"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - inhalers in the amateur peloton

Are there rules against the use of inhalers either immediately before or during amateur races? If there is a rule, is it enforced in the lower cats? I snooped around the USAC website and couldn't find anything.


I was diagnosed with asthma when I was six, and have over twenty years of medical records and lung function tests, so I will have no problem proving it to USAC if I have to.

You'd need to have the exemption before you got busted though.
So if you expect to be called up for a pee anytime soon, get your doctors orders over to USAC.

Go get a TUE to be safe. Its not hard

Go get a TUE to be safe. Its not hard


Do you know where I can find that form? Searching for 'TUE' on the USAC website just brings up a bunch of results for things occuring on Tuesdays.




Also, even if it is legal, am I going to get the stink-eye from everyone if I pop out an inhaler before a Cat 3/4/5 race?

does it matter?

You'd need to have the exemption before you got busted though.
So if you expect to be called up for a pee anytime soon, get your doctors orders over to USAC.

Hahahahahahahaha. You guys are mean.

Shoot, if you're that concerned, just e-mail Farrell over at USAC.

www.usantidoping.org

if you are that concerned

I've seen racers use their asthma inhalers on the start line. No one *****ed, but you might get a few people commenting that they would like to borrow it later.

When I had asthma I would use the inhaler in the car because I felt wierd doing it in the open. You're technically supposed to have a TUE but there is no testing in local races. I have heard there is at nationals but I am not going any time soon.

I see inhalers being used like crazy before races. It's giving me a complex. Maybe I should go to the Dr. and tell him it's hard to breathe with my HR near 200.:rolleyes:

If you were actually in a position to be tested, you'd already know the rules.

Until you're getting top 10s in NRC races or making the podium at elite nats, with domestic pro teams giving you a pretty hard look, don't worry about it.

And TUE = Therapeutic Use Exemption, by the way.

You could do EPO on the starting line and wouldnt get busted.

Only time I've actually seen doping control is at UCI events. It's just wayyyy too expensive.

Thanks for the info guys.

I'm not worried about a doping check at a local race; I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have any problems using my inhaler before a race, and it looks like I won't.

I see inhalers being used like crazy before races. It's giving me a complex. Maybe I should go to the Dr. and tell him it's hard to breathe with my HR near 200.:rolleyes:

You can just borrow mine.

If you were actually in a position to be tested, you'd already know the rules.

Until you're getting top 10s in NRC races or making the podium at elite nats, with domestic pro teams giving you a pretty hard look, don't worry about it.

And TUE = Therapeutic Use Exemption, by the way.

A Cat 3 woman friend of mine was called for doping control.

A Cat 3 woman friend of mine was called for doping control.

Can you expand on the context of that call?

It's super easy to get a TUE. My wife had one last year while she was racing, for her inhaler. Better safe than sorry. That would be a crappy headline in the local papers.

You could do EPO on the starting line and wouldnt get busted.

On your 10 pound bike.

Yeah, it's like 2 minutes of paperwork and a stamp. I got one two years ago for my asthma since there's a slight chance I could race in some of the local UCI cross races we have around here. It'd be my luck to finish last and be the random, so I just don't want to take the chance.

Get it, it's not hard.

I'm not worried about a doping check at a local race;

Neither is anyone else. That's why a few masters and local boys dope just like the pros.

Neither is anyone else. That's why a few masters and local boys dope just like the pros.

Folks would be surprised at how many 1s and 2s dope. Stuff is cheap and easy to get.

i recall years back at the killington stage race, fitchburg and cross nats there being pee stations... nowadays i dont see anything ... like someone mentioned above cost is likely the issue.

My asthma has faded a bit over the years. In Colorado, I could barely breathe after a race, and albuterol, before the event made all the difference. Since moving to Austin, the asthma has gotten better and better each year. Even after my kilo attacks, I've come away with minimal wheezing this year. It must be the slightly more humid air here... maybe the altitude?

My asthma has faded a bit over the years. In Colorado, I could barely breathe after a race, and albuterol, before the event made all the difference. Since moving to Austin, the asthma has gotten better and better each year. Even after my kilo attacks, I've come away with minimal wheezing this year. It must be the slightly more humid air here... maybe the altitude?

Less pollution?

Well, less junk in the air... that could be part of it too. It's been a gradual change in my pulmonary health, dunno what all factors into it. Maybe just aging out of it?

Denver gets a bad rep, but it has a temperature inversion on top of the pollution. There are photos from the 1880s of the Platte River Valley, and there's a brown cloud over Denver :eek: