why I didn't dope

[hiero2]

. . .
2. Sure, adding sugar to your bidon or sipping Coca-cola is giving you "a performance enhancing advantage." What is most important is that these things are done in broad daylight and they are open to discussion and debate.

BTW - Gregg - I am very glad that you have told us your story. I've said as much in other threads, but not in this one. I think it has become obvious that ppl are more willing to come forward and speak up than they were even a couple of years ago. Doesn't mean that Ashendon is wrong about omerta being alive and well - but I do note we now have a considerable number of ppl speaking more openly.

As to LL's response to what I was trying to present - I guess I didn't say it too well. However, being "done in broad daylight" is probably a good way to look at the issue. You see, what I was trying to point out was that the dividing line between doping and not doping is very thin. Sometimes it is grey, sometimes what is currently legal maybe should not be. EPO, bennies, meth - those are pretty easy to judge. When you have to pay somebody cash on a street corner - either virtual or real - that makes it pretty easy. But consider the young runner in another post in this thread, who had been using creatine for years. That's a food supplement today. Ok, so tomorrow she finds a food supplement that cleverly combines telmisarten and creatine. Still all legal today. But is she now doping? She is doing all she LEGALLY can to keep her weight down. Isn't this a bit like doing everything you can to hit the WADA limits?

Maybe not, maybe I'm just showing an anti-supplement bias. It worries me when ppl recommend supplements, in part, I suppose, because I think it encourages the basic "take a pill" attitude that I think leads many ppl to accept using synthetic testosterone or EPO-like stuff.

But, LL has a point - you don't have to hide it if you are legally obtaining telmisarten today. If they make it illegal, the story changes, eh?

 

[D-Queued]

More related to this thread than others.

Met a cop yesterday who was a pro in the late '80s.

Didn't take long to get around to 'extra gears', and how one group/some individuals always seemed to have the better program.

Anyhow, he blamed whatever they were giving him on destroying his legs and shortening his career. Quite an interesting admission from a cop that I had only just met.

Now, many years later, he is thinking about buying a bike and just riding to have fun again.

Dave.

 

[Ozzie2]

No one ever came up to me and said "Hey, you need to be on drugs, go talk to X." That is true, but to say it was outside of my realm and to compare where I was to that of a cat. 3 is just ridiculous.

Were there drugs within the walls of the team apartment I lived in, YES ... Were teammates on the pro teams I rode for ex dopers, YES ... Did I ever see the signs of doping around me, YES (direct, real evidence, the stuff I can't brush it off). I knew exactly who I could approach, knew the costs of getting EPO, what ways guys did their preparation. It's not hard to see or hear these things. I saw guys take a 14 day break from racing and come back and ride in the front group, often bumping me from the list of riders selected for particular races. I saw team mates do injections (legal? maybe, but most just said it was iron or Vit. B or said nothing). I was tested only once in my career and at the same race another rider tested positive, but he was left off on a technicality.

Just cause I wasn't in some Italian or Belgian team with a set program, doctors and directors pushing me to do drugs doesn't mean I wasn't tempted, didn't think about, give doping consideration at times.

I just got done with Tyler's book yesterday ... even for someone who was on the edge of the inside of pro cycling ... WOW ... I knew it was bad, but I guess years of telling myself it wasn't THAT bad to give myself some hope, but man, it was as bad as my imagination.

Sorry Realist, but your wrong, doping did affect my carrer ... it's a complicated story that I will delve into one of these days this winter if I find the time.

really enjoyed reading that
can i ask if you read David Millars book and what you thought of that?

 

[Ozzie2]

I didn't dope in part to talent and thanks to a freakishly high VO2max... I saw many things, was offered many things, but declined having made an informed decision not to follow a path of what I deemed self-destruction. I look back now and I really do wonder 'what if?' But, I won some good races, made a bit of cash... clean.

I would never judge friends and team-mates that chose another path... ethically and morally they have to live with themselves.

And yes, I was pro at the highest of levels.

if no one ever congratulated you it doesn't matter either

it all made you who you are i am sure, and I appreciate a world where there were people who had the strength to stand above these things

 

[esafosfina]

if no one ever congratulated you it doesn't matter either

it all made you who you are i am sure, and I appreciate a world where there were people who had the strength to stand above these things

Thanks for those comments Ozzie2.

(PS: Go the Swans!)

 

[GreggGermer]

really enjoyed reading that
can i ask if you read David Millars book and what you thought of that?

I never read Millars book, so I can't give an opinion. I didn't buy the Hamilton book, but borrowed it as I didn't want to give Hamilton any of my money. Same goes for Millars book, if I get a chance to read it I will, but I'm not buying it.

 

[Cloxxki]

I never read Millars book, so I can't give an opinion. I didn't buy the Hamilton book, but borrowed it as I didn't want to give Hamilton any of my money. Same goes for Millars book, if I get a chance to read it I will, but I'm not buying it.

Right on. Tyler probably owes you some prize money. No need to feed the mouth that stole from you. I appreciate he wrote the book to get stuff out there, have his say, but he's just among the least bad of bad cheats. Getting into Floyd territory IMO, but that doesn't compare to clean riders.
I wish you'd write a book Gregg!