fucking floyd
i didn't want to believe floyd was doping when he won the tour this year. i couldn't warm to his weasly visage like i did to lance's chiseled stoicism, but i gave him big props for his gutsy, epic breakaway effort on stage 17.
when i heard his first urine sample tested positive for testosterone, i withheld judgement. i didn't think testosterone wreaked an immediate effect; i thought it was something riders used early in the season while setting their base.
the second sample's since confirmed results of the first, and velonews has reported jesús manzano, an ex-pro, testifying to the quick efficacy of testosterone in competition.
"Its effects are felt almost immediately," Manzano wrote. "It gives you a lot of force and produces a sort of euphoria."considering this, it's not so passing strange now that, following the shattering state 16 in which landis lost 8min, he boasted and blustered to his teammates that night, hinting they should expect big things the next day.
Manzano outlined three ways to take testosterone during a competition.
First are patches, called AndroGel, which are applied during a light massage usually during the evening mealtime. Manzano said the patches had to be used less than two hours to not risk going above the T/E ratio threshold and risking a positive doping test. Manzano also said clandestine suppositories are used as well as intravenous injections, called Rastandol, taking about 20 minutes to 1 hour before competition.
a little androgel before dinner, and some rastandol up the pooper right before the race and you're good to go.
fuck floyd and jan and tyler and basso and beloki, mancebo and sevilla. you guys deserve all the shit you get.
4 comments:
Don't take it to heart love, it is about the norm-however vile -of all professional folk these days.
yes, it seems we'll have to look elsewhere for heroes. sad -- i have loved cycling for so long.
i'm sure there are clean guys out there, but between floyd and operation puerto the whole profession's been so besmirched this year that it'll be a long time before people take it seriously again.
sad.
On the other hand when you look at how many cyclists get caught doping you have to suspect that they are just the tip of the ice-berg. Cycling has always been pro and therefore more subject to the pressures of sponsors and prize money. I would guess that doping has become normalized to a large degree and so: more tempting.
I'm thinking back to my uni days here in the 90's when everyone smoked weed and popped pills - it became normal and acceptable. That doesn't mean it was acceptable it just seemed that way because everyone around you was doing it.
We humans are very good at following the crowd and perhaps Floyd was no better. That doesn't mean it was excusable I just find it explainable. I feel slightly sorry for him because he felt that he had to do that to his body in order to get what he wanted.
Cycling is such a great sport in so many ways it's sad that it only ever recieves negative press outside of continental Europe. Honestly - there was virtually no coverage here in the UK until Floyd was suspected. You probably get even less press in the US if you don't have access to Eurosport or other European satelite TV I'm guessing. Most of the Classics races seem to escape from doping scandles.
two sheds, your points are pretty unassailable.
i would, however, like to think there's a difference between following the crowd like you did in your uni days, when you were young, experimental & dabbly, vs. doing something stupid like doping, which could fuck you up for the rest of your life, or cut you down at the top of a mountain like tom simpson.
do you think the tour's just too hard to race w/o extra help, and maybe that's why ppl who don't get thrown out of paris-roubaix or fleche wallonne get tossed from the tour?
or, is it that the tour's too hard to race when you're racing against cheaters? would wiping out the tour clean up the sport?
i only WISH we got eurosport here.
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