Legal doping
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This is one of those times you go "Oh no!" hide your head in your hands and hope it all goes away. Say it aint so Brad.
Smells fishy though, doesn't it?
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Can't stand the Russians and their pathetic attempts at trying to get back at everyone else but this really isn't a good look. I'm fine with there being exceptions, IF they're legit, but there needs to be a hell of a lot more transparency around the whole thing.
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@Unco said in Legal doping:
Can't stand the Russians and their pathetic attempts at trying to get back at everyone else but this really isn't a good look. I'm fine with there being exceptions, IF they're legit, but there needs to be a hell of a lot more transparency around the whole thing.
The Russians may lift the lid on a lot of this doping malarkey. We are just starting to see what is in there, and this shit is the legal stuff.
Remember kids - if there hadn't been a whisteblower (who promptly got banned) WADA and IOC and IAAF would have no idea of the pervasive, state sponsored doping that was going on.
any bets on when we may see this in the olympic sport 7s?
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Ah, I knew Asthmatics were the master race... at least when they get access to their meds!!
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@WillieTheWaiter said in Legal doping:
@infidel something like 80% of cyclists are registered as 'asthmatics'...
amazing how they can compete in a grueling sport like that when you're an asthmatic huh!?
Are you asthmatic?
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@Bones said in Legal doping:
@WillieTheWaiter said in Legal doping:
@infidel something like 80% of cyclists are registered as 'asthmatics'...
amazing how they can compete in a grueling sport like that when you're an asthmatic huh!?
Are you asthmatic?
no. but my missus is so i just use her sh*t. ha.
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@WillieTheWaiter It wouldn't stop anyone from being able to compete at that level, depends how badly affected. The odd puff to clear the airways, but otherwise like normal.
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@Bones said in Legal doping:
@WillieTheWaiter It wouldn't stop anyone from being able to compete at that level, depends how badly affected. The odd puff to clear the airways, but otherwise like normal.
i'm pretty sure froome had a 'proper' asthma attack at some stage this year while racing
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@WillieTheWaiter said in Legal doping:
@Bones said in Legal doping:
@WillieTheWaiter It wouldn't stop anyone from being able to compete at that level, depends how badly affected. The odd puff to clear the airways, but otherwise like normal.
i'm pretty sure froome had a 'proper' asthma attack at some stage this year while racing
Yeah, Froome copped some shit for his TUE one year so refused another even when he obviously needed it. The questions raised are around Wiggins and why he only seemed to need TUEs just before the TdF and that he steadfastly denied having had and 'needles' until came out.
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I know there's what appears to be a remarkable statistical anomaly in the amount of swimmers who have/ had asthma when they were younger. This, of course, ignores that a lot of children with asthma are encouraged to take up swimming to help counter their respiratory condition.
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The crux of the asthma article explains that asthma is often onset by mouth breathing (nose not filtering air) and the intake of cold air into the lungs. Basically this can cause respiratory inflammations.
The other article is at pains to explain that Team Sky are doing nothing illegal but the Wiggins TUEs point to them using the TUE system to it's fullest possibly to gain an advantage. They refer to another cyclist admitting use of the same drug on the basis of a contrived prescription (his admission). He explains its effect in that he lost a lot of weight quickly but felt stronger and had more stamina.
The conclusion is that TUEs should be declared publicly which may curtail dodgy use. -
Well that's a suprise, the British press getting in behind Wiggins and Team Sky, just like they did with Mo Farrah and the Oregon Project.
I read Wiggins book a couple of years ago, and he goes to great lengths to tell the reader "he's never used needles in cycling" ... yet now we find out he has had injections of a very powerful cortisoid in 2011/12/13 just prior to the Tour.
This is a fucking powerful drug, and good luck getting any normal doctor to precribe it for Hayfever... unless it's really fucking bad.
A few current and former pro's have been pretty scathing of this, and rightly so in my opinion.
David Millar breaks it down pretty well I reckon.... and the man definitely knows his drugs, as his record will attest
Or Jorg Jakse, also a well known drug cheat
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I was all against the 'fancy bears' at first, because I think that athletes, as people, have a reasonable right to privacy.
However, this case in particular suggests that it's all dirty - even if it's not officially dirty, it's still ugly and dirty and people are lying and trying to backtrack and say, well, when I said no injections, I was meaning doping injections, even though this is kind of like a doping injection, but wasn't.
I can't see why it is OK to compete while under the influence of drugs that everyone pretty much knows have a significant performance enhancing influence.
All TUEs should be declared openly and available for evaluation.
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Totally agree, rule should be that any TUEs are open to public scrutiny and your opponents know what you're on. Transparency trumps medical privacy; if you want to compete in front of millions of people and be paid millions of dollars, the public/fans have a right to know.
In his instance, know that your asthma that you've had all your life but never mentioned before in several books and zillions of interviews, just happened to flare up right at the most convenient time before the 3 biggest races of your career, so badly that you needed fucking horse steroids, to treat a pollen allergy that happened to occur at different times and different places depending on when and where the Grand Tours were. Horse steroids that any normal doctor would only prescribe an asthmatic that was basically an invalid due to the severity of their condition, and only then after exhausting every other avenue.
Wiggins will never come back from this in the court of public opinion. He'll be lucky to keep his knighthood. One BBC commentator summed it up very well when he said its a bit like the tax arrangements of multinational corporations; legal in the the letter of the law, but doesn't stop people being mightily pissed off when it all comes to light, and rightly so.
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Look I agree that Wiggins has been a bit of a knob over all of this (and it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve thought he was a knob) but I believe him when he says he received the TUEs not to get an advantage, but to get back onto a level playing field. From what I understand he’s a bit of a worrier. Going into the biggest races of the year as a favourite he’d be acutely aware of any little symptom of potential ill health and do whatever it look legally to ensure he wasn’t affected.
I’m no professional cyclist but I do suffer from asthma and hay fever. If I sense even the slightest bit of aggravation before a race I’ve trained extensively for, I dose up fully as a result of being slightly paranoid that I’ll be hamstrung in my ability to perform my best. I think this is where Wiggins is coming from.
That said, I do think there are others in the peloton who probably exploit the whole TUE process; I’m probably in favour of more transparency or an overhaul of what products fall under the TUE umbrella (filtering out any potential borderline cases like corticosteroids)
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Yeah but its been well-documented by both doctors (first link) and former dopers (second link) that its doesn't make you as good as a healthy person, it makes you significantly better. Kenacort is catabolic, so recipients immediately drop 1-2kgs of the residual body fat that no amount of training /diet can shift. Considering these guys are all emaciated 60kg stick figures to begin with, the weight loss alone is a huge advantage at the elite level where margins are so fine.