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A KID tests positive for EPO!!
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From cyclingnews.com :

"A 16 year-old South African cyclist has tested positive for EPO, becoming the youngest rider ever to test positive for the banned blood boosting substance. The rider in question was Michael van Staden (ACIZ CPPA), who was tested during the South African U16 tour in Ermelo in September 2004, where he finished fifth. Both his A and B samples were positive.

Van Staden's case was heard last December by the national governing body, Cycling South Africa, which banned him for a year. However, his sentence was suspended for two years as CSA accepted Van Staden's defence that he did not take EPO intentionally. Rather, he believed that a doctor or a team manager could have injected him with the substance without him knowing what it was.

There is a possibility that the World Anti-Doping Agency and the UCI will appeal CSA's decision in order to determine who was actually responsible. "
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [MojojojoMasterG] [ In reply to ]
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After posting this I thought that I shouldn't be too shocked because kids in high school are bulking up on steroids now-a-days... still sad though.
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [MojojojoMasterG] [ In reply to ]
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I'm no doc, but I heard that EPO reduces activity in your bone marrow to produce Red Blood Cells, and they have seen cyclists in their mid 20's with brittle bones like old women who have osteoperosis (sp ?). This is bad news for 16 year olds who are still growing. Docs on slowtwitch, please explain the dynamics.

Rumour has it that when Pantani crashed years ago at Milano-Torino and broke his tibia, his bones had this type or characteristic :-(
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [devashish paul] [ In reply to ]
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I heard that EPO reduces activity in your bone marrow to produce Red Blood Cells

Just the opposite



they have seen cyclists in their mid 20's with brittle bones like old women who have osteoperosis

I don't think that's from EPO

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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [MojojojoMasterG] [ In reply to ]
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Aside from the age, this case raises another issue. Are you derserving of punishment even if you didn't know that you'd been doped. Let's say there is proof that Michael didn't know he was being "enhanced". In that case, ought he still to receive a ban? I'd say yes, he shouldn't let just any schmuck stick anything in him, but that there's a good argument for it to be less than the full 2 years. Maybe in such cases a 2nd conviction shouldn't carry the life ban?
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [MojojojoMasterG] [ In reply to ]
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Doesn't really surprise me...

In the mid 80s (my teens) in St. Louis, I had friends who were blood doping....they just follow whatever the US team was doing at the time. (I track raced as a kid...along with BMX).
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [jhc] [ In reply to ]
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"Just the opposite"

i don't know. i wonder about this. if you're basically telling your body it doesn't need to make it's own EPO, because you're injecting plenty of if artificially, then is it logical that at some point the body might decide that whatever hormone controls the generation of EPO can be surpressed? If you phuck with your blood sugar enough your body decides it doesn't need to make insulin, and bam, you're a diabetic. likewise cortisol levels. i don't know that what dev posts is necessarily off the wall (but i might stipulate that dev himself is off the wall).

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [devashish paul] [ In reply to ]
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EPO doesn't effect bone formation. It is used to enhance the oxygen carrying capacity of haemoglobin in blood. The real concern is that this essentially makes the blood "thicker" and therefore harder to transport around the body (hence heart rate can drop to unsustainable levels and hence why not too long ago a lot of pro cyclists were being told to sleep with hear rate monitors where the alarm went off if the HR dropped below a certain level).
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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In Reply To:
i don't know. i wonder about this. if you're basically telling your body it doesn't need to make it's own EPO, because you're injecting plenty of if artificially, then is it logical that at some point the body might decide that whatever hormone controls the generation of EPO can be surpressed? If you phuck with your blood sugar enough your body decides it doesn't need to make insulin, and bam, you're a diabetic. likewise cortisol levels. i don't know that what dev posts is necessarily off the wall (but i might stipulate that dev himself is off the wall).


I'm not sure if you'd be likely to mess with your endogenous EPO->RBC loop in the same way, because although the body can tolerate really high sugar levels (in the short term) you generally don't want to take a ton of EPO due to the dangers of increased blood viscosity. Would the levels that dopers use be susficient to either permanatly inhibit EPO production or (more probable IMO) decrease the sensitivity of RBS precursors to EPO? I'm not really sure - it's an interesting thought.



But yeah, EPO doesnt effect bone growth or remodeling.

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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [MojojojoMasterG] [ In reply to ]
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The sad part of this is that it's not likely that a 16 yr old would know what EPO does or even if he's actually taking it. It's the coach and the rogue MD supplying the stuff that are really to blame.

There was a good documentary not long ago about former soviet bloc East German female gymnasts who were put on "supplements" by their coaches when in their early teens and the health problems they are now having today as adults.
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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I thought EPO was injected. Hard to know that you aren't getting it.
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [ajfranke] [ In reply to ]
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"Hard to know that you aren't getting it."

Art, we're about the same age, so remember when we were 16. At that age my buddies and I were smoking cigarettes behind the school yard and stealing some of our dad's beers. Do you think any 16 yr old kid has an true understanding of any of this. If you were 16 and had big dreams and a coach you trusted and believed in told you that injected "supplements" would make him a winner, what would you have done at that age. I doubt if this kid got this stuff on his own. It's not likely that the kid understands the implications of EPO or even realizes what it is. Or if he does, he's a lot more mature and knowledgeable than I was at that age.
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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That is you, you were not likely aiming to become a full time pro cyclist and make huge bucks and worldwide recognition.

I imagine this kid, if it is true, knew full well what he was doing and probably openly participated knowing it was illegal. The allure of fame and money in a country like Sth Africa is huge and often far to tempting.

There are 16 y/o kids writing computer viruses that adults stumble to stop.
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [jhc] [ In reply to ]
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please guys...

affect...not effect...one more for the recent spelling thread :-)
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [tri-espana] [ In reply to ]
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T-E,

You could be very well be right. I was 16 in 1967 and the world was a much different place then. It's possible that the kid knows that what he is doing is illegal, but not necessarily so. Who knows? But I'm sure at that age he doesn't realize the possible side effects on his future health. And even if he's been told about them, we're all indestructable at 16 weren't we?

BTW, how's the scuba going? Are you recovering OK?
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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Yeah probably right about effects etc more looking at the results short term and winning.

Still in Spain, well actually Gibraltar today but sailing shortly. Start of the season is next week so last weekend of nice riding in Andalucia and then fly outta Madrid next week.

cheers
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [tri-espana] [ In reply to ]
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My parents are soon leaving for Spain to escape the the Canadian winter for three months. They're 80 yrs old. For the last 12 years they've wintered in Florida since retirement, but once you turn 80 the out of country health care premiums to go to Florida sky rocket. And the area they always went to was hit hard by the hurricane. The condo they always rented was partially destroyed so now the price has gone way up to cover the repair costs. Apparently it's cheaper for them to go to Spain now. They're looking forward to it. Ironically, my brother will be in Spain on business for six weeks (2 X3) this winter. He was there last year for 6 weeks and really enjoyed it.

Wish I could be so lucky!
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Same thing happens with people who use steroids. With all the extra testosterone coming into the body from outside sources, the user's nads will stop producing testosterone naturally and shrink up. That's why shrinking testicles is a symtom of 'roid use. Or at least that's what I heard during my pre-triathlon years in the weight room. I never used the stuff myself. I figured if steroids did in fact make your nuts shrivel up, they weren't anything I wanted to mess with.

RP
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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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In Reply To:
please guys...

affect...not effect...one more for the recent spelling thread :-)


My 10th grade English teacher would kill me!

Not to mention the shame of having your grammar corrected by...

a...

Frenchman!

The horror...

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Re: A KID tests positive for EPO!! [BigBloke] [ In reply to ]
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In Reply To:
Aside from the age, this case raises another issue. Are you derserving of punishment even if you didn't know that you'd been doped. Let's say there is proof that Michael didn't know he was being "enhanced". In that case, ought he still to receive a ban? I'd say yes, he shouldn't let just any schmuck stick anything in him, but that there's a good argument for it to be less than the full 2 years. Maybe in such cases a 2nd conviction shouldn't carry the life ban?


Well, he's a kid, so it is interesting to see who is responsible. I'd say ban him for a year, charge his parents, coach and doctor with child endangerment and see where it sticks.


Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
OPEN cycle
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