Positive drugs tests at The Giro....here we go again

Triathlon Forum
1

This is beginning to sound like a broken record…The asthma stuff, ok, fine they may have waivers, but Mayo and elevated T/E ratios, c’mon…

Bob

Gazzetta: Three Giro stage winners ‘non-negative’ By Agence France Presse This report filed June 14, 2007
Traces of drugs were found in the urine samples taken from three stage winners at this year’s Giro d’Italia, the Italian daily Gazzetta dello Sport reported on Thursday.

The paper said sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) and climber Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) tested positive for Salbutamol, a substance primarily used to treat asthma, and Piepoli’s teammate Iban Mayo showed signs of an elevated testosterone level.
Salbutamol is a banned substance, but riders with asthma may use it to certain levels if they possess a medical certificate.
Basque television channel EITB confirmed that Mayo, who was tested following his victory on the 19th stage to Terme di Comano, was one of the three riders under suspicion.

Petacchi, who won the Milan-San Remo classic in 2005 and four stages at the Tour De France in 2003, rides for Milram while Mayo and Piepoli ride for Saunier Duval. The Italian sprinter also won five stages on this year’s Giro.

According to the Gazzetta, neither team was informed of the positive tests by world cycling’s governing body, the UCI.
Saunier team manager Mauro Gianetti was left confused about the fate of his two cyclists.

“I called the UCI and they said to me ‘If you haven’t heard any news, it’s because there isn’t any.’ This is absurd,” he said.
Piepoli reacted to the news prior to the start of the Dauphiné Libéré’s fourth stage in France, saying: "It’s true that I take Salbutamol to treat my allergy.

“Mauro (Gianetti) asked me how much I had taken. But I don’t know how many puffs I took. I take it each time I need it. It depends on the seasons.”

Gazzetta said further examination of the three urine samples were being carried out at a laboratory in Rome, and that they may be taken to Barcelona, Spain for more tests.

In his prime as part of the Basque Euskaltel team, the 29-year-old Mayo was one of the few riders capable of challenging the dominance of Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich on the Tour de France mountain stages.

He won the stage to Alpe d’Huez in 2003, and won the Dauphiné in 2004.

2

It’s amazing to me how many top athletes have prescriptions for asthma meds.

3

Funny that the article doesn’t mention that Mayo has a file at UCI because he has testosterone levels usually off the normal range. Heck, even l’Equipe took some time to report this fact and to say that this didn’t mean he was doping (ok…they still reported it…but it’s the Daily Mi…huh…l’Equipe).

As for many endurance athletes with asthma…well…more and more allergens outside + all the time riding (running etc…) outside…no wonder…

4

It’s really not that hard to get diagnosed with exercise induced asthma. You can practically just ask your dr. I had a top level sports physician tell me that top athletes are actually more prone to it due do breathing rates and the conditions they train in. So even though it seems fishy (and in many cases probably is) a lot of them may actually have some form of asthma and/or mild allergies. Do they leverage that for some marginal advantage? Probably.

5

Ok, again, we need to reserve judgement…even though it is getting so hard to do.

Apparantly Pettachi and the other Italian do have waivers for asthma meds (whether or not that is a BS thing is a different debate). But it’s not a failed test if you have the medical release.

And Mayo apparantly does have odd testerone level isssues, which are on file with the UCI. Some people’s bodies are weird and don’t fit into the norms.

So like I said, it’s hard to hold out hope, but it seems like there may be reason to for all 3 of these.

That said, under the “reasons to be suspicious,” Pettachi looked way more like the Pettachi of old than he has since his knee injury last year and Mayo had disappeared in the past couple of years until his stage victory.

6

No no, I know we need to reserve judgement, but it’s getting to the point that a big news story is when someone DOESN’T test positive…

Of course if you read the sports pages, you’d see that Johnnie Morton, former NFL receiver, failed a drug test for an elevated T/E ratio in his MMA fighting debut. His elevated ratio? Oh, that’s right, 89.3-1…Um, yeah, that’s not even trying to hide.

Bob

7

Actually the problem is the media taking three tests that aren’t positives (if reports of the TUE’s are true) and reporting them as positives. First they should not even know this occurred and second why report something that is actually not a positive test unless you want to make cycling look as bad as possible. The media has found an easy whipping boy that won’t take money out of their pockets. The most obvious recent proof is Puerto, 200+ athletes, but we only hear about the 50 or so cyclists.

8

I wonder how many of them would still have asthma if the prescription only cured asthma and wasn’t a performance enhancing stimulant as a side effect.

9

It’s really not that hard to get diagnosed with exercise induced asthma. I had a top level sports physician tell me that top athletes are actually more prone to it due do breathing rates and the conditions they train in.
It’s true, epecially given the air quality in Europe. What North Americans don’t realize is that there is a lot of air pollution in Europe, and most of them would probably experience asthmatic symptoms if they trained there too. Whenever we head over the pond for summer training camps all of our athletes bring inhalers. We spend all of our time on snow in the Alps, and at that elevation you can see how bad the air is…on most days you see a dirty layer of brown air everywhere you look.

10

Bingo.

Actually the problem is the media taking three tests that aren’t positives (if reports of the TUE’s are true) and reporting them as positives. First they should not even know this occurred and second why report something that is actually not a positive test unless you want to make cycling look as bad as possible.

11

If it’s worse than the air pollution in Los Angeles or New Orleans, you guys are totally screwed.

12

100%. Curing an ailment which has a performance dampening effect is reason enough to take it. If there was a cure for the common cold and it had no other effects besides killing the common cold, any athlete who had a cold would take it.

13

So I guess you’re buying that they really have an ailment.

14

I’m buying that they really have a TUE.

I’m not a doctor. I didn’t examine them. I’m guessing one or both of those statements is true of you too. Therefore, we’re not in a position to say whether the claim of asthma is legit. There are a lot of competent doctors (who aren’t making money off these athletes) saying, broadly, that air quality is down, allergens and pollutants are up, and the rates of asthma are skyrocketing. Considering all that, it’s possible, even likely, that some top athletes have some form of asthma. Absent evidence to the contrary, yeah, I believe the doctors.

15

I wonder when I see my doc next week if I should ask him about my asthma. I train a lot outside, and it seems to impact me.

Dave

16

I wonder how many of them would still have asthma if the prescription only cured asthma and wasn’t a performance enhancing stimulant as a side effect.

Except that there’s little research to support that statement–and a lot to refute it. Do a search on pubmed rather than talking bullshit.

17

I had Excercise Induced Asthma, it sucked bad. During High School periodically I would have a hard time breathing. I found out the hard way in the middle of a 100M Fly race (again Joey Hudephol for you swimmers out there) that I had it. I was doing fine, made the turn came off the wall and tried to breath almost nothing, next breath even less, next nothing at all. Finished the race passed out and got a free ride to the local ER.

The bottom line for me is that this shit is real very real and if sucks hard trying to compete in endurance sports when it feel like someone is standing on your chest. I was on Protvental (sp?) and/or ventilin and another drug which i can’t remeber up until I was about a sophmore in college then I was able to ween myself off them on my own. I have not taken a inhaler in about 15 years. I would say i knew at least 20-30 other swimmers who were on similar drugs during my time in college and HS. From my experience it was pretty common, and none of us were doing this for money.

18

I’m not talking bullshit. I’m merely skeptical. I’m trying to understand how exercising outdoors to the point of exceptional fitness causes asthma in so many athletes. I am allowed to be skeptical, right?

19

I’m not saying these athletes don’t have asthma, however, Geargrinder…where the hell in the Alps are you training that the air is so bad? I’ve been there ~10 times over three decades, most recently in 2004 and I have always found pristine mountain air. The cities in Europe, might be a tad worse than North American cities, but not that bad. Wait till the athletes how up in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics for some real dirty air (like in any big Asian City).

Dev

20

WTF has dirty air got to do with it? I developed asthma at the age of 40 after moving to Boulder. I stopped my doctor perscribed daily asprin regime and it almost stopped the asthma, other than running at threshold pace - especially in winter.

As far as performance enhancing, if I am going to run a 5k to 10k race, especially in winter, then I’m faced with a choice: No inhaler, without an asthma attack run 6:30’s or better, No inhaler with an attack slow to 8:00’s or worse and cough up bile. Pre-emptively use an inhaler and instantly my threshold pace drops to 7:15’s.

So, I’ve heard many people working with zero facts claim that inhalers enhance performace, I’ve yet to see it in a couple of dozen races in 4 years.