Just A Quick One...
On the back of my two most recent posts, I just wanted to post a link to this article by Steve Magness - I wonder how these new insights will affect things in the cycling world...
That is all.
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That is all.
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Drugs II - The Effects
At the weekend I wrote this article, prompted by some discussion surrounding this article on Cosy Beehive. At the bottom of my article you will notice a comment from Ron of Cozy Beehive which mentions riders' health conditions through drug abuse - this got me thinking, because actually I don't really know what the health risks are. The research triggered by this lack of knowledge made me think I should share this with my readership. Hopefully sharing my learnings will give you some insight too.
Please note the research for this article was purely a very quick 'once-over' of the kind of drug taking I am aware of but wanted to know more about - PLEASE do not consider it as statement of absolute fact. I wanted a quick education on the whys and wherefores of drug taking blighting this beloved sport of ours and thought some of you might like to know a little more too.
The one I was most keen to know about and the most common drug we hear of is EPO, or Eryhtropoietin - a hormone produced by the kidney that promotes the formation of red blood cells in the bone marrow. The level of red cells in the blood is known as the 'hematocrit' level - this is the level that for years formed the only test carried out by the UCI. As red blood cells carry oxygen it is easy enough to understand that EPO is beneficial to athletes as oxygen is essential in helping muscles to fire. Over a three week long Grand Tour muscles that are given some help with this firing are likely to function better than those functioning unassisted. Enter synthetic EPO.
With synthetic EPO racers are able to control their hematocrit levels so that the UCI's magic number of 50% red blood cells is never stepped over, but is always kept as close to that 50% level as possible. This enabled riders to keep their blood levels close to 50% for the entire length of a Grand Tour despite the fact that the natural expectation for such extended periods of exercise would be a steady decline in the hematocrit number. Riders with a naturally lower hematocrit could also use greater levels of EPO to achieve the 50% number, thus further enhancing their performance. I think I'm starting to get this now...
So racer dudes who want to appear faster inject EPO (I'm talking layman's terms here). But what risks are they facing up to by doing so? At the less critical end of the spectrum it seems EPO use can lead to diarrhoea, dizziness, headache, itching, muscle aches and pains, nausea, tiredness, or vomiting. For the sake of winning I would guess most cheats would shrug these off, particularly for a Grand Tour victory.
More seriously, elevated blood pressure can lead to blood clots. Couple this risk with the high levels of activity leading to dehydration and the consequent increased viscosity of the blood and cardiac arrest and strokes become an issue. There's even links to particular types of synthetic EPO leading to a life-long dependancy on blood transfusions. Frankly, I don't need to list the pros who have lost their lives far too youngdue to these side effects of EPO.
Still wanna win that Grand Tour?
More recently we have also become aware of CERA, thanks mainly to Ricco's suspension for using it in the 2008 Tour de France, followed later the same year by Schumacher, Kohl and Piepoli, and then added to in 2009 with the scalps of Rebellin and Di Luca (as mentioned in my previous article). CERA is essentially EPO that doesn't need injecting quite so often, and can be injected in smaller doses for the same effect (again, I'm talking layman's terms here). Again, easy to see why it gets used in sport as I guess the theory follows one that if you are using less of it and injecting less often then you're less likely to get caught. Thankfully the UCI have finally adjusted their testing protocols and tests for CERA are now standard.
What else is there then? Well Floyd Landis was caught in 2006 using Steroids, and Tom Zirbel was caught in late December 2009 using DHEA - known for it's part in Steroid 'cycles'. I'm going to quote a recent forum post for this bit as it is the simplest description I have found:
"When a user is in one of the "on steroid" stages the their body adapts to the large amounts of exogenous testosterone by slowing or ceasing production of natural testosterone and increasing production of other hormones like oestrogen in an attempt to even out the users hormone levels. Once the "on" cycle is complete the users hormone levels are all out of whack because the body isn't producing any natural testosterone but it producing high levels of oestrogen. This is known as the "post cycle" where DHEA and several other drugs are useful. During the post cycle users will take a combination of drugs aimed at doing two things to balance out their hormone levels: 1) increase the bodies natural testosterone and 2) inhibit the undesirable effects of the high levels of oestrogen."
I've not looked for any specifics on the side effects of all of this behaviour in the short space of time I've been researching this post, but as much as anything that is an inordinate amount of drug taking to make yourself quick on a bike - none of that can be doing the body any good at all. This is a really bad case of messing with nature. That aside, frankly it just sounds like plain hassle!
The one that really makes my skin crawl though is blood doping. This is where red blood cells are 'harvested', either from taking some of the riders' own blood or from a compatible donor and then freezing the blood until it is needed. It is then re-injected into the rider thereby enhancing the red blood cell count. This is the basis of the Operacion Puerto investigation that was recently called to a close. The risks here? It seems there are less risks when using the riders' own blood, but proper storage of the frozen harvested blood is still a risk (potentially causing blood toxicity issues according to this page). In using a doner's blood it is obvious that there is a risk of disease transmission, but there is also a greater risk that the transfused blood will be rejected by the racers' body. It is this use of a doner's blood that had 'Vino' caught out in 2007's TdF.
Thankfully the use of Amphetamines in cycling appears to be a thing of the past (Tom Boonen's extra-curricular activities aside at least). This is the drug cited as being the cause (or at least didn't help with the heat and dehydration on the day) of Tommy Simpson's demise on Mont Ventoux in 1967.
Brief, but hopefully useful / interesting / educational. I for one am happy just making my legs hurt in the hope of some mediocre success - hopefully you're the same.
Share
Please note the research for this article was purely a very quick 'once-over' of the kind of drug taking I am aware of but wanted to know more about - PLEASE do not consider it as statement of absolute fact. I wanted a quick education on the whys and wherefores of drug taking blighting this beloved sport of ours and thought some of you might like to know a little more too.
The one I was most keen to know about and the most common drug we hear of is EPO, or Eryhtropoietin - a hormone produced by the kidney that promotes the formation of red blood cells in the bone marrow. The level of red cells in the blood is known as the 'hematocrit' level - this is the level that for years formed the only test carried out by the UCI. As red blood cells carry oxygen it is easy enough to understand that EPO is beneficial to athletes as oxygen is essential in helping muscles to fire. Over a three week long Grand Tour muscles that are given some help with this firing are likely to function better than those functioning unassisted. Enter synthetic EPO.
With synthetic EPO racers are able to control their hematocrit levels so that the UCI's magic number of 50% red blood cells is never stepped over, but is always kept as close to that 50% level as possible. This enabled riders to keep their blood levels close to 50% for the entire length of a Grand Tour despite the fact that the natural expectation for such extended periods of exercise would be a steady decline in the hematocrit number. Riders with a naturally lower hematocrit could also use greater levels of EPO to achieve the 50% number, thus further enhancing their performance. I think I'm starting to get this now...
So racer dudes who want to appear faster inject EPO (I'm talking layman's terms here). But what risks are they facing up to by doing so? At the less critical end of the spectrum it seems EPO use can lead to diarrhoea, dizziness, headache, itching, muscle aches and pains, nausea, tiredness, or vomiting. For the sake of winning I would guess most cheats would shrug these off, particularly for a Grand Tour victory.
More seriously, elevated blood pressure can lead to blood clots. Couple this risk with the high levels of activity leading to dehydration and the consequent increased viscosity of the blood and cardiac arrest and strokes become an issue. There's even links to particular types of synthetic EPO leading to a life-long dependancy on blood transfusions. Frankly, I don't need to list the pros who have lost their lives far too youngdue to these side effects of EPO.
Still wanna win that Grand Tour?
More recently we have also become aware of CERA, thanks mainly to Ricco's suspension for using it in the 2008 Tour de France, followed later the same year by Schumacher, Kohl and Piepoli, and then added to in 2009 with the scalps of Rebellin and Di Luca (as mentioned in my previous article). CERA is essentially EPO that doesn't need injecting quite so often, and can be injected in smaller doses for the same effect (again, I'm talking layman's terms here). Again, easy to see why it gets used in sport as I guess the theory follows one that if you are using less of it and injecting less often then you're less likely to get caught. Thankfully the UCI have finally adjusted their testing protocols and tests for CERA are now standard.
What else is there then? Well Floyd Landis was caught in 2006 using Steroids, and Tom Zirbel was caught in late December 2009 using DHEA - known for it's part in Steroid 'cycles'. I'm going to quote a recent forum post for this bit as it is the simplest description I have found:
"When a user is in one of the "on steroid" stages the their body adapts to the large amounts of exogenous testosterone by slowing or ceasing production of natural testosterone and increasing production of other hormones like oestrogen in an attempt to even out the users hormone levels. Once the "on" cycle is complete the users hormone levels are all out of whack because the body isn't producing any natural testosterone but it producing high levels of oestrogen. This is known as the "post cycle" where DHEA and several other drugs are useful. During the post cycle users will take a combination of drugs aimed at doing two things to balance out their hormone levels: 1) increase the bodies natural testosterone and 2) inhibit the undesirable effects of the high levels of oestrogen."
I've not looked for any specifics on the side effects of all of this behaviour in the short space of time I've been researching this post, but as much as anything that is an inordinate amount of drug taking to make yourself quick on a bike - none of that can be doing the body any good at all. This is a really bad case of messing with nature. That aside, frankly it just sounds like plain hassle!
The one that really makes my skin crawl though is blood doping. This is where red blood cells are 'harvested', either from taking some of the riders' own blood or from a compatible donor and then freezing the blood until it is needed. It is then re-injected into the rider thereby enhancing the red blood cell count. This is the basis of the Operacion Puerto investigation that was recently called to a close. The risks here? It seems there are less risks when using the riders' own blood, but proper storage of the frozen harvested blood is still a risk (potentially causing blood toxicity issues according to this page). In using a doner's blood it is obvious that there is a risk of disease transmission, but there is also a greater risk that the transfused blood will be rejected by the racers' body. It is this use of a doner's blood that had 'Vino' caught out in 2007's TdF.
Thankfully the use of Amphetamines in cycling appears to be a thing of the past (Tom Boonen's extra-curricular activities aside at least). This is the drug cited as being the cause (or at least didn't help with the heat and dehydration on the day) of Tommy Simpson's demise on Mont Ventoux in 1967.
Brief, but hopefully useful / interesting / educational. I for one am happy just making my legs hurt in the hope of some mediocre success - hopefully you're the same.
Share