Jimmy Phoenix

I think you misunderstood where I'm coming from so I'll try to clarify. I'm proud of my cat 1 license and my hardware from nats, as meaningless as they are in the grand scheme of things. And yes, I train my balls off to win parking lot crits or road races in the middle of nowhere. But if I walk away from a weekend having gotten my ass beat, well so be it. Between job, family, etc, etc, there are a million other more important things. What I see now at the newbie end of the sport are guys who absolutely can't do what you said - keep things in perspective. Instead of enjoying the "journey" of racing a bike and working on the broad skills they need to actually enjoy the sport, they immediately leap into a mode where they are emulating pros or doing absolutely whatever they feel is necessary to gain an edge. I don't think that is healthy or even helpful when just starting out, and I think it translates directly into the problem that we see today.

Edit - found the quote from the David Anthony story I was looking for. This is what I'm pointing to when it comes to guys who are "wound tight". I imagine pretty much every guy with a similar profile who has been busted would say the same thing:

David Anothy: “There’s no justification for what I did. Over these three-and-a-half years, I got completely consumed by it. And I think that cycling is different. Somehow, it’s different than everything else. It rewards the obsessive, compulsive nature. It was a bunch of small justifications that end up in a big justification, and then a small kind of taking away of the pleasures,” Anthony said.

Hermes

Another troll comment...I worked extremely hard for my Nats hardware and do not consider it meaningless on any level. There are more important aspects of life than bicycle racing but I put in a lot of time, effort and money to nationals and take exception to your comment unless you were referring only to your Cat 1 license.

Jimmy Phoenix

That was my point, and why I qualified it with "in the grand scheme of things". "Grand scheme of things" to me means raising kids, leaving the world a better place, etc, etc.

Ygduf

the 18 comments above are classic generational gap and as should be tradition, here's the Socrates Quote - [h=1]“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”[/h]Everyone always thinks the new guys are ruining it. Talk about keeping perspective...

gsteinb

tough room. all 18?

Ygduf

"18" was an estimation. Like using HR for training.

Jimmy Phoenix

Sometimes I'll just strap on my hr monitor and jam refresh over and over while reading the forum. It's gotta be good z3/z4 training. Gsteinb/hermes, I worded those responses poorly and deserved it. Ygduf, we'll actually cross over at masters Nats in a couple of years, assuming I'm still racing.

Back OT - has any NGB in the US fined amateurs for failing a test? Maybe a solution to the funding of tests would be to let USADA continue on with the ban structure and then have USAC administer a fine if the guilty party wants to return to racing. The money would go directly to anti-doping. Probably wouldn't work but would be a better deterrent than a ban alone.

Racer Ex 

I love you man.

shovelhd

I also agree with hack.

mattm

Was it stated that testing was done across all categories?

I thought I read that somewhere too, but I also thought I read that testing was focused at the p/1/2 level.

hack

Hmmm thought I read it too, but can't find it now. Their Race Clean FAQ says anyone participating in a USAC event is subject to testing. So, you can kind of connect those two dots. Regardless, if they're serious about it the fees should extend to the 4's (leave 5's out to reduce the cost of entry to the sport) as an early indicator that they're serious about testing and eliminating drug use. In lieu of a fee for cat 5's maybe require completion of a 30 min webinar on drug use in sports. They could roll a short drug talk into the early bird races (or whatever equivalent exists outside of NorCal) as well.

I've only been in the game for a couple of years, but have never seen or heard of anyone getting tested. That includes guys with podium spots at big races up to the P1/2 ranks. There was some talk of increased testing locally last year, but I never saw it.

Hermes

NorCal Cycling News.... USA Cycling Fails to Deliver Drug Tests USA Cycling Fails to Deliver Drug Tests | NorCal Cycling News - Cycling and Racing in Northern California

"USA Cycling failed to deliver their RaceClean initiative. The NCNCA’s money was locked up in the RaceClean program for all of 2014 and no testing was administered at all, even though RaceClean was successfully implemented in other districts around the country. The NCNCA’s money has been returned for 2015."

"Roman Kilun, a new addition to the NCNCA Board, commented on the reality of the RaceClean program, saying that the substantial investment would have gotten the district “8 tests”. The princely sum of $7,000 investment would get sucked up in expensive laboratory costs to process urine samples and financing testers who come from outside the district."

cruiserhead

Thanks for that link Hermes
Realities come crashing down on testing.
Let the Master-baters continue their doping regimens. At least the national races will still test

caloso

I seem to recall that there was a pee test for the top 5 at district masters crit champs a few years ago (2013?) in Petaluma. But haven't seen any tests since.

jdms mvp

tangent, but the only event that directly affected me and pee-testing was the 2014 cat3 RR championships where prior to starting the referree's mentioned to our field they would test the winners of p123 and cat3.

there was a racer in cat3 who said to everyone he smoked weed like a day prior and wasn't going to finish because of the test, and that's what he did, he stepped off with like 3 laps to go from the front of the race.

i ended up winning the race, went back to the start, and referee said go to that guy over there for testing. I went , and the guy was like ... oh you do not need to test. (i was confused). and then that was that.

i have no conclusion to this story, just sharing.

gsteinb

Olympian Bobby Lea suspended for doping violation - VeloNews.com

hack

No good. I did, however, just go over and check out the wada page since I've been popping Norco the past few days. Looks I better not race for a while.

Impreza_aL

Bobby Lea // 2-Time Olympian // 23-Time National Champion

TMonk

poppin' hydros/oxys to get high... that's playing with fire my friend! there are safer ways to do it.

Srsly though, this is a damn shame. He always struck me as a great athlete with a positive, "clean" attitude. I love watching him in the omnium at the London 2012 Olympics... I still watch re-runs of that sometimes when I'm stretching in my apt.

shovelhd

Wow.

He had a doctor who prescribed oxy for pain. He was not recovering from an injury out of competition. He was using opiates to manage in-competition pain and got caught. This is the post-EPO frontier.

Enthalpic

I bet he was using it for post-injury recovery / training and became hooked. He was then told to wash-out for a race and couldn't.

Doge

Closer to home. Kid got back from Europe and did Brentwood. He went off the front, flatted, got back on. Bobby was off and he couldn't bridge but tried. Pulled out (1st time in two years) and said "season over".
Week later Bobby put on a good show at the track.

TheKillerPenguin

One of the coolest things I remember from when I was starting out was watching him tailgun it at the Fitchburg crit back when he was on Toyota United, only to move up from dead last with 2 laps to go and get second in the sprint. This is a real bummer.

shovelhd

Hooked is a nice way of saying intentional abuse. I've had four serious racing accidents, two that required inpatient hospitalization, where I was prescribed opiates. I could not get off of them fast enough. It only took a few days. There was NFW I was going to race sooner than a week after dropping the dope. He can play the poor addict card but I'm not listening.

I've been in fields with him, so **** him.

hack

I'm on three days of hydrocodone right now and am done with it. Pain has subsided and I don't care for the cottonmouth and digestive traffic jam.