Here’s an interesting account regarding the lengths cyclists went to avoid getting caught using PED’s. The article has more detail, but a nickel version is that cycling has a system where they track blood chemistry over time. The PED’s are detected through various signatures regarding the blood chemistry- such as spikes in certain chemical levels.
Landis details how cyclists are also amateur blood-chemists by monitoring their own blood chemistry and flushing their system with saline to mute the spikes created by PED usage. Apparently, according to one of the testers, they were a little too good at it. The testers new something was up because their chemistry was too stable. They just didn’t realize how far they were going. Prior knowledge of testers showing up didn’t hurt either.
Having read this, as much as I dislike it because I admire the guy for what he battled through, it seems pretty clear that Armstrong was cheating. He just got out before they could catch him. Makes me wonder if that’s the reason he “retired” a couple of years ago only to come back last year.
4 replies on “Landis Follow-up”
Kinda like when Michael Jordan “retired” for a year to play baseball…it was much better for the NBA than having to give him the Pete Rose treatment for betting on the game! The NBA never would have been able to recover from that, but in the end, there was never a question that Jordan wanted to win every game he played, so they figured out a very convenient way of handling the situation. The scary part is that the rumors still exist that his father was killed because of Jordan’s gambling, that would be a sad link if it were true.
Also, whether he cheated or not, his feats still defy logic, even if he beat the system for that long, it defies logic, so all in all, everything he accomplished during his career was amazing. If Landis is not lying to dampen his own inability to win without cheating, then Lance is by far the best ever at several different aspects of the cycling world.
In the end, just like track and field, they all cheat, some are just better than others.
“If they’re all doing it, then it’s still a level playing field.” Is that the basic idea?
Yeah, at this point, it is my point. The original reason it was made illegal is because not everyone was doing it and it created an unfair advantage for the select few that could do it.
Now, that is not the case, these teams have too much invested in titles and sponsorships and all that corporate influence that keeps the sport going. The playing field is level in terms of some type of chemical enhancement. At the end of the day, these guys in this sport specifically are using science to enhance their bodies’ ability to heal itself. Because they are able to heal and regenerate quicker, they are able to perform at a higher level, or more accurately, consistently to their bodies’ highest capacity. At that point, I feel it is all a matter of perspective regarding what to compare the offense to in sport.
If a powerlifter takes steroids, he/she makes him/herself stronger and capable of lifting more weight than their body really should be able to under training. That seems wrong, just like if a sprinter builds more fast twitch muscle through steroid use and can run faster than everyone else. But what if a powerlifter takes an anti-inflammatory medication in order to reduce swelling in their muscles and joints, enabling that lifter to be stronger the next day, or more accurate more consistent to their body’s maximum capacity. Advil, Ibuprofen, or whatever, are just weaker forms of performance enhancing drugs that get used regularly by everyone in the world.
If cycling wants to solve their problem, lighten the load and ease up on the challenge of a race or course, making it unnecessary to incur the expense of all this science, or just assume that everyone is doing the same thing and move on. EPO and blood doping does not destroy the body, cause cancer, kill its patients, heck, if Lance has been doing it, it may actually cure cancer!
Steroids and things like that were also made illegal because they are killers, they destroy the body and cause athletes harm. That was another purpose of outlawing that kind of stuff, take it out of the mix and eliminate the temptation to use something that will kill you, just to win. These guys are doing what they are doing so that the rigors of cycling don’t kill them, so that they can compete day after day. If you don’t want to put them in the position to find a better way to heal, make it more possible for their body to heal, make the sport easier.
That is the Johnny Mac’s opinion with tennis, go back to the wooden racket if you don’t like 135mph serves. Make it about tennis again and eliminate the ability of a bad net player from winning a tournament by serving fire from the baseline, make them all play tennis again.
Like I said, it is all perspective in my opinion, when everyone wasn’t doing it, it was a problem, but now everyone has to do it just to survive in the sport and allow their bodies to recover. Under that scenario, is it really such a bad thing to help your body produce some more red blood cells?
[…] the ads for 60 Minutes and now articles are starting to crop up to the same effect. I’ve commented on it before, but the probability that Lance Armstrong wasn’t using PED’s had to be […]