When I look at cycling today, I get the impression that history is repeating itself: riders who are supposed to be rouleurs are climbing passes at the front of the race, and those who are supposed to be climbers are riding time trials at more than 50 kilometres per hour.
But what strikes me more than anything is the morphology of the riders. To win the Tour, it now seems you have to be very slender and have little muscle. These riders don?t look like they could do anything on a bike, but they produce the same power as those in previous generations. All notions about the power to- weight ratio seem to have been overturned.
As I mentioned above, my current position as regional anti-doping representative, with responsibility for implementing anti-doping controls on behalf of the AFLD, enables me to keep abreast of the latest news about substances that can be used by athletes for doping purposes.
Currently, questions are being asked about the extent to which products such as AICAR, GW501516, TP500 and GAS6 are being used. Some of them have already been found during searches of vehicles and have been used by some athletes, doctors and soigneurs. These substances provide an equivalent effect to EPO, because they improve the performance of the athlete by boosting the transport and utilisation of oxygen by the body. Their effect is very well known. The combination of AICAR and TP500, for example, increases the number of mitochondria in the muscles. These cells are in a way little energy plants, which transform substrates (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins) into energy through the use of oxygen. These two products also bring about an increase in lipolysis (the breakdown of ?fat? to provide energy). They maintain lipolysis during intense efforts.
To be more specific, when an athlete is riding at 80 per cent of his maximum, in principle he stops burning fat and only burns carbohydrate. By using these products, he can continue to burn fat as well as carbohydrate, even at 95 per cent of his maximum. This additional power, which stems from the use of fat reserves, offers a huge advantage. It is absolutely impossible to achieve naturally.
Meanwhile the public can see another effect of the products in the physical transformation of competitors into athletes who don?t seem very muscular and are very lean. They have a very low fat percentage because they are able to burn all their fats, including those in muscle fibres, and benefit from an increase in energy.
With regard to growth factor GAS6, this allows the secretion of endogenous EPO. It is completely undetectable.
Meanwhile, directeurs sportifs attempt to put forward rational explanations for the performances of their riders as if chanting a mantra. They talk about intense training, reconnaissance of mountain passes in the rain and the fog, about improvements in equipment ? These arguments have been heard a thousand times before. The story is beginning again, just as it did 14 years ago with Lance Armstrong and his US Postal team, just as it did with the Festina team.