Tour de France 2013: Is Chris Froome doping?

Chris Froome's very fast ascent of Ax-3-Domaineslast Saturday has, yet again, raised doubts that the Tour de France is clean of drugs.  Why?

 

Here's how I understand things work:

 

An analysis of the biomechanics of hill climbing and human physiology can give an insight as to the possibility of the use of doping:

• To get up a hill of a known height and within a certain time, we can work out quite precisely, the energy required to get the top - given that we know the weight of the rider.  This is worked out as Watts of energy per Kilogram per minute.  
•  The number of Watts can also be converted into oxygen consumed by the athlete which is expressed as the number of milliliters of oxygen consumed per kilogram body weight per minute (mlO2/Kg/min).  many readers will be familiar with this as a measure of human performance.
• A fit male produces about 45-60ml/Kg/min.  A "clean" Olympic standard cyclist or runner may produce a work rate as high as an eye-popping 90ml/Kg/min but not for longer than about 20 minutes of sustained effort.
• The big hill climbs during the Tour de France, involve steep, sustained efforts for as long as 40 minutes, at altitude (meaning less oxygen than at sea level which means lower oxygen uptake which means lower performance) and this is usually at the end of a long and very hard day on the bike.  One would assume that the Watts produced would be on the low side - not high - due to fatigue and altitude taking the gloss off the performance.
• It is generally considered that a sustained performance of no greater than 6 Watts per kilogram per minute is humanly possible.  Any higher than 6 Watts and the suspicion that doping may be present is raised.
• We are fortunate to have the benefit of many historic performances  on the big hills of the Tour by confessed drugs cheats such as Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis.  We can work out how many Watts per minute these athletes produced while climbing.  Typically, these athletes produced work outputs that well exceeded 6 Watts per kilogram per minute.
• Froome's estimated output was somewhere between 6.2 and 6.7 Watts for last weekend's climb.  That's over 90mlO2/Kg/min of sustained effort climbing a steep hill after hours of fast, flat racing!  The rest of the field was less than 6 Watts, the predicted maximum for "clean" athletes. 

Froome's remarkable performance means he is a sitter for winning the Tour: All he has to do now is sit  within the peleton, cover any major breaks and ensure he stays on his bike.

His performance does raise the question of doping but is not proof one way or another.  But, given the tarnished record of the Tour, it is only right that the spotlight be shone brightly on any statistical outliers (Froome is definitely a statistical outlier in terms of Watts produced).

Questions:

•  Has Froome and his Sky team found a new designer drug that is currently undetectable?
• Have they found a legal loophole, such as with Alberto Salazar's runners (Rupp and Farrah) who have been medically diagnosed as being "hypothyroid" and therefore allowed to inject thyroxine before races?
• have they simply got the best chemists and the best technology that money can buy, better able than the rest to use doping known products such as EPO, steroids and masking drugs, taking them to the closest margins of triggering a positive on the doping test, but not quite?
• Did he simply pull a once in a lifetime freakish blinder of a performance out of the bag?

We may never know and, unless another cyclist produces a similar blinder as the one turned out by Froome, all he needs to do from now in to is to lay low (if he were cheating), concentrating on getting to the end of the Tour in one piece.

For details and discussion about how performance is calculated and related to the Tour de France:
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2013/07/the-power-of-tour-de-france-performance.html

And analysis of Froome's effort in detail:
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2013/07/tour-rest-day-pondering-unanswerables.html

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Why is Lance Armstrong going to "Tell All" on the Oprah Show?

"So lance is going to be on Oprah.

Not surprising - she's hardly likely to ask the hard questions a decent investigative journalist would, it will be his soft-soap version of events. Unless he goes for the sympathy vote and breaks down.

He's so calculating you cant trust his motives...."
Anonymous
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Gary:
I have my own take on why Lance Armstrong is finally doing an interview, presumably to come "clean" about his use of performance enhancing drugs.

I think this may be a cynical attempt to preserve his million dollar empire and to avoid jail time.

Right now, past sponsors and those who awarded prize money, are lining up to sue him for fraud.  He must know that the evidence is overwhelming.

One tactic is to argue that he was merely a bit player in the larger game of lying and cheating in sport of which cycling is one of the most sophisticated players.  Entire teams other than Armstrong's, cycling officials, sponsors, race promoters, media, coaches, sports scientists and doctors  from the highest levels and down were all part of the Great Collusion and the Great Deception.  It is possible that officials within the agencies responsible for drugs testing were also parties to this.

By being a bit player in this larger than life game, he may argue that there are many others who are equally, if not more guilty, if not legally, then morally guilty.  He may argue that the very people who are lining up to sue him are, in fact, as guilty as he.  He was merely going along with what everybody else about him was doing, condoning and financing.  He will argue that they knew what was going on.  All he is guilty of is being the better athlete and doing a better job than the other cyclists.

Sponsors, race promoters, coaches, media, sports bodies and the sporting public all want winners and they all want world records and they will either condone or turn a blind eye to whatever is done to achieve these, including outright cheating.  Besides: Is it really cheating if everybody about you is doing the same?  This is institutionalised cheating at the highest levels of sport.

I think this is a reasonable defence for Lance Armstrong and I hope he exercises it.  I do not want him to be hung out as a lone scapegoat.  I want to see him blow the whole stinking can of worms wide open so that we see real change for the better.

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Nabbed at last - The Lance Armstrong Story video

Click on image or here to view the video

"After winning the Tour de France seven times in a row, Lance Armstrong might well have been the greatest sportsman of all time.

Not only had he won the most coveted of all cycling races, he had done so after recovering from advanced testicular cancer.

Lance Armstrong maintains he has never used performance enhancing drugs.

He claims he has never tested positive in hundreds of drug tests.

Many who know him well now say he is lying.

"The doctor started asking Lance a couple of banal questions, and then boom, have you ever used any performance enhancing drugs? Lance, hanging onto his IV, rattled off EPO, testosterone, cortisone, growth hormone and steroids. My eyes popped out of my head."

Next on Four Corners reporter Quentin McDermott talks to people who worked for Armstrong, rode with him and some who raced against him. What they reveal will shock you."

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The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

Lance Armstrong: United States Anti-Doping Agency "REPORT ON PROCEEDINGS UNDER THE WORLD ANTI-DOPING CODE AND THE USADA PROTOCOL"

Here it is Folks:  All 202 pages of the USADA investigation into Lance Armstrong's doping programme.

I have never read any of his books, or supported any of his causes and for one good reason:  I have never believed his story.  I just could not believe that a man who had lost a testicle to cancer, and consequently undergone chemotherapy, could produce levels of testosterone that were at the highest levels of "normal".  I decided I would side with those on his team who came clean early on.  People like New Zealand's Stephen Swart, son of my sister's friend from long ago, Gail Swart.  A family with morals, if there ever was one.

While there are now more than 15 others who have blown the whistle on Armstrong Inc, most of these people confessed late in the peace - many after the fact.  Good on them!  However, we should be saving our strongest accolades to the early whistle-blowers who did so, not under duress, but out of a sense of moral duty.  In so doing, the consequence for them was being ostracised by the sport they loved so much.  Meanwhile, many of those who remained quiet became exceptionally wealthy.

Stephen Swart, you are a hero!  Here's a good interview with Stephen Swart: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/7805732/Swart-vindicated-by-Armstrong-report

Reasoned Decision

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About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

More about drugs in sport - Greg Lemond on cycling

Greg LeMond is a three-time winner of the Tour de France. His stance on anti-doping and performance enhancing substances has brought him into conflict with some of the most famous names in the sport.

In this speech he talks about his career and his highly contentious opinions and attitudes toward the way that drugs are continuing to effect the integrity of professional cycling.  Lemond also amusingly demonstrates the effects of jet lag on recall!

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The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.  Please give me your support by subscribing to my free email updates. Please shop at my Online Store. Please encourage your family and friends to do the same. While we may not always be able to compete with the big operators on price, we aim to more than compensate through personal service!

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Lance Armstrong - Is he a Sports Hero, or Low-down Drugs Cheat?

Think lance is the biggest drug cheat in sporting history and that's really saying something!

And the reason he got cancer in the first place is because he was using EPO, growth hormone, cortisone, steroids and testosterone.

The shit is about to hit the fan even though there probably hasn't been a drug free winner of the T de F since the 50's - it would be pretty much impossible to even make the top 100 clean since the 90's

But despite that I always enjoyed watching lance race, he's was tactically great too, and all his competition were juiced too, so fair enough - although maybe his use of hem-assist was giving him an unfair advantage



Ian
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Gary:
Despite Lance's books about his triumphs over adversity, including cancer, being recommended to me by enthusiastic readers, I have refused to read his books on principle.  Sport is full of cheats and cycling is one of the worst, if not the worst.  There are simply too many red flags surrounding Lance Armstrong to be ignored.  A proper investigation of the long list of allegations is way overdue.

When I listen to what former Armstrong team members like New Zealand's Steven Swart have to say on the subject, I know who I believe (Incidentally, Steven's mother, Gail is a friend and former team mate of my sister, Lorraine).

Have a read of the articles below which Ian Forwarded.  Interesting to see the New Zealand connections.  Let's hope it all comes to a head and a conclusion sooner than later.

Do the Landis Emails mark the beginning of the fall from grace of cycling legend, Lance Armstrong?

Is this the end of Lance Armstrong?

Interestingly, there is a New Zealand connection in this article; Stephen Swart of Hamilton, former Armstrong team mate. Swart's mother, by the way, Gail Swart, is a former NZ representative track athlete.
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"Lying in a tent at Gorak Shep, 5,170m above sea level in the heart of Nepal, you don’t expect Lance Armstrong to disturb the Himalayan peace. But a text message from a friend had done just that: “Landis, sensational confession, dynamite, implicated Armstrong and others.the six-hour trek down through Lobuche and Dughla to a cyber shack at Pheriche, one question recurred: why had Landis done it? Winner of the 2006 Tour de France, then disqualified after a positive drug test; he had spent two years and $2m in an unsuccessful attempt to clear his name. He returned to the sport after a two-year ban still preaching his innocence."
Read more here.

_______________________________________

About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.  Please give me your support by subscribing to my free email updates. Please shop at my Online Store. Please encourage your family and friends to do the same. While we may not always be able to compete with the big operators on price, we aim to more than compensate through personal service!

Your email address:

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Do you have a question?  Email Gary: gary@myotec.co.nz. Include any relevant background information to your question.  Please be patient and be aware that I may not be able to answer every inquiry in detail, depending on workloads (My paying clients take precedence!). I will either reply by email or, most likely, by way of an article (Personal identifying details will be removed before publication).

Marathon: "hardest physical thing I have ever done" - Lance Armstong

Armstrong, 35, stepped over the finish line in Central Park just under his goal in 2:59:36. His dark green shirt soaked in sweat, the superstar cyclist admitted that the last few miles of the race were a struggle. “Even after experiencing one of the hardest days of the Tour nothing has ever left me feeling this bad,” he said at a post-race news conference. “[My shins] started to hurt in the second half, but the bigger problem the last 7 or 8 miles was the tightness in my calves and thighs. My calves really knotted up. I can barely walk right now.”
Armstrong called the race “the hardest physical thing I have ever done.” While he competed in triathlons as a teenager, Armstrong had never attempted a marathon.
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Gary Moller Comments:
Cycling is almost 100% concentric exercise; whereas running is highly eccentric in nature. While they have an aerobic commonality, concentric exercise does not prepare the muscles and tendons for eccentric exercise as Lance Armstrong found out.

This also explains why the lifespan of a runner at the elite level is usually so short as compared to that of a pro cyclist.

If you would like to learn more about this, go to my E-Book on training for a marathon and read the sections that explain concentric and eccentric exercise and their implications for training, competition and recovery.
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