Weirdly enough, my friends who were in med school very openly admitted to using them for cramming for an exam the night before. Their reasoning: we are med students, we know the (side) effects better than the general population. I don’t know about this …
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The medical profession are odd about things like this. It remains remarkable that over 30% of doctors in France and Italy smoke, despite (presumably) being better aware than anyone of the possible consequences.
I suppose this ties in, slightly, to the doping mentality: ‘I won’t get caught’/‘I know how to beat the system’/‘I know how to reduce the health risks’. The ‘it won’t happen to me’ mentality is a common one.
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Yeah, tell me about it. My mom has worked in the hospital for decades, had a stroke at age 50ish, has late-stage terminal cancer with metastases in the lung and still smokes. Oh, and she is afraid of doctors. 
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When it comes to money and pride, people are always going to cheat. A simple example. There are only so many openings on Team X. Athlete A is not doping and gets a slot on Team X. I absolutely believe athletes B, C, D, E, F, etc. would dope to be fractionally better than athlete A. I’m not talking about the top of the top here. I’m just talking about getting to be the weakest rider on the team. People will do whatever it takes to make it on the team. It’s just human nature. I’m not saying for everyone, but for many. This is how you end up with an entire Pro peloton rationalizing doping. It’s the “everyone does it so I do too” mentality.
Side note…it’s so appropriate to be having this discussion with someone named PusherMan 
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Don’t underestimate the motive of someone “running out of time”. In some ways, an older athlete has more to gain (a big win/state/regional/national title) and less to lose (how much longer will they realistically be able to race anyway?) from doping. Some people will do anything for their one shot at glory.
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Sorry dude. That sucks.
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The code for rich guy doping is “anti-aging clinic”.
It takes about 45 seconds of google to find a “clinic” in your area and a doc who will prescribe whatever you want. Be ready to open your wallet and remember these guys don’t care about your health, they can about making money from your desperation (or delusion).
Our LA participates in the USAC grass roots doping program. So far each athlete we have targeted for testing has come back positive. We only buy a few tests per year, and are frankly only targeting the guys who we think need some help and might be seriously damaging their health. Does it help deter anyone? Don’t know but I suspect probably not (sadly).
Take home - if you’ve lined up for a bike race and pinned on a number, you have raced against a doper. It will range from a little bit of test plus maybe some andro, to guys on full blown programs with physician oversight.
Some references:
USADA white paper on anti-aging: What Athletes Need to Know about Wellness and Anti-Aging Clinics | USADA
AMA - Journal of Ethics (older editorial) Physicians and the Sports Doping Epidemic | Journal of Ethics | American Medical Association
Piece from Down Under: Anti-ageing clinics linked to sports doping
There have been many many academic dissertations on ethics and morals and technology vs pharmaceuticals and what constitutes “doping” or “cheating”. Here is a recap of one of the more voluminous pieces of work looking at different “angles” (the original paper is behind a paywall):
There is simply nothing new here in terms of human behavior on or off the field. “Performance Enhancement” is not leaving human culture anytime soon.
Personally, I don’t worry about it. As a life time member of the Cat 3 Pack Fill Club (that should be a meme) my life doesn’t change one bit if another member of the club slathers on some test or gets hold of some andro. Hope it adds something to their lives. I turned to time trialing years ago as it is: (a) bit safer and (b) fun to chase position and marginal gains fiddling with the bike and (c) I can race against myself. My time. My power. My effort. Breakfast with friends post-race and then go back home to mow the lawn or paint the fence.
-Mark
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Fooking A…THIS.
Someone else noted above that most people don’t know about TUE’s, etc and brush it off w/ a casual “I’ve got ‘low T’ and a scrip from my doc, so it is OK”.
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Way more science and history of safety on these drugs than the current thing everyone is injecting into their arms🤷🏼♂️
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Love your take on this. Compete with yourself. Don’t compare yourself to others or get caught in the trap of worrying what others are or aren’t taking because it is out of your control. 
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Whoever dopes is an idiot, amateurs even more. Pity for such fools.
I never compete against anybody else than myself, i never regard any opponent as enemy needed to be beaten… for me it is only me I am competing against. No doping helps me with that.
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I’ve thought about this before. On the assumption that the exam is a bit of a tick box exercise (not passing a test that is safety related - like flying) I seem to care less than the Sports doping.
Folks have got bills/life to sort and lot’s of exams act as gate keeping. Rich folks use their connections/money to get ahead …
I’m lucky I got my current position without too much competition (I got into my industry early). But if I was a youngster I’d be tempted, and probably wouldn’t care.
“Cheating is ok, just not when I say it’s not”
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This.
It’s amateur racing. There’s always going to be someone faster than you doping or no doping. Race for yourself.
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Whether it’s a race or a long training ride, there’s a big spiritual aspect for me during those rides. That side would be completely overshadowed if I knew I had some sort of performance enhancing substance in me…
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Amateur doping has nothing to do with the sport. It’s about how you feel. When you get to 50 and there are thing you can take to feel like 30, it becomes very tempting. The fact that he races bikes is only a byproduct of how he feels.
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whoever thinks like that as an amateur cyclist, is still 16 in his head.
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16 is not bad.
Plenty (tens of millions) of grown men and women reach peak maturity at age 5, as revealed during the pandemic and this past election cycle.
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I know people who can’t be bothered to consistently train more than 5 hours a week who have $10k bikes, pay for coaching, have wardrobes full of top end kit, the latest shoes and glasses, talk endlessly about cycling, etc. I don’t think it’s a big leap to think that there are some people who would dope while not even being close to an optimised training approach.
Also suspect there’s quite a bit of doping which isn’t even aimed at cycling performance. I know of a guy who does big epic destination type events to complete not compete, and posts lots of pics about it on social media. Suspect that his number of instagram followers is as important a metric for him as his FTP. He got randomly selected for testing at one of these events and popped for an anabolic steroid. I can almost guarantee he was taking that steroid to improve muscle definition and look good in photos (does quite a bit of lifting, does a bit of cross fit), not to improve his cycling.
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That’s exactly the point! They feel 20 in the head but the body is 50 and the drugs allow them to feel the body at 20 again. Whether you agree with that or not, it’s not hard to understand it.
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