Bikes are Dope

A brief history of doping in cycling as given at #emfcamp 2018 lightning talks

Transcript

1. Bicycles are Dope: From Strychnine to Hidden Motors Ben Fields https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashesse/32271738103/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashesse/32271738103/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/clickflashphotos/4588770889/ Bicycles are great
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesbondsv/10079273356/ lots of different things that bicycles are great for: getting around, exploring, cargo, sports.
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/lilymonster/5987385003/ lots of different things that bicycles are great for: getting around, exploring, cargo, sports.
5. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mercurier/122132625/ we’re going to talk about the folks to get paid to go fast(er) on bicycles
6. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffgerhardt/273038447/ and the lengths the go to do so
7. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gatiuss/5223834995/ What is doping?
8. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gatiuss/5223834995/ “administer drugs to (a racehorse, greyhound, or athlete) in order to inhibit or enhance sporting performance.”
9. Doping in Cycling https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/6921422235/ Focused on allowing athletes to go faster for longer
10. classically this means less steroids
11. and more amphetamines and oxygen enhancers/blood doping and more amphetamines and oxygen enhancers/blood doping (side note here on the macabre nature of blood doping, but more later) so let's take a brief look at the history of doping in cycling
12. • strychnine toxicity (TD50 ) effectiveness (ED50 ) We're going to put the performances on this handy informal chart, to help us think about them. The dimensions are: - **Toxicity TD50** the dose where the median person dies - **Effectiveness()@ED50)** how good is it when it hits? so ideally we'll be in the lower right, were things are useful and not so likely to result undesirable side effects like death in the upper left we have performance enhancers that might be very useful but have a very small window to help you before you're toast, like Strychnine, the oldest of performance enhancers
13. This is what strychnine does 'in small doses tightened tired muscles' in small doses plus one it results in death not banned but encouraged!
14. toxicity (TD50 ) effectiveness (ED50 ) • strychnine • amphetamines
15. Mercx was suspended a few times in his career: e.g. “Merckx was leading the 1969 Giro d'Italia upon the conclusion of the sixteenth stage in Savona. After the stage, Merckx traveled to the mobile lab that traveled with the race and conducted the drug tests.” **now** they aren't allowed results in death sometimes
16. toxicity (TD50 ) effectiveness (ED50 ) • strychnine • amphetamines • blood doping blood doping (transfusions across people/time) need for red blood cells
17. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Francesco_Moser_-_1979.jpg Francesco Moser of Italy broke the hour record of Eddy Merckx in 1984. In 1999, he admitted blood doping to prepare for the attempt, helped by sports doctor Francesco Conconi. Such doping had not been declared illegal at the time.
18. toxicity (TD50 ) effectiveness (ED50 ) • strychnine • amphetamines • blood doping • EPO Erythropoietin
19. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Basso_Armstrong_Tourmalet_2004.jpg Erythropoietin: making Armstrong and Basso go faster well reported so not much to say here, but it's effectively an improvement on the point of blood doping, by ingesting a drug that your body makes normally that cause more red blood cells to be made death via thick blood but less often
20. toxicity (TD50 ) effectiveness (ED50 ) • strychnine • amphetamines • blood doping • EPO What does ‘better’ doping mean?
21. toxicity (TD50 ) effectiveness (ED50 ) • strychnine • amphetamines • blood doping • EPO roughly: enhance performance as much as possible, while lowering toxicity/risk to the rider (and in modern sport avoiding detection)
22. let's talk about motors here's bottom bracket mounted one
23. here's one in the rim
24. toxicity (TD50 ) effectiveness (ED50 ) • strychnine • amphetamines • blood doping • EPO • hidden motors? What does ‘better’ doping mean? so are hidden motors the best dope then?
25. By Dimitri Maladry - wikiportret.nl, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46825387 Almost six years since the first allegations of "mechanical doping" in cycling the UCI, during the Women's under-23 race, for the first time in cycling history found evidence of technological fraud when they checked the bicycle of Femke Van den Driessche. The UCI had been testing a new detection system. (small aside about a sacrificial lamb being a poorly funded young women who's career is now basically over as a result)
26. The Future of Doping is the bike? Thanks!