French anti-doping experts suggest a so-called "magic box" might be behind Tadej Pogacar's great performances
CyclingSaturday, 26 October 2024 at 10:50
Tadej Pogacar's spectacular performances in 2024 had once again raised the questions about possible doping. Group of specialists from the Radio France Investigation Unit run a research with focus on the phenomenon of overmedicalization, Cyclism'Actu reports.
The investigation delves deeper into the problem of overmedicalization in cycling, highlighting the role of Mauro Gianetti, the controversial manager of Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates.
Gianetti, a former rider, is a poster child for this problem. In 1998, he nearly died after injecting himself with perfluorocarbon (PFC), a substance that is supposed to improve oxygen transport in the blood. Although Gianetti has denied the injection, his former teammate, Éric Boyer, has his doubts. Boyer believes that the presence of figures with dubious pasts such as Gianetti or Alexander Vinokourov is irresponsible for the future of the sport.
The investigation also highlights the availability of various drugs in the peloton. Cyclists have access to substances such as Voltaren, caffeine or paracetamol, often in the form of cocktails. An anonymous witness describes the "magic box", a box containing various drugs, freely distributed before races. The concept of the "bomba", a mixture of these authorized products, recalls the amphetamine cocktails that were once widespread.
Ketones, newly popularized, are also an example of this "grey area" in which cycling operates. Sold as food supplements, they improve recovery and increase the level of red blood cells. Although the UCI and the MPCC advise against their use, they are tolerated in certain teams, with medical monitoring. A cyclist says that some managers prefer to supervise the taking of ketones rather than prohibit their use, which, according to him, is similar to a form of doping.
The use of sophisticated medical equipment, such as carbon monoxide rebreathers, is also problematic. Originally designed for dialysis patients, these devices are now used in cycling to simulate high altitude, thereby stimulating the production of EPO. This "legal doping" worries experts like hematologist Gérard Dine, who points out that these techniques hijack medical advances. According to him, these practices allow cyclists to circumvent anti-doping controls without directly violating the rules, by exploiting technological and regulatory loopholes.
Experts are calling for reform to stop this medical "arms race", particularly in teams and among young cyclists. Jean-Pierre Verdy, former director of the French Anti-Doping Agency, considers this massive use of drugs to be a form of doping, albeit a legal one.
Read also
claps 41visitors 23
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
May 12, 11:09
0
Popular news
Latest comments
- These roadies can't hack it on the Trail 😁 #getwellsoon 👍
leedorney25-05-2025 - Primoz! very bad luck... I hope the rest-day will be enough for him to recover from the many crashes (3 in race and 1 doing the TT reco).
maria2024202425-05-2025 - noooo, no more. No one expect one day race. Lately, he doesn't even race 1 week tours. It's a fact. I don't understand why his fans get so upset about the description of facts.maria2024202425-05-2025
- Let's hope that's not the case. If he retires early, then it may be an era of infighting within UAE.
KerisVroom25-05-2025 - I was a bit worried that he kept following the attacks that he might crack later like how Tadej cracked when he impulsively followed the relaying attacks from Jonas and Primoz in TdF. Luckily, things calmed down later.KerisVroom25-05-2025
- Senna? Fortunately, the vast majority of cyclists and racers are all alive and well, even the most adventurous. There's no need to come out and defend Jonas (and thus indirectly diminish the others) because no one attacks him. I'm simply describing his behavior and describing how those who are afraid of racing usually finish the career. That's all.maria2024202425-05-2025
- If he is going to the Tour, then he should abandon, get some rest, do some altitude training and maybe race the Dauphine before the Tour. Racing is always the best training but the last week of this Giro is going to be hell, no need to take your body down a peg or two when you need some rest already.awp25-05-2025
- Isaac del Toro is looking more and more like a potential Giro champion as this race goes on. You can see his confidence growing day by day, and he looked very strong and alert during today's stage, which I'm sure that Juan Ayuso is not enjoying it at all.
santiagobenites25-05-2025 - Hahaha, it's okay for fans to expect, but the athlete doesn't need to comply with expectation. It's good that Vingo stands his ground. Otherwise, he'll be crushed under expectation like Wout did earlier in the spring. I kind of enjoy current generation of cyclists because they know what is important outside of cycling. That keep them grounded, unlike the previous generation which wasn't too unfriendly with each other off the bike.KerisVroom25-05-2025
- Yeah, people, full of expectations, but what are THEY providing? And do THEY live up to others’? Seems part of modern cowardice, if you can’t take out your frustrations in your own life on those you consider responsible, start hitting on someone completely innocent.Mistermaumau25-05-2025
Bottom line. French riders are not winning but winging as usual and Boyer did he even win a pro race?? How have pro riders suddenly become experts in medicine. Nothing to see here move along please
Them not winning definitely doesn't mean they're not on the sauce too. They certainly are.
Firstly, it’s not them, it’s their doctors and consultants and people contacting them trying to sell their wares. Secondly, now that there’s money in the sport, they can afford it, and peddlers see lucrative opportunities to separate them from their earnings, not very complicated to follow, in fact, wasn’t the whole modern thing started by someone having access to an oversized sponsor budget as there was a good marketing alignment of nationalistic and feelgood stories?
Th
Despite their proven benefit as PEDs, they still don't test for placebos. They don't even have a test for them!
funny.
There is some truth to it. British Cycling enlisted some riders for an experiment with placebos where they rode two kills in one day, which I believe is illegal in competition because of recovery time required.
Anywaysmost did better in the afternoon using placebos. Some even set personal and national records. It was covered on BBC's Panorama. It added to my suspicions that most of doping is a waste of time and money.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3q4ale
You have a very limited understanding of physiology if you think PEDs don't work. Some absolutely work better than others but not many will benefit you the moment you take it...methamphetamines being one of the PEDs the can help you right when you take them.
Veganpotter, I’d take that as a compliment, like not knowing how to manufacture a bomb :-)
Nice one. Not 100% officially a placebo but in my early days of group training in Mallorca I and another guy were reputed to ride without food (and once I paid the price for it having to be pushed back to base). On one particularly long outing things started getting difficult and the other guy mentioned he could really do with something to eat, one of the jokers offered him a home-wrapped snack, the latest nutritional supplement on the market and he started flying, showing and boasting all the way home how good he was feeling. At dinner, in front of 40 or so of his mates it was then revealed it had simply been a premeditated prank with a cheap doggy biscuit. Don’t know if anyone later ever considered experimenting with dogfood doping, was just happy not to have been selected as the victim.
It's an interesting take to call something that simulates altitude training as doping. If that's the case, what about cyclists living in flat countries using indoor trainers that simulate climbs? Or the latest trend of heat training in a really hot room instead of going to a country with a hot climate?
Few don't do both and more. Train at altitude, while taking ketones, blood doping and EPO.
Would he complain if Pogacar was French? I wonder…
That's an impossible hypothetical because nobody can fathom a French rider winning
Give Lance back his trophies. Every leading rider he competed against was also doping most likely. Either really find a way to ban drugs, legal or illegal, or jus make it wide open and let them kill themselves for a few bucks and fleeting glory.
Lance was the Milli Vanilli of cycling.
More like their manager if you think about it. Mr conficential was his own man, nobody’s puppet.
In fact, I’m surprised no-one saw this coming considering his family name’s significance as a verb.
Lance wasn't punished for doping alone. He was an absolute POS
There are the Enhanced Olympics for that, funnily enough, no matter how much money is being promised, it doesn’t seem to be attracting many athletes except a few almost has-beens. In any case, all those in favour should be consuming too, with a disclaimer they won’t seek medical help once things go awry.
So they are complaining that some guys are using legal stuff...
Yep, a loadof old blx. Next they will accuse them of taking gels and ketones are not a 'grey area'. Also there is no evidence whatsoever of carbon monoxide rebreathers being used. Anyway I can get the same effect by holding my breath, I do 4x 30 secs. And finally these practices DO NOT allow cyclists to circumvent anti-doping controls.
Yep, next they’ll be saying diving records are invalid because they practice not breathing and end up being able to do so for unfathomable lengths of time, longer than some time TdF time trials if my memory serves me right.
It's really just a ruse to make the public think this is all from legal tech. It absolutely isn't😅
But...pretty much everything that has become illegal was legal at one point. LSD, opium, cocaine...
Sorry but that is a distorted way of presenting things, they have never really been legal, they were just not regulated (yet).
You obviously can’t ban something before it exists.
Other things that weren’t and aren’t banned have been at times, alcohol, under (a different) -age sex and marriage.
Legislation is a complicated matter especially worldwide. We find it incredible a 12 year old can be forced into sex through marriage in underdeveloped countries and yet, coming from the worlds’ « moral guide »…
In California, for instance, the general marriage age is 18, but children may be married with parental consent and judicial approval with no minimum age limit.[49]
As of June 2024, in the states that have set a marriage age by statute, the lower minimum marriage age when all exceptions are taken into account, are:
4 states have no minimum age (effectively 0).
2 states have a minimum age of 15.
21 states have a minimum age of 16.
10 states have a minimum age of 17.
13 states have a minimum age of 18.
From 2017[50][51] to 2024,[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62] several states changed their law to set a minimum age, to raise their minimum age, or to make more stringent the conditions under which an underage marriage may occur. In the absence of any statutory minimum age, some conclude that the minimum common law marriageable age of 12 for girls and 14 for boys may still apply.[63][64]
« In California, for instance, the general marriage age is 18, but children may be married with parental consent and judicial approval with no minimum age limit.[49]
As of June 2024, in the states that have set a marriage age by statute, the lower minimum marriage age when all exceptions are taken into account, are:
4 states have no minimum age (effectively 0).
2 states have a minimum age of 15.
21 states have a minimum age of 16.
10 states have a minimum age of 17.
13 states have a minimum age of 18.
From 2017[50][51] to 2024,[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62] several states changed their law to set a minimum age, to raise their minimum age, or to make more stringent the conditions under which an underage marriage may occur. In the absence of any statutory minimum age, some conclude that the minimum common law marriageable age of 12 for girls and 14 for boys may still apply.[63][64] »
I know we're off-topic but, hey, Jerry Lee Lewis and Edgar Allen Poe. They both did the biathlon by marrying 13-year-olds who were also relatives. And of course it's still business as usual in many if not most African and Asian countries, and, yes, in some parts of America. Yet the newspaper the Guardian (good for cycling stories if nothing else) loves Poe but relishes calling Epstein a pedophile, despite there being no indication anyone nearly that young was involved.
Yeah, ok, but you have to kind of admit there’s some difference comparing 2 persons 200 years apart.
We can take this back in time to when life expectancy was twenties for many parts of populations so almost nobody could have procreate let alone raise a child according to today’s standards.
We have other issues today needing updating, like adjusting the age of retirement (or at least the distribution over time of retirement income) according to ever longer life expectancy.
Did you know that for many decades the retirement age in Bolivia ended up being higher than the average life expectancy so most people got sweet f.a.
Wtf . Get a life nothing to do with the subject
Mainly things like you just listed didn't have a true "test" available to the UCI/ASO.
Doping has been around as long as the TDF for the most part. Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond, Miguel Induráin and more all used something. Most of the time the UCI didn't have a test for it. I remember EPO being talked about 10yrs before anyone was tested in a major cycling event. Riders at times had to set alarms to wake up and ride for an hour or so at night. Why? So there blood didn't thicken and cause it to not flow correctly and kill them. Riding a bike on rollers every few hours was the only thing that they knew worked. Cycling is a dirty sport. But, we love it and the drama and amazing rides. And the riders are willing to risk everything to win. To be the best at the sport
Yeah, let’s just discuss important matters while the world goes to bits ;-) Enjoy your entertainment but stay responsible!
Nobody cares about this nonsense.