Category: Sports

A month ago, Prof. John Hoberman wrote a scathing review of drugs in professional cycling for MSNBC. As the Tour de France collapsed in scandal this week, it’s worth reviewing Dopers on Wheels: The Tour’s sorry history.

Hoberman says that drugs have always been a part of professional cycling, beginning with caffeine and cocaine fuelled six-day races back in the 1890s. These were dangerous experiments on the limits of human performance and the effect of drugs. And little changed in the sport until the Festina drug scandal during the 1998 Tour.

According to journalist and Dr. Hans Halter:

“For as long as the Tour has existed, since 1903, its participants have been doping themselves. No dope, no hope. The Tour, in fact, is only possible because — not despite the fact — there is doping. For 60 years this was allowed. For the past 30 years it has been officially prohibited. Yet the fact remains: great cyclists have been doping themselves, then as now,”

Hoberman is especially critical of the International Cycling Union and cycling teams that publicly condemn drugs, but privately ignore institutional doping. Race organizers might arrest and make examples of individual cyclists, but do little to procecute doctors, trainers and other co-conspirators.

The UCI’s so-called doping controls have been inadequate or even fraudulent, depending on how one views the integrity of its officials.

The UCI leadership, whose doping controls did not produce a single positive before the disaster of the 1998 Tour, remained in office. What’s more, average rider speed has increased steadily since the introduction of (presumably) stricter drug-testing to prevent the use of blood-boosting drugs.

Swiss rider Alex Zülle explained the pressure on cyclists:

“As a rider you feel tied into this system. It’s like being on the highway. The law says there’s a speed limit of 65, but everyone is driving 70 or faster. Why should I be the one who obeys the speed limit? So I had two alternatives: either fit in and go along with the others or go back to being a house painter. And who in my situation would have done that?”

Cyclists earn less than most professional athletes, yet must train constantly, endure incredible hardship and risk deadly crashes every day. They may never get much recognition, and must support the team leader who gets all the glory. All this to hold on to a spot on a team, the only job that many of them know. It’s no wonder so many are willing to risk so much for an edge over the competition.

For the past week or so, I’ve been avoiding water cooler conversations at the office, so as not to spoil the surprise. I really don’t want anyone telling me how it all ends. I have to cover my ears and scamper back to my desk, shouting “I’m not listening to you, la la la …”

I’m sure others around the country are doing the same thing. We’re all caught up in this together. No, I don’t care what happened to Tony Soprano or Harry Potter. I’m referring to the Tour de France.

I’ve been recording the Tour on a friend’s DVR, and watching a couple of stages every few days or so. Which means I’m always a few days behind the news. That’s bad enough when there’s a major upset in the race. (Like Vinokourov coming back from the brink to win the Stage 13 time trial, and to conquer the mountains in Stage 15).

It’s a lot worse when there’s a scandal. And boy, do we have a scandal now. First Vinokourov fails a blood doping test. Not only that, but his entire Astana team was forced to withdraw from the Tour. (Taking out a couple of other top riders with him).

Well, that’s a shame. I had been rooting for Vinokourov for a couple of stages. He had come back from a bad crash, rode hurt, cracked in the mountains on Stage 14, then come back from defeat to win a really tough mountain stage.

I cheered him on – just like I cheered for Floyd Landis last year when, after a tough loss, he came back from behind to win a mountain stage, and eventually the tour. At the time, it seemed impossible that he could recover so much time, and reclaim the lead. Maybe it was. Only a few days later, Floyd failed a drug test. And the 2006 tour has been without a winner ever since.

So once again, justice was done. And the Tour caught one of the few cheaters.  Just one bad apple, right?

It got worse. The next day, the Cofidis team withdrew from the race when one of their riders tested positive for synthetic testosterone. And today, the other shoe dropped. Michael Rasmussen, the tour leader, was dismissed by the Rabobank team for failing to take drug tests this past Spring.

What happens now?  The Tour continues, but it’s a shambles. It’s hard to imagine how professional cycling can recover any credibility, after the past few years of drug charges and two disastrous tours. It’s hard to imagine sponsors will continue to fund the teams. Already T-Mobile is rumored ready to pull their support.

And it’s hard to imagine fans will continue to watch, wondering who is juicing, and if anyone is riding clean.

Just a few more bad apples? A few isolated cheaters? Doesn’t seem that way  anymore. And now I felt cheated, for having cheered on these guys. Fool me once, fool me twice…

I met a lot of other cyclists on my bike ride last Sunday. There were the club riders, barrelling down the road in their matching outfits. There were the kids and casual riders, in tennis shoes and baggy shorts. And there were also some pretty serious riders making good time on the hills.

Surprisingly enough, a lot of them were riding well despite carrying a few extra pounds. (Let’s face it – I could lose a few myself). I’ve often noticed that overweight people can still be good recreational cyclists.

That’s the lesson of a New York Times article on The Bicycling Paradox: Fit Doesn’t Have to Mean Thin.

“When I first got into cycling, I would see cyclists and say, ‘O.K., that’s not what I perceive a cyclist to be,’ ” said Michael Berry, an exercise physiologist at Wake Forest University. Dr. Berry had been a competitive runner, and he thought good cyclists would look like good runners — rail-thin and young.

He came to realize, he said, that cycling is a lot more forgiving of body type and age than running. The best cyclists going up hills are those with the best weight-to-strength ratio, which generally means being thin and strong. But heavier cyclists go faster downhill. And being light does not help much on flat roads.

And fortunately, you can keep riding well into old age. Your recovery time might get longer, but sometimes you can still teach those youngsters a thing or two.

This week in “Everything good for you is really bad” news:

Lately, I’ve been carrying water on some of my longer runs on Los Gatos trails. Wary of the dangers of dehydration, I try to drink about a liter of water an hour while exercising. So I was surprised to read an article in the New York Times warning about drinking too much water. While drinking too little water causes muscle cramps and headaches, drinking too much water can actually dilute your blood. Which can kill you dead – in a very messy way.

Water rushes into cells, including cells of the brain. The swollen brain cells press against the skull, and the result can be fatal. The resulting condition is known as hyponatremia – too much water.

On Sunday, some friends and I rode from Los Gatos to Boulder Creek. It’s a more than 50 mile ride, made tougher because it’s hills all the way. According to the folks at Almaden Cycle Touring Club, the route has over 4000 feet of climbing. It’s good practice for our upcoming High Sierra Century in September.

The nice thing about turning around in Boulder Creek is that it gave us an excuse to get coffee and pastries at the cafe in town. Refueling and caffeinating made the ride back much easier.

On Sunday I ran in the Wharf to Wharf race in Santa Cruz. Yep. Just me and 15,000 of my closest friends. It was a fun 6 mile race from the Santa Cruz Boardwalk to Capitola.

I ran pretty well, but unfortunately, I made one critical mistake: I did what I was told. The race organizers told us to line up before the starting line according to our pace. I figured I could run a seven and a half minute per mile pace, so I lined up next to the “Seven Minute” sign. Makes sense, right?

Wrong. I spent the first three miles fighting my way through huge crowds of slow runners. Puffing, out of shape people in new running shoes. Groups jogging four abreast, chatting amiably about last weekend. Even people walking in front of me, fer crissakes!

It took me a full 2 minutes after the start to actually walk across the starting line. It took me 12 minutes to finish the first mile! My split times could only get better after that – 2 miles at 8 minutes, 2 more at 7:30, and 6:55 for the last mile.

In spite of the crowds, it was fun run. It was cold and foggy in Santa Cruz when we started out – perfect running weather. People lined the entire route to cheer us on. And there were bands of all types every few blocks- rock bands, surf punk, drum teams, even bag pipers. It made for a real festive event.

Just the same, I think I’ll look for a less popular event for my next race. And I’ll know better than to listen to the organizers.