Pro cyclists use dope
How's that for an understated title? The real news today is that at least two of them have not admitted it voluntarily. Who? Frankie Andreu and an unnamed US Postal Service teammate. Seems the postal boys were doping to keep up with Lance in preparation for the Tour de France that year.
Or was it during the Tour? They won't say. Nor will they say who else was using.
[Frankie] Andreu said he was introduced to drugs in 1995 when he and Armstrong were teammates for Motorola, saying some riders felt they could no longer compete with Europeans whose rapid improvement was rumored to be aided by EPO.
Andreu's wife Betsy told the Times she found a thermal container with EPO in her refrigerator before the 1999 Tour and became angry but bowed to her husband's plea to take EPO to help finish the race and then never use it again.
Betsy Andreu told the Times she blames Armstrong for pressuring teammates to use drugs, saying her husband "didn't use EPO for himself, because as a domestique, he was never going to win that race.
"It was for Lance," she said.
Today should be a fun one for armchair GC contenders. The forums will be alive with rants and raves today.
Full story here
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NO WAY!! Pros use dope!??!
Yeah that is total sarcasm....
At first I was sad, but as the years went on, I realized that I was young and foolish. Now, I am a little wiser, and usually can spot the mirrors through the smoke.
I now realize that pros do what they have to do because they choose to be in a business that has no rewards for an honest days work. It also offers little in the way of lateral transfers for those that change their priorities.
If you ride a bike for anything other than fun, you better be willing to give up having fun...You will reach a day that cycling is no longer fun, and you won't have time for anything that is fun...unless you dope.
It is so easy for the average person to sit back and think athletes have it so great. All that money, all that fame.....I will never know the sacrifice, pain, and depression a pro must feel as their bodies go through each season (tear down/recovery). I am thankful to NOT know how their personal lives must suffer as they try and balance the pressures of fame against their upbringing as some punk kid (like me) who wanted to ride a bike and thought this might be the only way a guy like me can actually make some cash.
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