Hosking's band played at the "end of ride" function a couple of years ago at Hanging Rock. While the "musos" were being cool, I pretened I had to sneak off to also do something cool, but I was just sneaking off to check out all the bikes, like geek I am

Grrrrrr.......Ed mad.
Some peanut is paying out on Virenque on cyclingforums.com two days after his retirement. The Festina Affair was 6 years ago and everyone has served there time.....move on.
His 240km solo effort at Paris-Tours was one of the greatest wins ever and this tourist is referring to him as a "drug addict" with "bi-polar disease"???? WTF???

...I'm no fan of any drug cheats, but if we acknowledge that they're all on something....its hard to be critical of one drug cheat over another....I'm locked out of cyclingforums, but maybe you can remind him that Eddie & lance have also had positive tests to banned substances....he gunna pay out on them too?...mind you it's pretty easy to pay out on anyone when you're an annonymous screen name & don't accept the consequences of what you say. Doesn't really need much courage!. My only problem with Virenque was that he continued to deny it even after he'd been busted...(even wrote a book saying he was innocent!)....If I had any respect for drug cheats, (which I don't really!) I could respect someone like millar who at least 'fessed up. Can't say the same about Tyler....WTF chromosone disease is he on about?

Hitchy

Yeah...the denying it come hell or high water was pretty rich. Should've come clean and got it over with, he'd be regretting that now.
Will be a pretty small pro bunch if riders who have only ever returned clean samples and didn't have the "letter form the doctor that I'm an asthmatic". I've seen it first hand, a bloke I raced with in Holland was kind of famous locally for being able to hook you up with anything from ephedrine to Pot Belge.....madness. Guys will take anything that is even ruimoured to help performance.

I s'pose the thing that really p!sses me off about doper's is that they are just plain cheats!.......They are cheating the guys they race against....look at Mick Rogers......cheated out of a world chamionship & a Bronze medal!...sure he gets the world championship 6 mths later....kinda takes away the thrill of winning when ya get a letter saying "BTW, you're now world champion", what about the buzz of standing on the podium, the pure joy of winning on the day?......& taking it a step further, what endorsements & sponsoprship opportunities have guys missed out on cos they've gon eto blokes that subsequently turned out to be cheats!. They also rob the cycling fans of celebrating the enormous physical efforts...what about Tyler's TDF with a busted collarbone....an enormously courageous effort...now everyone will just be saying..."well we know how he did that...don't we?"....when actually it probably wouldn't of made any difference....Dopers Fark up OUR sport...& I really hate it!...although i accept that they've been doing it forever & will continue to!...well that's my rant for the day!

Hitchy

Cheating sucks, agree 100%.
Once you're busted and banned, serve your time and come back (if you can). Cycling takes such dedication that a lot of these guys can't really do anything else, so they need to make as much from their sport as they can. It's not fair to rag on someone for their whole career about some poor judgment made years ago. Look at a guy like Dave Millar....world at his feet and now in the wilderness. You'd have to be pretty cold to say "ban him for life, never let him race again"....what he has already lost in terms of earnings and earning potential (along with his ban) is enough. Now apply the same scenario to a Belgian kermis racer living race to race busted for a steroid or stimulant....he's stuffed.

Afternoon blokes...

Having a bad day Hitchy???

G'day,

I've actually changed my opinion on the penalties over tha last few months...I used to be firmly in the camp of the 'give 'em life' brigade....but I think the issue is to complicated for that. I personally couldn't care less what guys take....as long as it's legal....the cheating aspect of it is what gets to me, more so than any moralistic anti drugs sentiment.....If I get beaten in a race I always like to think taht the guy was better than me on the day, trained harder,was luckier,just simply a more gifted athlete...whatever....but it would ***** me to tears if i thought this bloke has beaten me cos he's pumped up on 'go-go' juice......the money isn't relevant either...doesn't matter whether its a $20 priem at the local crit or a $20K race win...principals the same!...cheatings a bit like being pregnant...you either are or you aren't...theres no in between!

hitchy

...nah, just not big on cheats!

What if you took a Codral before a criterium coz you had a headache and won?
What if you were a stagiare on a pro team and the team doctor came into your room and told you you're medical showed you needed a "vitamin" injection?
What if you knew 100% the bloke who was winning all your local races was on the gear and you had access to some?

It's obviously a complicated issue. What really bugs me is these guys like Thorpey and Perkins who get on their high-horse about drugs when sports such as swimming are far more reliant on technique than running and cycling.

Steroids, from what I've heard, are not much help for elite male swimmers (females are a different story); you've just gotta look at the "perfect" swimmer's physique: kinda skinny and a bit soft -- technique is a huge component (and aerobic & anaerobic conditioning, blah, blah). You can't put Ben Johnson, with all those muscles, in a pool and expect him to swim fast.

So, these girly boys like Thorpey and Perko have never been under the same pressure as cyclists and runners.

...as i said, a complicated issue...but psudoephidrine (however it's spelt), the active ingredient in codral or any of those sorts of stuff, isn't illegal any more...so if it ain't specifically illegal...stuff your face with it if you want...caffeine isn't banned anymore either. I don't have an issue with blokes that wanna take drugs or anything to improve performance...but if it's specifically against the rules, then it's cheating...simple.....thankfully, the level that i'm at, i don't need to worry too much about drugs cheats....although i did get tested once...got picked as a 'random' sample of competitors in a race. The boys thought it was hilarious...they wanted to know if 'fat' was an illegal substance!

Hitchy

Codral cold and flus are taken for their codeine...also not banned but give you great dizzy spells 1/2way through 55kmh corners!!

Aahhh crap, I'd be removed from the sport indefinitely if this were true!!

Why do I have the feeling that I was the only one dumb enough to go for a ride today?
It started out fine, but then when I got to Hurstbridge it started raining and it didn't stop. I almost jumped on a train but then I remembered that I was a mountain biker and that grey socks were perfectly normal. Ungh, I'm wasted.

Hmmm.....drugs. Hitchy, are you the ex-cop? *laugh*.

I wasn't out today.

If it clears up later I might go for a quick 40km

531.....check out cycling forums. Ric is giving it to some farkwit over his dopey training methods.

Classic stuff.

...hey I'm no 'narc'!...that's Wattsy!. I didn't get out last night. it looked alright her at work (preston) until just before about 4pm......then decided to 'Persistantly' come down. Was planning a 3 hour session at the airport....alas!....... & besides that...the annual 'festival of the cleaning of the training bike' was Sunday arvo...I'm not prepared to sacrifice that yet, wot with 51 weeks till it's next clean!,

cheers
Hitchy

I ended up doing my nice little 80km loop from my place to Hurstbridge and back. It's a pretty brutal ride - I don't think there's a flat section anywhere. By the time I hit Yan Yean road, it started to rain and didn't stop. My windproof vest kept me warm and dry until about 10kms from home at which point I was soaked and all I could think about was a hot shower.

I've noticed a pattern in my riding recently. I take a long time to get warmed up ( usually takes a good out of the saddle push up a hill or a sprint to blow the cobwebs out ) and I feel good from then on until about the 55-60km mark when I seem to fall in a hole and things start to hurt. You reckon this is just because I'm inexperienced and aren't doing that many kms?

G'day Tigerboy,

you eating enough?......even though you may not actually 'feel' hungry, you'll be burning thru the calories pretty quickly....anything high carb, low fat is good. Iknow you're not a fan of some of the commercially available stuff (or is that 531?), but banana's are good, cookies,I'll even take a wholemeal vegemite roll...anything to stop the 'bonk'....a good carb feed before you go of spuds, rice or pasta is the 'go' as well. I read in these forums a lot of the seppo's get worried about what they eat on rides because of diets etc...man...the ride is not the time to be worrying about your waistline.....eat & avoid the bonk...oh & drinking helps too ....as little as 1% dehydration will affect your performance,even though you may not even 'feel' thirsty,

cheers,

Hitchy

So for the early morning rides (like the Hell Ride) what do you eat...I think this might be half of my problem with keeping up as the legs 'feel' ok, I just feel weak after 20 or so k's at the pace they boys ride at.

Having done more Hell rides than I care to remember, I feel pretty qualified on this one....
1. Start the night before. Nice big pasta meal.....you can even break this down to 2 sittings. Drink plenty of water.
2. Brekky....6 x Weet-Bix, 2 bits of toast, juice, coffee.
3. Pockets...banana, Powerbar(s). (from my old place, it's a 120km round trip). If you're going out for (groan) extras, have another meal on Lygon, at home, St Kilda wherever when you get there.
4. Stay hydrated and space out your food. Eat at a time, not when you're hungry, otherwise it's often too late.
5. Drink. Water, carb mix, more water. Save any high-GI hits like a Coke until you're less than an hour from home, or for immediately after when your muscles are screaming for glycogen.

g'day,

Ed has it right......carbs the night before, bread, pasta, spuds, rice (stuff you wouldn't be allowed to eat if you weren't a cyclist!)....on the morning I have cereal & toast......then maybe a narna just before the start. I don't eat on the 'Hell' ride (i can get myself in enough trouble thanks!), but it's only 1.5 hrs....I'll eat a muffin or high carb cake or musahi type bake item immediately after. this could be your problem Wattsy, I remember you saying you'd only just got outta bed one morning before the ride,

cheers,

hitchy

Yep.....don't crawl out of the scratcher and straight onto the bike. Living in Glen Iris, I had to get up at 0550 and leave at 0620-0625 to allow plenty of time.

Thanks ed/hitchy...I literally have been sliding out of bed, chucking the gear on and riding off. Nothing to eat and to make it worse, I think I ate KFC the night before....hhhmmmmm, I'm starting to think maybe I need to rethink my eating habits.