealthiest:
Taking much hormones, also higher doses, limited only by the fear of being positive in an anti-doping control.

4th , totally unhealthy :
Doing recreational drugs during your time off or continuously after retirement and expecting your body to survive or even race again after the recovery time has been botched up .

 

[stainlessguy1]

Original post by master 50
I never remember where I read things but wasn't there a study of old pros to see how long they lived as compared to the general population of the same generation. The findings indicted that ex pros lived 4 to 8 years longer. I just recall the article was addressing the Myth that racing Le Tour shortens your life.
Yesterday 09:38

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21618162

The time period that study was done, is so far removed from what happens today, I don't think that qualifies anymore for what we are talking about in the article .
First , cycling was a means of transportation to all . Pro racing was in its infancy and not well paid. People died more from other causes like smoking and lack of personal protective equipment from working in factories than any kind of new age disease we have studied in todays time.
I think people that road tours way back then were just plain stronger to begin with.
So another way of putting that study : 1930 to 1964

I stoker lived longer than a soldier
A welder lived longer than a stoker
A machinist lived longer than a welder
A Farmer lived longer than all of them since they had the most to eat on a regular basis .
All bets are off if the above became a soldier .

Most road bikes to work as major transportation or walked , horses were still used to bring beer to pubs and coal to city apartments and Ice to Ice boxes .
And smoking a cigarette before a major climb was considered good because it was thought it helped you breath better.

A good saying for racing cyclist was : A racer smokes one cigarette less and drinks one beer more .

I think racing during that time of life was still better health wise because it allowed the body heal through fresh air instead of working in the factories for long long hours . Most returned to factories after retirement or back to the farm . Analyse that .
Remember guys , we actually had industry jobs , not everything was made in China like today .

Anyway , enough of this .

Exercise is good , participation is good . But pro sports or extreme sports can have the adverse affect. Period .

 

[Alex Simmons/RST]

It's a little difficult to draw any conclusion on the life expectancy of current/recent (mega dope) generations, since, well, most of them are still alive.

 

[thirteen]

back to the topic... does anybody have an update?

 

[stainlessguy1]

back to the topic... does anybody have an update?

Good point , How is he doing?

 

[L'arriviste]

Good point , How is he doing?

Friday afternoon was the last I read anything new on him. He is in hospital in Arras and his condition remains the same.

His wife Elise said he had been upset about going before the Senate hearings. It felt, she said, like 2004 again, when they had just started to forget about all that. Philippe was very busy with the brasserie but this hearing was on his mind.

The incident was unexpected although Gaumont did need to take a rest during the afternoon before his heart attack.

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/sports/pas-d-evolution-pour-philippe-gaumont-ia228b0n1203460

 

[thirteen]

thank you, L'arriviste, so sad

the Senate hearings were probably even more stressful to him than he let on... let's hope the fact that he is still alive means he has the strength to recover.

 

[stainlessguy1]

stress

thanks for the update :

stupid stress and the burdens that society puts on us , long after the fact.
I know what stress can do to a person.
Wishing Phillippe the best of luck, and speedy recovery .

 

[Le breton]

Great post, ....

It would have been better if Fabrice Salanson had not been included.
He died in his sleep, true, but of an undetected heart condition unrelated to doping.

Unfortunately it looks like he could have added a very nice guy : Casado.

(and halupzcok? , spelling?)

 

[Briant_Gumble]

It would have been better if Fabrice Salanson had not been included.
He died in his sleep, true, but of an undetected heart condition unrelated to doping.

Unfortunately it looks like he could have added a very nice guy : Casado.

(and halupzcok? , spelling?)

What heart condition was it?

There's a huge list of dopers who have heart conditions that are coincidentally hereditary.

 

[RHRH19861986]

I have heard there were thousands of people, yesterday, who suffered a heart attack. And guess what: they all never doped!! How is that possible?

Till now, I thought there were two groups of people:

A) Cyclists, who all dope and die
B) Non-cyclists, who all don´t dope and live forever.

I have to rethink my attitude towards life.

 

[Hugh Januss]

I have heard there were thousands of people, yesterday, who suffered a heart attack. And guess what: they all never doped!! How is that possible?

Till now, I thought there were two groups of people:

A) Cyclists, who all dope and die
B) Non-cyclists, who all don´t dope and live forever.

I have to rethink my attitude towards life.

I am not sure which is more simple, you or the conclusion you have arrived at here.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

It would have been better if Fabrice Salanson had not been included.
He died in his sleep, true, but of an undetected heart condition unrelated to doping.

Unfortunately it looks like he could have added a very nice guy : Casado.

(and halupzcok? , spelling?)

Steve Vermaut
Geert DeVlaeminck
Friederik Nolf
Arjan de Ridder, very promising Dutch amateur, 1989.
Reinier Valkenburg, 1987
Patrick Coone, 1992

And many many more. Not related to doping, I want to make that clear.

 

[thirteen]

um, once again, back to Philippe Gaumont... any updates?

 

[Le breton]

What heart condition was it?

Can't answer that but an article in 2004 in THE GUARDIAN talks about that subject. Here is the relevant paragraph concerning Salanson. The article mentions people like Zanette, etc.
A prosecutor in the Vendée is investigating the death in June of the young professional cyclist Fabrice Salanson, found dead in his hotel on the morning of the start of the Tour of Germany in June. Salanson also died of a heart attack but the prosecutor and his family are paying particular attention to performance tests carried out a few weeks before his death, which appeared to show cardiac abnormalities.

In 2011 Salanson' family won the case and was awarded 100 000 euros.
http://www.leparisien.fr/sports/la-famille-de-fabrice-salanson-indemnisee-16-02-2011-1317598.php

 

[L'arriviste]

um, once again, back to Philippe Gaumont... any updates?

Most recent update from Wednesday was that he was still in a coma. Doctors have tried several times to bring him out of it, but so far without success.

 

[thirteen]

Most recent update from Wednesday was that he was still in a coma. Doctors have tried several times to bring him out of it, but so far without success.

thank you

 

[Cycle Chic]

book

Is there an English edition of his book Prisonnier du Dopage ?

 

[L'arriviste]

Is there an English edition of his book Prisonnier du Dopage ?

No. The publisher Grasset never did a deal to translate it.

 

[RHRH19861986]

Any news on him?

That´s no good sign at all. Hope he won´t be the next Gerd Audehm, who was a Telekom rider in the 90ies, fell to coma and is in coma until today.

Tough sh*t.

Nevertheless, or even more so, hats off to Gaumont, for his career, and for the person he is in general.

There is no life without risk, that´s all one can say. He seems to have taken many risks, like many before him, and many after him.

 

[L'arriviste]

Any news on him?

That´s no good sign at all. Hope he won´t be the next Gerd Audehm, who was a Telekom rider in the 90ies, fell to coma and is in coma until today.

Tough sh*t.

Nevertheless, or even more so, hats off to Gaumont, for his career, and for the person he is in general.

There is no life without risk, that´s all one can say. He seems to have taken many risks, like many before him, and many after him.

Nothing new to report at the moment.

 

[Roderick]

Apparently, he died today.

40 years, such a shame

 

[thehog]

Apparently, he died today.

40 years, such a shame

Yes on the French news as we speak.

 

[frenchfry]

This is indeed sad news.

Philippe Gaumont was a real presence in French cycling for many years. Condolences to his family and friends.

What is really sad is that this thread is in the clinic. Not saying that it shouldn't be here, just that I have trouble with the fact that so much cycling related news is doping related.