wondering how many top amateurs and Euro pros will be pulling out with "the flu" this weekend

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Why do you think the euro pros are anymore susceptible to "the flu" than US pros?

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

they don't wash their hands as much?

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

I wonder if Jurgen Zack is cursing the timing of his return to Kona.

US athletes are smart enough to get TUE's.

Yeah. It really takes a clever one stop using testosterone at the beginning of a two week taper before a race.

Do they get the results back that fast?

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

I don't know for steroids, but I know with Illicit drug testing they take the sample, place in an instant test which gives a result then send to a lab for the official, admissible result. I would assume they could test for certain things instantly, but do the full panel l in a lab.

Most common HGH, Testosterone, and anabolics could show up in an in instant panel if they are in the blood stream and that is what the test is looking for. Blood doping, high doses of acceptable items would not. The panel would support use.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Doubt their hormone ratios will return to normal that quickly, which might flag their result for the further isotope test. And I'm pretty sure it would take longer than two weeks for all of it to be out of their system. Anyway, at least they are making an effort to test people!!

I am not an expert on this, but I do not think you can have instant panel for those substances. Since those are all normally present in the body, it takes a bit more work to determine if they are from the actual person or not.

Sure, but they don't test for presence, they test for a tolerance. I'm not a scientist, but I recall in rehab they would randomly test people for drugs. This is anecdotal but people would worry they would get popped on their first visit because they used something in the recent past, but they would pass. I asked the counselor and he said the test detects above certain levels to prevent false positives. Things like poppy seeds can trigger heroine false positive if the test is too rigid. Same for marijuana, ibuprofen can trigger a false positive. So they set it at levels that somebody would have to be a heavy or very recent user to trigger.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

anyone using T is microdosing

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Getting to the point to apply a tolerance is much more difficult for those substances (anabolics and HGH) than the drugs you are talking about. For the tests that you talk about, they are looking at the metabolic products of taking those drugs. The performance enhancing drugs (mostly obviously there are some with metabolic products) do not have unusual metabolic products, they are already in the body. So separating out the non-person ones from the natural ones is tricky.

Sort of. Endurance exercise hammers serum testosterone. To have a significant effect, you don't have to use loads of T like a body builder or use it every day like someone on TRT. You only need a little after key workouts during the week, so T:ET ratios are only affected for short time periods. The length of time T is detectable using CIR varies with the frequency of use. The more frequently T is used, the longer the detection window. If you have not gone overboard by using after every workout then that window is very manageable, like a week or less. For a sport like tri where athletes compete so few times a year then there is no reason not to use two weeks to be safe.

At least this what a little bird told me along with dosages.

Well I'll defer to your expertise. As I said that I know it is done with illicit drugs, but assumed it could apply. I don't know.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

There were four USADA guys waiting for me when I checked out last year. It was quite an experience. They took me to a room in the King K that from all outside appearances looked like a regular hotel room. When they opened up it was gutted out and looked like a small hospital room. After you check in they have you spin a roulette wheel to determine whether piss or blood. I drew blood. The Q&A period took a while and then they gave me two testing kits and asked me to inspect them to make sure that they have not been tampered with. Like I know what I am looking for. All tests are done by Drs. not USADA. It took >1.5 hrs and you cannot use your cell phone so my wife had no idea where I had gone. It was a real pain in the ass. The upside was the USADA folks, the girl I had was quite cool. She told me about testing Lance after the DOJ pulled its case. They knew he was dirty so they made his life hell. You see this in the LA documentary when the two testers arrive at his house within 10 minutes of each other. She also told me about setting up testing protocol in Columbia, which appears to be a complete joke. I am quite sceptical of the Colombian cyclists after hearing her description of the half assed testing that goes on down there. One thing that pissed me off was that they never sent me any documentation of the test or outcome. I specifically requested this and they told me that I would get it within 6 weeks but it never arrived. Despite the PIA factor I applaud what they are doing and am happy to submit to testing.

I'm totally naive to all this doping stuff. I often just think that people are "genetic freaks" when I'm destroyed on a course by somebody. Then again I've raced the likes of Lionel Sanders and Cody Beals for the good part of 3 years (before they stepped up fully to Pro Circuit). What are people using? I saw HGH, Testostrone and Anabolics listed but are their other common substances that are being abused? How the hell do these people get their hands on this stuff? I was under the impression that Triathlon had more integrity than this.

Shame people stoop to this level it makes me that much more motivated to show them up cleanly!

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

Got me on Wednesday.
here's what I got out of it.

My packet was discretely marked and as soon as I identified myself, they expedited me through mass registration. It seemed like a cluster because the regular volunteers were all confused why I was getting shuffled around. I just thought they didn't have their act together yet.

Once I finished registration, just before exiting, my handler informed me I had been "randomly selected" for drug testing. I managed to ask a few other volunteers that all said the process was random.

We were crammed in a shelled hotel room with 4 USADA agents and a couple nurses. There were 7 "random" athletes.
At some point, somebody ask who else was a 1st overall amateur at their KQing race.
Turns out it was the whole room.

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@christopher_borden •
Spinning Spoke • Dimond Bikes • Flo Cycling • Castelli Cycling

So I guess the moral of the story is to dope, sandbag your KQ race and finish 2nd overall and then you can take it easy

If that is the number of people that they can afford to test, then I'm happy how they did it. It -should- be the top guys being tested. If they have more money to test further down, wonderful. But start with the fastest, naturally.

Your air quotes make me believe that you feel you were singled out for a pee pee test. Just curious, were you agitated that you had to go through that process?

I'm a fan of anything they/we can do to GET the sport clean. I was actually very excited to see how the process works, far from agitated.

My use of quotes was to convey my skepticism of the randomness in the selection process.
I'm just not important enough to be singled out
Yet!

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@christopher_borden •
Spinning Spoke • Dimond Bikes • Flo Cycling • Castelli Cycling

Actually, you'd want to start with the fastest, unnaturally.

I also think that they should make public any who are found doping or using illegal substances. Also they should be banned from racing anytime soon

What about Joey Bag o' donuts? All kidding aside....this issue has me wondering if I want to persue my second IM in an attempt at Kona. Missed it by a few on my first IM ( IMMT) Despite a few screw ups ( which I would not do again). Why bust my balls training if there are so many dopers racing? Recent article shows 1 out of 7! WTF!!! If its that high in the entire race, How high is it for competitive AG'ers going for a Kona slot? Would bet its even higer. Anyway......I may do Texas...will see. Im looking for a good reason to train hard again. Question: where there any AG'ers removed from racing Kona? Does this drug policy have any teeth? Another question about testing: It is clear that these "cheaters" know when to stop whatever it is there doing as not to get caught. Random testing "anytime" needs to happen. Those caught cheeting need to be exposed for what they are.......F- ing loosers and be banned from the sport. If someone dopes though, how the hell are they going to check that? They can just say their hematocrit is high ( blood levels) because they have been training at high altitude? This whole thing pisses me off. I hope it is taken seriously and harsh punishments are implemented. Again.....has anyone here on ST seen anyone removed from competition because of this?