The World Anti-Doping Agency has announced its 2005 Prohibited List, the master schedule of performance-enhancing substances and methods that are banned in sport. Unlike last year, when the removal of caffeine and pseudoephedrine from the list caused some raised eyebrows in the cycling community, this year’s edition sees few major changes.
The only change likely to affect cyclists is that a Therapeutic Use Exemption is no longer required for dermatalogical application of glucocorticosteroids. These preparations are commonly used to treat skin irritations and insect bites.
One intriguing change is that several federations have requested that alcohol be removed from the list of prohibited substances specific to their sports, including gymnastics and triathlon. The reason is presumably that an athlete could return a positive result for alcohol after consuming a small amount in food or absorbed through the skin from a massage product, but it does conjure up worrying images of gymnastic waifs (most of whom aren’t old enough to drink anyway!) falling off the balance beam and hordes of triathletes wobbling out of transition.
Of course, at Cyclingnews we’d never stoop so low as to make snarky comments about the ability of your average triathlete to ride a bike while sober…
the sport is about to suffer a major decline in my circle of friends if any alcohol ban is enforced. This just isn’t funny…no, seriously!
It is funny how many roadies think us trigeeks are poor bike handlers when I see no difference in rides I do with roadies or trigeeks. Why can’t we all just get along and try and learn from each other so we can all improve and become the best we can be?
particularly since your average affirmed pure roadie can’t even do ten push-ups with his/her meager, ematiated upper body, much less curl Guiness after Guiness.
You know it’s only no alcohol during the race, right?
And if I remember right, it’s isn’t even no alcohol, it’s like a blood alcohol content of 0.04 or so - so you probably could have a beer pre-race is you really wanted to.
Jeez, I’m glad you cleared that up! I like you guys here on Slowtwitch and thought it would be a real pain to give up my postings and move to tennis or chess or…
It’s OK, my HR has returned to rest, after a little too long and AT! I was scared for a while there.
