25 déc. 2014

Triathlon and doping III



We have previous posts on doping and triathlon:
24 juil. 2013

I am not a fun of  Le monde, but I like the article written after the tour:
Les performances en watts-étalons de ceux qui ont essayé de gagner le Tour de France 2013 sur chacun des six radars et leur puissance moyenne Cher Pat, tu seras d'accord avec moi : on peut regarder le verre à moitié vide et se dire que tout va bien. Celui des performances de nos coureurs Europcar, incapables de mener à bien leurs raids des années antérieures, à 30 % de leur rendement habituel. C'est vrai aussi pour Contador, qui n'est pas chez Movistar : à 399 watts-étalon moyen, l'ex-triple devenu double vainqueur du Tour est très loin de ses 423 watts de 2007, 439 watts de 2009 et 417 watts de 2010. Il lui faut plus de temps que Rui Costa et que Valverde pour se remettre de sa suspension pour dopage apparemment…Movistar, qui ne prône pas la tolérance zéro, est l'ancêtre de la Banesto qui a mis tant d'années le peloton en file indienne derrière le roi Miguel Indurain et ses 80 kilos. Chez Movistar, on est pas "techno" comme Sky, on est plutôt empirique.

2 févr. 2013
As a Psychiatrist and belonging to a very liberal group of psychiatrists, our Community Meetings were very interesting and real life experiences.  I was and wasn´t looking forward for the Community Meetings.  It was like playing “Crucifixion of Jesus.”  The Community Meetings were run by patients and they addressed the problem they were having in the Hospital.  It was the Carnival of Umberto Eco; a necessary procedure to continue working.
“This definition of comic leads us to the idea of carnival. How do we succeed in finding situations in which we are not concerned by the rules? Naturally enough, by establishing an upside-down world in which fish fly and birds swim, rabbits chase hunters and fools are crowned. At this point we feel free, first for sadistic reasons, second by because we are liberated from the fear imposed by the existence of the rule. Comic pleasure means enjoying the murder of the father, provided that others, less human than ourselves, commit the crime.” (1984; p2.)
“We feel relieved from our own sorrow concerning Snow White’s fate precisely because of the laughable pain of the dwarves. Our tension for the tragedy is mitigated by the ridiculization of the majesty of sorrow through the ridiculization of the zoomorphic little men. They are the mask through which we can pass over in laughter the difficulty of living.” (1984; p.2) Similarly, carnival is that mask.”

Doping and drug addiction are quite similar.  I had had 14-year-old patients addicted to heroin.  When working at Children´s Hospital, Buffalo, we were called to see a patient who did not respond to treatment for asthma.  The patient was from Puerto Rico and spoke only Spanish, after several hours of talking to him I found out that he was inhaling heroin and his asthma exacerbations were related to heroin use.  I discovered by serendipity the relationship between adrenergic-cholinergic receptors and its relationship to opioids receptors or simply, heroin withdrawal causing the lungs to overflow by secretions. Perhaps this relationship is not even in literature.  Empirically, it exists from my research.  I give a few years to researchers to find out.
On the other hand, we just found out that our cycling “children” are using EPO and testosterone.  The president from the Cycling Federation is from our town, and he knew about it before the scandal broke up.  The cyclist participated in the Junior World Championship last year and was caught at the airport in Spain bringing the drugs to Spain:
Spanish Customs Agents arrested Mexican cyclist Jose Alfredo Aguirre in April as he had both EPO and human growth hormone in his carry-on bag, according to Spanish sports daily AS.
AS reported that the 20-year-old athlete, who is part of the Spanish Mutua Levante elite U23 team, intended to smuggle the prohibited substances from Mexico to Spain. Aguirre supposedly carried the drugs for José Maldonado, who would give them to team director José Vicente Peidro, who was not available for comment, according to the report.
Aguirre told AS that he believed he was doing Maldonado a favor and did not know that he was carrying any prohibited substances.
"I did not know I was involved in a mess," he said. "I threw the bag in the suitcase without covering it. It was mixed with clothing. I didn't know I was doing anything forbidden, just a favour. However, I assume the consequences of my behaviour and any sanctions assigned to me because of this stupidity."
There have been no sanctions as of yet but an enquiry is now underway by the Mexican Cycling Federation.
"(The Mexican federation) has already met with Aguirre to determine if he will be punished on the basis of different factors and also to try and determine who assisted him apart from Maldonado, where they got the substances and what, if any, is the team's involvement," according to the report.
http://www.cyclingquotes.com/news/spanish_customs_agents_arrest_mexican_rider/
Are we going to do something about it? I doubt it, unless the International Cycling Union wants to do something, but this kid and the Mexican Federation are not important at all for the world.  This is the beginning and fortunately, we do not have the discipline to dope as Ferrari demands to be effective.  If we have the discipline to dope well we do not need any enhancing drug.  We have discussed this issue in previous posts.  Enhancing drugs are used mainly to cover up our out of order life; if we do not rest well because partying and not resting, testosterone is available to quicken recovery.  EPO is available if we do not train well; but at the end, if you do not have the proper technique and training we are going to be behind even with the so called enhancing drugs.
Why doping is recurrent? Because it is addictive in itself.

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