It's out of the bag
So - we all have suspected that everyone was or is doing it. Now we know how they do it....
Cyclists have rendered advances in drug testing meaningless with methods designed to evade controls, according to the French rider Philippe Gaumont reports the BBC. Gaumont has told the French newspaper Le Monde that he has taken drugs in all but one of his 10 years in the sport.
He said the blood-boosting drug EPO has been replaced by transfusions as a method of increasing endurance. The former Cofidis rider went on to list a series of methods used to illegally boost cyclists' performance.
"First off, there are products that they don't know how to detect, like growth hormones, which cyclists can use as they like," Gaumont was quoted as saying.
He added that blood transfusions had become popular to boost red blood cell counts - and therefore the blood's capacity to carry oxygen - because of a test introduced three years ago to detect EPO.
The test only works if the drug has been used within the previous three days, so EPO is used only when a cyclist knows he will not be tested.
"The haematocrit [blood thickness count] of a cyclist coming to the Tour [de France] can drop from 50% to 44 or 45 after a week.
"With one bag of blood a week, a cyclist can keep it at 50, while the other guys finish the tour at 40%.
"But only the big names can use this because you have to pay a doctor to do the transfusions."
Gaumont also said cyclists use false prescriptions to permit the use of banned cortico-steroids.
"You scratch your testicles with salt, show the doctor they're all red, and he prescribes you six months' worth of Diprosone cream. Then you can inject Diprostene [a banned liquid suspension] without risking being positive."
Okay - that cats out of the (ahem) bag now. It appears everyone is doing it - and from this brief description - it's made the cyclists into drug specialists.
But this guy isn't my candidate for today. Mine would be the feller who came up with the "scratch your testicles with salt" method in the first place.
Seriously - what was the inspiration for that? Scratching that area is freeky enough - but using salt to do it? It begs the question - what stuff did he try before this little experiment was found to work? How about a little acid perhaps? Or crushed glass say?
Surly that's gotta qualify him as an all-time:
Jerk du Jour
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