Amateurs dope too

An article that popped up on Velo News today served as a troubling reminder that doping is not limited to the professional peloton, and, in fact, there is a chance that some athletes I raced against this past season have engaged in some form of doping, either knowingly or not.

While I've learned my lesson about throwing people under the bus without some kind of evidence, I still find it troubling to think that some racers, even at the amateur level, feel the need to employ pharmaceutical aids to achieve results, or make uninformed choices.

I was recently talking about this topic with someone (I can't remember who it was), who pointed out that the easiest way to spot doping without clinical testing is to look for an athlete who punctuates lackluster racing with astounding results, at key moments during the season. For instance, if I had the kind of races I had in June, July, and August, then suddenly turned up at GMSR, and raced to a win up the App Gap -- that would be fairly suspicious. Fortunately, I don't think I aroused any suspicious with my ride up App Gap this year.

Instead, a clean rider will likely display a steady progression. Of course, we all try to peak for certain events, but no training-induced peak could have given me an extra gear on App Gap, after getting dropped on the short climbs at the Capital Region Road Race two weeks earlier.

Anyway, for me, racing is fun -- the minute it stops being fun, you can be sure that I won't bother pinning a number on my back, and I have to imagine that worrying about what my piss test will show wouldn't be that much fun.

In other news, you should go ready my new essay on Embrocation Cycling Journal, it's awesome!