The start sheet didn’t change, but Millar and Kelme are back in.
Is an altitude tent doping?
Only if you can digest it.
Good point, where do you draw the line ? How is a tent any worse than living at altitude or using darobproetin ? Do you guys remember when Gianni Bugno got tossed for too much caffeine. They no longer have that bogus caffeine limit. Using that old limit, 50% of the field finishing the last 13 miles in an ironmna exclusively on coke and gels would get a 6 month ban from the IOC.
What about Mark French and the old Festina squad? Maybe we can get Hulk Hogan and Lyle Alzado(back from the dead) to drive team cars.
Simply put you draw the line at the rules of the competition you are competing in. So altitude tent OK, epo NOT. Also, you would have a hard time ingesting enough caffiene to be over the old limits. You pretty much had to take pills or injections.
<<Also, you would have a hard time ingesting enough caffiene to be over the old limits. >>
Yeah, just don’t piss-test me during finals week @ school;-)
Brett
“Simply put you draw the line at the rules of the competition you are competing in.”
i think you miss the point. the question is: how do you draw the line? once the line is drawn by the IOC or a bunch of baboons or anyone else its easy to say which side you are on.
Think of this analogy. Once upon a time, the rule was that “colored people” couldn’t play on the same team as “white” people. Everyone knew what the rule was and how to follow it. But the question was whether this particular rule was a good one.
Now I realize that racism is completely indefensible and there are some good arguments for anti-doping laws, but its important to focus on what these arguments are and whether the goals sought to be furthered by anti-doping laws might be better served some other way.
Yeah, its like Jonathan Vaughters having to quite the TdF due to a bee sting and not being able to take the allergy medication to reduce the swelling in a “closed up eye” because the allergy medication is on the “banned list”. Meanwhile, half the guys with “asthma” are taking puffers all the way to the podium !
As for caffeine, was it not the equivalent of 6 espressos for a 150 lb rider that put you over the limit. Surely, most Ironmen have more caffeine in them than that amount after a marathon on mainly coke and gels.
I probably put too much emphasis on grammer, but the response was to the question of “where do you draw the line”. I draw the line at the rules. If the question is where should the governing body draw the line, then I see a big problem. That problem is - I favor an all natural ruling competition, meaniing no pills (including nsaids, and vitamins), no altitude tents, no IVs, just plain old good training and diet.
Unfortunately this is completely unenforceable - no way can you tell if someone is taking a saline IV or sleeping in an altitude tent. So we are back to my original premise of do all you can within the rules. I would love to see a strict adherence to lifetime bans for all involved in a knowing violation, including athletes, coaches, sponsers, team owners, doctors, etc.