sure this happen daily...! I know a german age group winner of one IM race in 2003 was canceled for 2 years in last October (short before IM Hawaii) because of a positive drug test in summer. Unfortunately normally nobody controls the age groupers. But I know there are a lot of doped sportsmen and women to catch their Hawaii spot or their step into a higher range at short distance races.
Especially the WTC is not really interested in drug tests.

But this is the same in cycling sports at the age group field. Especially some masters are taking more drugs than all people who join every techno disco we have in the 50mile around L.A.

All you have to know is that the average "age group" triathlete or masters cyclist makes 5-10 times what the average pro makes. Just check out the bikes some of these guys are riding. If someone has the income and desire to win, do you think any method is out of reach? There are some top masters cyclists right here in Socal who are physicians. I am not saying they are doping but if they wanted to how hard would it be to write themself a prescription or have a colleague write it?

good point, however because I know nothing about doping except that a high red blood cell count is a good thing, I wonder how long does, say EPO for example, stay in your body?

why is EPO bad, are there side effects to using it? I wonder what drugs are popular in the amateur ranks and how much can they effect performance.

OT: Paul, missed you at the San Diego Intl Tri last weekend! Course was crowded and I lost about a minute weaving through 800 riders on the course, but it sure was fun.

I used to bike race in NYC, and people talked openly about doping. I thought it was nuts to be doing it at the amateur level. I think it sucks that it's at the pro level, but when racing against Cat IV or Cat III riders, I mean give me a break. I was even offered a pack of "B-Vitamin" syringes that were flown up from Costa Rica" which were guaranteed to improve my recovery time, and make me feel like a "rock star."

Scary stuff...

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"You're guaranteed to miss 100% of the shots you never take." - Wayne Gretzky

Sorry I missed the race. Having been sick for a couple weeks I am trying to get in shape for Lake Placid and needed some long miles rather than an hour and a half hammer session. Keith and I rode 5 and 1/2 hours sunday morning instead.

The short one is, "...heck yeah." There is so much dope available these days. You can buy just about any sort of enhancer you want provided you have the coin and the connection. Sad, but there are those who have both and see no danger behind their plan.

As for testing...just ask when's the last time you heard of USAT mandated post race testing being administered?

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Train hard...race well.
www.jimmishler.com
"Jim, I happen to agree with you" DougStern

Is there a preferred cocktail for speed?

No idea about any of this doping stuff, but if it was not harmful, and the USAT or USAC did not test for it, and the athlete could afford it, then there are probably many out there that use "it". Whatever that is.

Any pharmacists and/or doctors in the house?

Gary,

I believe the guy on Cyclingnews.com who reviewed the rotor cranks admitted that he had been part of an EPO study. He said he had never reached the performance levels he achieved(while on EPO) again. Sounds pretty convincing evidence that the stuff works. The flip side is that the seems to be an unaturally high incident of pro cyclists dying of heart failures? I guess it depends how bad you want to be fast. I cant imagine any amateur taking that risk but I know there are plenty who do.

You have the choice to ingest, inject, or annoint as you see fit, or can afford or obtain. But then are you becoming more fit, or just re-sizing to fit in a different size box when all is said and done?

As with most things, at least in the good ole US OF A...it is your choice.

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Train hard...race well.
www.jimmishler.com
"Jim, I happen to agree with you" DougStern

some, if taken responsibly, can be safe yet are banned by USADA:

(note I am not a MD, so this is my opinion)

ephedrine, was legal last year and can help with weight loss

HGH, this seems like a good thing in my opinion but isnt it costly? Dont non athletes take it to look and feel younger

Insulin, so diabetics can't race? Not that athletes should take this

So other than these, the rest of the banned list is pretty straightforward in my opinion

Here's an awesome article on doping, with regards to cycling in specific. Methods, results, etc.

http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200311/200311_drug_test_1.html

Sean

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http://www.qtfimi.org

http://www.bugmenot.com/index.php

Reg required for the oustide article. Use above site to avoid.

Sean

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http://www.qtfimi.org

Raising your hematocrit can thicken your blood. Combine that with dehydration from racing, and you can die (think "sludge"). There were a number of young Belgian riders who died in the 90s, probably from misuse of EPO. In addition, taking EPO can inhibit your body's natural EPO production, so when you stop taking EPO, you become anemic. Supposedly happened to Pantani.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Thanks for posting the reference to the Outside article. Every time this discussion comes up I keep trying to remember where I read this article. I think it gives some real perspective into what it is like to take performance enhancing drugs.

As an older triathlete (56 in Aug.) I can see how tempting it is to take some of these and other substances. I don't do it because for every "benefit" there is always a cost/risk in terms of short or long term health. The drugs (hormones, pro-hormones) that make your muscles grow also to increase long-term risk of cancer.

Richard

The really sad thing is the amount of enhancement drugs found at the high school level in any sport. Unfortunately they are still feeling bullet proof and don't think anything can hurt them.
Jay

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Jay

Anyone seen the new issue of Scientific American? July issue has a good ariticle on gene doping. purrrdy int-e-resting....

I've heard several stories of mastser/agegroupers using banned substances. Kinda sad but funny story... a few years ago on a group ride in the southeast some guys got into a fight on a group ride... while riding... two or three got hauled to the jail... One guy just happened to have $1500+ cash on him which he used for the bail... supposedly that cash was intended for a transaction to procur some 'supplements.' How many people you know carry $1500 cash when riding?

I'm not entirely sure what everyone is using for their definition of "legal". Their is legal in the sense of breaking actual laws. these vary by country, but in the US HGH, insulin and other drugs are illegal to possess and use without a Docters perscription. If by illegal you mean you have a docters perscription, but your taking insulin to improve performance not to controll diabetes, then you can't be arrested but you are cheating and can be banned from the sport (cycling or tri). In some European countries if a legal drug is banned by a federation and you use it anyway you can be prosecuted. They consider it to be fraud.

when I raced in France, I have SEEN the following used by AG triathletes (many assumed that because I was riding in cat 1, I was probably on something and they could talk about it...bummer for them...)

-ephedrine
-amphetamines (forgot the exact names though)
-eprex (epo)
-testosterone

AG are far less careful at hiding their "stuff"...I actually went to a race where a guy had a cooler, he opened it when I was walking by and I saw a flat box writeen rEPO RU4000 on it...and the dude sure didn't seem to be on dialysis or be following a cancer treatment. I have seen guys poping up amphetamines and ephedrine during races and admitting it and then showing off "there are no controls anyway"...

bad...bad...bad...

thanks, great article!

answered all my questions

ephedra is still legal in the US, so why is it banned by USADA?

Ephedra is illegal to sell in the US after sometime in April (the 15th or 18th something like that).

Since I work with many of the longevity clinics in Southern California I guess I have somewhat of an “inside track” as to what is used by cyclists in this area. From what most of the physicians tell me, doping for anything under professional level competition (very high amateur, Olympics, pro) is somewhat useless. Maybe useless is too strong a word, but what they mean is that unless you can dedicate yourself to putting in the required hours to training the drugs (and many supplements) are less than effective. In other words the specific cycling drugs like EPO, usually address certain issues that arise as a result of heavy training and racing. Most these issues just don’t exist with the lower workloads in amateur racing.

For example, say you are a cyclist racing Cat 3. Most of your crit races are an hour or so, while road races are maybe 3 hours. There’s really no need for EPO here. Unless you have a medical condition, recovering from 3 hours a day of training is not too difficult. Or put another way, it’s easier to figure out other ways to recover from 3 hours of work, than dealing with the drug sides/risk and marginal benefits of EPO. You use EPO to string together many days of 100-150 miles of hard riding, like what you would find in a professional European race. When does the average working Joe have the time to string together multiple days and months of 6 hours a day training?

Most of what people use in the lower age groups are some sort of AAS. Steroids are usually easier to administer (usually no needles) and give results without large training loads (anabolic). But most cyclists don’t like the associated weight gain that you get using the products. Also most physicians tell me the less than completely dedicated athlete usually completely screws up the drug protocols and therefore again the drugs can be less than completely effective.

So really you can use HGH and EPO. But will they really change your results as an age grouper? Maybe, but also maybe not. Doping with insulin can kill you, and since most athletes completely screw up the protocols, physicians are very reluctant to put you on that protocol. So you are left with AAS, and maybe HGH. Well AAS have their own set of sides dealing with male plumbing (shrunken testicles etc), and since we aren’t looking to build mass per se they are somewhat limited. Now if you were a body builder, then it would be a different story.

Maybe what I am saying is the drugs will no doubt work. But if you take the time to learn the physiology you can get the same or better results as if you didn’t do the work and took drugs. Now at a higher level, when everyone has learned the physiology and can dedicate fully to the training, the drugs work. Although even then, drug use tends to create less consistency, so you could even say depending on the day, the drugs work. It’s definitely more complicated than just taking a pill and kicking everyone’s ass.