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Tour de France 2014 - won by drugs anyone?

6/21/2014

6 Comments

 
Does anyone care about the 2014 Tour de France? Or do many now deride it, like they deride Lance Armstrong?

Possibly drug chemists and drug users - athletic and non - might get a rush out of the 23-day tour, which begins July 5th. But is the common ruck all a buzz?

If not a buzz, maybe a flutter, knowing there’ll be more than France to gawk at. British towns such as Leeds, Sheffield, and Cambridge will be cycled through first. Let’s hope overly officious British immigration bureaucrats don’t hold up the cyclists before they head to France, like they did in 1974.

Definitely citizens of Masham, Yorkshire are a stir. Council sourpusses ordered their green, yellow, and white knitted jerseys, more than 20,000 worth, strung up as bunting, to be taken down. Safety, you know.

We know we should stand to attention, or at least sit up straight, as the Tour pays homage at Ypres, the Belgian town. That’s where mustard, chlorine and phosgene gas attacks left hundreds of thousands dead in WW1.

We’ll stop texting if we hear that the hot-air spat between Chris Froome and Sir Stanley Wiggins is really over. We’ll give our heads a shake if we find out that Froome has agreed to general manager Sir Dave Brailsford’s possible picking of Wiggins to Team Sky.

We’ll listen to British fans’ raucous reaction should Wiggins not be selected. They ache for a British bicycle bombardment with both leading the British bike troops. (Although with Alberto Contador leaving Froome in his dust in the final stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné with the Tour fast approaching, it may not matter who is on Team Sky for the Brits.)

And if Wiggins is picked, many will weep knowing that Wiggins’ role will be to support Froome. We’ll ponder why Wiggins would agree to this domestique deployment.

Because, if not for a chest infection and inflammation in his left knee he’d have defended his Tour de France win of 2012. He was the first Briton to win it. (Unfortunately, kids Ben and Isabella were bullied at school after their dad won the 2012 race. They were moved to another school.)

Speaking of moving and knees, Wiggins was riding this week in the Tour de Suisse. But he got rammed from behind, crashed, and now his right knee is swollen. And his Tour de France chances have further slimmed.

Back to the bigger picture...

We cads will contemplate the competitors trying to navigate the stage 5 cobblestones. We’ll calculate the possibility of broken bones, cogitate whether the bikes, made by 19 or so manufacturers, have what it takes, and we'll deliciously deliberate over possible lawsuit snafus.

But despite these discussions above, most of us will ruminate with what’s primary on our plate of debate: Who is using, what’s being used, will they get away with it, and should we get some?

If the Queen and Prince Philip at Buckingham palace glance at the race will they see any “clean” riders whizz by? Will Prince Harry, Prince William, and Kate, at the Tour’s start, in Leeds? Or will all talk of whizz be of competitors peeing into bottles to disprove covert drug use? The latter is what floats critics’ boats, makes their blood boil, and gives them a case of the hashtag harrumphs: #I’mSoPissed!

Has the drug scene affected eyeballs? Are TV audiences down? Depends.

In the USA, since Lance slithered from the scene in 2009, final stage viewership has dropped in quantities greater than foods wolfed down at Las Vegas buffets. But NBC Sports Network did report a 67% increase, thanks to 560,000 viewers, in the 2013 last stage, over the year previous.

And in Europe, relief that Lance’s stench no longer permeated things, possibly accounted for the Eurosport channel’s 17.1 million viewers tuning in to the 2013 race’s beginnings. That, and the 100th year anniversary milestone, had to help push up the numbers.

But do kids, in numbers great or small, still aspire to cycle? Do the parents pressure the kids one way or another?

No matter who pressures who to do what, remember the kid had better have a big heart if he does take the plunge. Did you know that professional cyclists’ hearts are up to 40% bigger than average?

And did you know that the UCI formed the CIRC PDQ because the UCI wasn't minding its ABC’s in dotting its i’s and crossing its t’s?

Yessiree, the International Cycling Union birthed the Cycling Independent Reform Commission to investigate the International Cycling Union because it was asleep at the wheel in missing the atrocious act of Lance Armstrong.

For instance, in May of this year Chris Froome had his knickers in a knot because he, Vincenzo Nibali, and Alberto Contador were training in Tenerife and nobody drug tested them. He’s mad at the UCI about that.

What’s Lance up to this year? His seven Tour de France victories came with “help” and though the wins have been wiped off the map, his arrogance hasn't. In April 2014 he told Outside magazine he still considers himself the victor. In his interview with Oprah he said he wanted to compete again because he was a competitor.

Becoming a debtor may be more like it: he’s being chased for, give or take, $96,965,465.82 in damages.

When Lance isn't being harassed for cash and when he isn't blowing a gasket, seething at the capriciousness of the cruel cycling gods, he’s blowing a tube instead. Here, he shows us how to fix a flat bicycle tire. Even in this video, he’s uniformly unappealing. He doesn't do self-deprecation well.

Froome, given Armstrong’s tainting of the Tour de France, is - despite his protestations at the UCI for not testing him - under suspicion of “taking.” He’s a bit hot under the collar about it. He also, literally, had been running hot, in his preparation for the “biggest bike race”. He won the 2014 Tour of Oman in February. And have you seen his legs? Veins galore.

Froome will be trying to muscle in on a second consecutive win. He’ll block out the tussle between pro-drug takers and anti-drug officials. He’ll pedal, knowing there’s absolutely no assurance that new, peddled, drugs won’t be conjured up to fool the wardens of the sport.

For what it’s worth George Hincapie, top domestique in his day, thinks road cycling has cleaned up its act these past few years.

Even if he’s right, we’ll relish a little criminality-collage villainy. The Tour de France has historically offered a miscreant miscellany of races being “bought”, of objects puncturing tires, of short cuts being used, of bikes being sabotaged...

You know, maybe cycling 3,664 kilometers over 21 days - with only two days off, for that’s on tap this 2014, is a crazy sport if, looking back, cocaine, chloroform, ether, strychnine, opioids, amphetamines, or nitroglycerin have been needed to deaden pain, relieve boredom, or heighten performance.

Maybe the athletes, managers, and sponsors, need to grow up. After all, taking ecstasy so one can neck with strangers is a crazy sport too. But most of us grow up, and out, of that.

Let’s just hope this year’s Tour doesn't fall flat.

6 Comments
C c
6/21/2014 01:23:48 am

Good points! I never thought the athletes would need to take drugs to cure boredom while biking but it sounds so logical it must be true!

Reply
Hugh Esling link
6/21/2014 03:57:39 am

Hi, C c. Yeah, that struck me as odd/funny too - the part about the boredom. It makes sense. What doesn't make sense is how folks can stand to sit on the bicycle seats for longer than five minutes, let alone three weeks. Thanks for your feedback

Reply
John Miller link
6/21/2014 09:05:15 pm

Hugh, I wrote this article a couple of years ago at the height of the Cycling drug scandale!




It’s definitely not just about the bike

The first bike I every had was a Malvern Star. It only had one gear and was as heavy as lead, a far cry from the bikes they ride these days, which you can pick up with your little finger.

Whilst improvements in bike technology have been welcomed, advances in biochemistry haven’t, with the exception of this year’s performance enhancer of choice, beetroot juice which stimulates an enhanced flow of blood.

I think I need some for my morning run.

Maybe I should also get hold of some Erythropoietin (EPO) which reduces fatigue and improves endurance by increasing the rate of red cell production.

They say the performance increase is not enormous, perhaps a few percent, but a 2% boost in my aerobic capacity might be enough to beat John Tait in the Black Mountain Challenge in December.

Testosterone; maybe I need a dash of that too, to increase muscle strength and aid recovery. I don’t ride 200 miles every day, but there are times when a bit of testosterone mixed with olive oil might get rid of sore muscles.

The other drug favoured by Tour de France riders to reduce inflammation and speed up recovery is cortisone. I’ve never had a cortisone injection but I know it’s common practice for people with musculo-skeletal complaints.

All of the drugs listed above are readily available on prescription from your doctor.

Paradoxically it’s seen as legitimate to safely prescribe these drugs to enhance the metabolic performance of people who are sick and injured, but not to safely prescribe them to enhance the metabolic performance of those who are fit and healthy.

‘Safely’ is the operative word because for over 100 years, cyclists have been reckless in their abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, individually and in cocktails, leading to dozens of deaths.

Pushing the boundaries of drug usage is firmly embedded in the cycling culture. In the old days cyclists used nitroglycerine, alcohol, caffeine, chloroform, cocaine, laudenum and strychnine. Then came Palifum, a powerful opioid, amphetamine by the truck load, Ronicol (a blood vessel dilator) - and finally the drugs I’ve already mentioned.

But it’s because of the super human expectations their sport that has placed on them that the athletes have looked to advances in both biological and engineering technologies to improve their performance.

In any sport, if the rules don’t allow a reasonable and discriminating result in less than an hour a half there’s something wrong with the rules, in which case athletes will seek to bend them in what ever way they can.

So would I strip Armstrong of his medals? Nope; if the dopes in charge of drug testing weren’t good enough to catch him in 500 tests then good luck to him, he’s run out a fair statute of limitations.

Would I change the rules for the safe usage of drugs to enhance performance and aid recovery? Probably.

Would I amend the rules of the Tour de France and other tours to make them safer? Absolutely. Riding for 200 Km in oven-like conditions to decide a race in a flurry of excitement over the last 500m is a nonsense. Same with mountain climbing competitions. Start at the bottom of the mountain and let it rip, without the 3 hour prelude.

If all the cyclists in the Armstrong era had been drug free would Armstrong have won seven Tours? I think yes. He’s the superman Nietzsche could only have wished for.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and remember, supermen, heroes and gods have always made their own rules.


John Miller
www.fitandhealthyonline.com



Reply
Hugh Esling link
6/22/2014 11:01:53 am

John, you make some great points in your article. I had not thought of looking at giving Lance a break because of his cheating but, as you say, he was tested 500 times so maybe he does deserve a break...Fascinating to read and easy to read, despite the complex subjects you cover. Thanks very much for sharing your insights.

Reply
John Miller link
6/22/2014 01:32:28 pm

Hugh, Thanks for your note.

I think Armstrong was probably playing on pretty much a level playing field. . Or if not level, sloping it to one's technological advantage was always open to all-comers

They were all trying to gain some bio-chemical advantage - except mister goody two-shoes, Cadel Evans! The EOP case is a good one. They'd all top themselves up to just under the limit.

I read the book by one of Armstrong's offsiders. It's definitely not about the bike - it's about the sport.

Reply
Hugh Esling link
6/22/2014 08:14:48 pm

Hey, John

Well it will be interesting to see what drugs turn up or don't turn up in the Tour de France and in races to follow. There is no way the sport can be thought of as cured and clean - if that is the route they publicly have declared they'd like to follow.

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