Found this and thought it was pretty interesting.
Quote:
The way I see it is like this: Without the drugs, the same guys would win, as they have greater ability than their peers. But, without the drugs, the whole peleton would be going 5k slower.
Nothing out there is going to make, say, a rider like me as fast as Basso, Ullrich and the rest. They just have more of that God given talent. I'm also not going to become a heavyweight boxing champion, hockey player of jockey. It's just not in the cards for me and my potential.
The dope gives you that extra 3 - 5% that you wouldn't get any other way. Really. It's not so much the shortcut to fitness people make it out to be, all those guys still train their ass off and all that. It's that icing on the cake, that little bit extra at the end. Better recovery, better oxygen uptake. In a three week tour, I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of riders were engaged in some kind of hormone therapy and the like.
Testosterone levels and hematocrit ratios are like a speed limit on the highway, you can go right up to it but not over. And I believe many riders do just that. If your natural levels are low, or they get beat down by two weeks of racing in a three week tour, the "doctor" can bring 'em back up and you're a rock star again.
And that's why people are incorrect when they assert: "Oh, so-and-so has a paper excluding him as he as a natural hematocrit of 52%. It's all bull****, those levels don't mean so much as hard training, etc, etc."
Yeah, if a riders body is used to a level of say, 52%, as that is what that particular rider is at naturally, then a level of 52% isn't anything to write home about in and of itself.
Now take a rider with a natural level of 35%. Knock that up to 48.5% and you just gained a tremendous amount of oxygen uptake. And a 5% increase in power, wattage, time to muscle exhaustion, recovery, whatever, could be the difference between making the break and chasing all day. Wining and losing. Gold and Bronze.
And that's the reason for it.
I'm not saying its right, I'm just saying that's the way it is right now. Some guys shoot up EPO, Aranesp or a variety of other drugs that came out of the anemia and cancer treatment arsenal. Some guys draw out their own blood, spin it down to separate the plasma and re-inject the red blood cells. Some guys sleep in an altitude tent. Or, they spend a few weeks up in the mountains of Colorado, France, Italy or Spain. Higher altitude, less oxygen, force the body to adapt.
It's all so f%&@#. More at time.com http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2000/0911/oly_drugs.html
Quote:
The way I see it is like this: Without the drugs, the same guys would win, as they have greater ability than their peers. But, without the drugs, the whole peleton would be going 5k slower.
Nothing out there is going to make, say, a rider like me as fast as Basso, Ullrich and the rest. They just have more of that God given talent. I'm also not going to become a heavyweight boxing champion, hockey player of jockey. It's just not in the cards for me and my potential.
The dope gives you that extra 3 - 5% that you wouldn't get any other way. Really. It's not so much the shortcut to fitness people make it out to be, all those guys still train their ass off and all that. It's that icing on the cake, that little bit extra at the end. Better recovery, better oxygen uptake. In a three week tour, I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of riders were engaged in some kind of hormone therapy and the like.
Testosterone levels and hematocrit ratios are like a speed limit on the highway, you can go right up to it but not over. And I believe many riders do just that. If your natural levels are low, or they get beat down by two weeks of racing in a three week tour, the "doctor" can bring 'em back up and you're a rock star again.
And that's why people are incorrect when they assert: "Oh, so-and-so has a paper excluding him as he as a natural hematocrit of 52%. It's all bull****, those levels don't mean so much as hard training, etc, etc."
Yeah, if a riders body is used to a level of say, 52%, as that is what that particular rider is at naturally, then a level of 52% isn't anything to write home about in and of itself.
Now take a rider with a natural level of 35%. Knock that up to 48.5% and you just gained a tremendous amount of oxygen uptake. And a 5% increase in power, wattage, time to muscle exhaustion, recovery, whatever, could be the difference between making the break and chasing all day. Wining and losing. Gold and Bronze.
And that's the reason for it.
I'm not saying its right, I'm just saying that's the way it is right now. Some guys shoot up EPO, Aranesp or a variety of other drugs that came out of the anemia and cancer treatment arsenal. Some guys draw out their own blood, spin it down to separate the plasma and re-inject the red blood cells. Some guys sleep in an altitude tent. Or, they spend a few weeks up in the mountains of Colorado, France, Italy or Spain. Higher altitude, less oxygen, force the body to adapt.
It's all so f%&@#. More at time.com http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2000/0911/oly_drugs.html
