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Amusing note from the NPR story: > Champagne was considered a stimulant. And a lot of trainers — these guys had trainers — advised their pedestrians to drink a
by pwenzel 12y ago
Amusing note from the NPR story:
> Champagne was considered a stimulant. And a lot of trainers — these guys had trainers — advised their pedestrians to drink a lot of champagne during the race. They thought that this would give them some kind of advantage. The problem was a lot of these guys would drink it by the bottle. That definitely was not a stimulant to say the least.
- cafard 12y agoBetter on the whole than the strychnine they used to give distance runners, I suppose.
- sramsay 12y agoOr the cigarettes that used to be obligatory for cyclists in the Tour de France (opens the lungs . . .).
- Someone 12y agoThat's scientifically proven: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001541/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001541/ (Via http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21149532 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21149532)
- cowsandmilk 12y agoyeah, only if you develop COPD; and, as the article points out, "These changes are not universal in smoking, however. Even with lifetime smoking, there is only a 50% chance of developing COPD." very amusing article.
- modarts 12y agoAnd thus Bay to Breakers was born
- gtremper 12y agoI'll have to test the effects of champagne this year.
- dredmorbius 12y agoAlcohol in various forms was thought to be beneficial. Wine was served to workmen and drunk by cyclists in earlier times. Not ... quite as effective as thought.
- lnanek2 12y agoWell, not technically according to modern medicine. But it does remove inhibitions, which is sort of saying the same thing as letting you do more. The most common example being angry drunks who get upset over things they never would when they were sober, or noisy drunks who party harder. I'm not sure I'd be willing to walk 6 days straight without some alcohol to remove my inhibitions.
- brc 12y agoEarly Tour de France riders would take a bottle of brandy with them and swig it. It was supposed to dull the pain of steep climbs. At some point that was abandoned.
- zhte415 12y agoRecently linked on HN, the Italian army include Grappa in a breakfast pack: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/feb/18/eat-of-battle-worlds-armies-fed http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/feb/18/eat-of-b...
- Tyrannosaurs 12y agoAre we sure that the Grappa for drinking rather than say use as lighter fluid or for cleaning weapons? I'll drink most anything but I won't drink Grappa...