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Cyclists have been using drugs for a long time -- Tom Simpson was doped to the gills when he died on Mont Ventoux in 1967. EPO, HGH, blood doping, etc. may onl

Cyclists have been using drugs for a long time -- Tom Simpson was doped to the gills when he died on Mont Ventoux in 1967. EPO, HGH, blood doping, etc. may only be worth a few percent, but at the elite level a few percent matter. For cycling, you can look at the power output on Tour de France climbs before and after they developed an effective test for EPO. Elite level anything is unhealthy, because you're pushing the limits of what humans can accomplish, at the expense of everything else.

popzq 7y ago
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Tom_Simpson_c1966.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Tom_Simp... Wow what the hell... he was supposedly 28 here... looks more like 60
Consultant32452 7y ago
I don't believe there is even a single person competing at the top percentile of professional sports (household names) that is doing so without one or more forms of artificial assistance such as EPO, HGH, blood doping, etc. I wonder, is this a controversial statement?
- username223 7y ago
  Controversial? Yes. Wrong? I can't speak for all sports, but I know an ex-professional cyclist. Doping is less prevalent in the States than in Europe, but even in the States you see amateurs doing it occasionally. Plenty of Euros dope, but more ride the fine line of "therapeutic use" exemptions for drugs that just happen to improve their performance by a percent or two. They're not all doping, but at least in endurance sports, many are.
  - paganel 7y ago
    > Doping is less prevalent in the States than in Europe, That is certainly a strong statement, seeing that Armstrong, Landis or Tyler Hamilton are all from the States. Yes, most of the European riders are also not clean, but there are huge exceptions, like France.
    - username223 7y ago
      I was a bit hesitant to write it, but that was just my friend's experience on the MTB circuit over the last 15-20 years. US Postal and Armstrong were awful and shameless, but I think they were an outlier among American pro teams. Also, there's less money in mountain biking, and it's not really a team sport, so the kind of organized team doping Armstrong created is much less likely to happen. Anyways, I don't follow cycling as closely as I used to, in part because the pervasive doping was just so discouraging. Hopefully some combination of out-of-competition testing and biological passport will finally make the sport relatively clean.

popzq 7y ago

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Tom_Simpson_c1966.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Tom_Simp... Wow what the hell... he was supposedly 28 here... looks more like 60

Consultant32452 7y ago

I don't believe there is even a single person competing at the top percentile of professional sports (household names) that is doing so without one or more forms of artificial assistance such as EPO, HGH, blood doping, etc. I wonder, is this a controversial statement?

username223 7y ago
Controversial? Yes. Wrong? I can't speak for all sports, but I know an ex-professional cyclist. Doping is less prevalent in the States than in Europe, but even in the States you see amateurs doing it occasionally. Plenty of Euros dope, but more ride the fine line of "therapeutic use" exemptions for drugs that just happen to improve their performance by a percent or two. They're not all doping, but at least in endurance sports, many are.
- paganel 7y ago
  > Doping is less prevalent in the States than in Europe, That is certainly a strong statement, seeing that Armstrong, Landis or Tyler Hamilton are all from the States. Yes, most of the European riders are also not clean, but there are huge exceptions, like France.
  - username223 7y ago
    I was a bit hesitant to write it, but that was just my friend's experience on the MTB circuit over the last 15-20 years. US Postal and Armstrong were awful and shameless, but I think they were an outlier among American pro teams. Also, there's less money in mountain biking, and it's not really a team sport, so the kind of organized team doping Armstrong created is much less likely to happen. Anyways, I don't follow cycling as closely as I used to, in part because the pervasive doping was just so discouraging. Hopefully some combination of out-of-competition testing and biological passport will finally make the sport relatively clean.