Doping Consequences: A case study with Joe Papp

It is said that a cat burglar designs the best security system and for this reason Bike Pure sought the reformed doper Joe Papp to help us define solutions for the problem our wonderful sport has with drugs. by Myles McCorrym

On May 7, 2006, at the UCI Tour of Turkey, Papp was found positive for metabolites of testosterone at the post stage test for which he won – his fourth of the event. While he awaited definitive proof from his B sample, Papp's continued racing into July. Competing in Tuscany's 100-mile Granfondo Michele Bartoli, where he crashed with less than a half-mile to go. Papp initially thought he'd only endured a few scrapes. But by the time he lay down in his hotel room, his left buttock had swelled grotesquely. Papp cajoled his team soigneur into driving him to the closest hospital, in nearby Pescia. For he knew the injury was not innocuous. Surgeons operated on Papp several days later, removing a mass of EPO-damaged sludge that amounted to roughly a fourth of his blood volume.

Back in the U.S., doctors would later tell him that after the lethal cocktail of EPO and blood thinners that his team had provided , Papp was lucky to be alive. Joe Papp is now an outspoken, no holds barred opponent of the use of illegal performance enhancing methods and substances in sport. He has lived, he has witnesses, first-hand – the damage that can be done to a rider’s reputation, their marriage and their career in the wake of a conviction or admission of doping. While Papp is not unique in that he is one of dozens of professional cyclists sanctioned for doping during the past several years (over 60 in 2009 alone), his is a story worth telling, if only to deter one young athlete from taking the tempting first step down the dark path that ends for too many only in expulsion, arrest, or death - a career of cheating..." Read the Full Interview at Bike Pure.

Bike Pure aims to promote clean riders, moving the spotlight away from the dopers by working towards life bans for the cheats. Have your say by joining BikePure and wearing a wristband or headset spacer, visit their website www.bikepure.org for more information. Bike Pure is an independent, non profit organization, committed to redirecting trust to professional cycle sport. Bike Pure is an umbrella group for all concerned parties in cyclesport. A medium to let the fans, riders, teams and cycle trade join together in a united stance for an new era of clean cycling.

The piece was also covered on at least tow other sites:
1) Bicycle.net - California, USA
2) New Zealand Road Cycling – New Zealand

I Love my Bike Pure Socks

Seriously, they're great. I like the jersey too, and the headset spacer is nice, and next I'm ordering a T-shirt. The socks, though, are great b/c they are functional and properly fitted, but also convey a pseudo-political or ethical message (I am now opposed to doping in cycling) without doing so in an over-the-top manner.

 Made with 75% Ultra-wicking Micro Denier Acrylic, 15% Nylon, and 10% Spandex, Bike-Pure socks are produced by The Sock Guy, and I'm wearing Size L/XL. They're also available in S/M.

Bike Pure has an online-store, here, but you can get stuff like the socks from your local IBD, if they'll stock it. I know that I get mine from BikeTek in Pittsburgh.

Now get out there and ride!

Daryl Impey (soon-to-be Radio Shack) Rides his Bike (turbo) PURE and Remarkably Fast!

"Daryl Impey - Barloworld, now Radio Shack, rides his bike(turbo) pure and remarkably fast" - BikePure

My comments: Bravo, Daryl. But the real achievement will be made when supporting anti-doping in cycling as a pro means more than just wearing the blue band or inserting the blue headset spacer. Action is the ultimate gesture of solidarity and commitment to the fight against sporting fraud, doping in sport and the protection of the athletes' physical and mental health and well-being. Don't get me wrong, it takes balls to sign for LA, Inc's team and sport the BikePure logo, but it takes even more balls to NOT have been caught doping but still rat out other dopers or expose corruption in the system.

My only fear is that the BikePure brand is going to be co-opted by the dopers themselves, who will sport the BP Blue as a badge that, at first glance, may deflect suspicion and buy them some tenuous, top-level credibility and allow them to escape scrutiny. I know Myles and Andy are reading this and are probably three steps ahead of my thinking at this point, but it would be crushingly demoralizing if a current pro and BikePure supporter were to ever test positive. Let's hope for the best, eh?

In the meanwhile, hustle on over to the BikePure Store and pick-up your own BP gear. And Bike Shops especially should consider the BikePure Shop Pack:

bikepure shop pack: Show your support for the future of cycle sport. Pack contents:- 30 bands (both sizes) - Plus shop window sticker, - 3 bands and spacers for staff. For Sale @2 each. 30*2= 60 -Cost from BP = 30... [Editor's note: Sounds like a good deal.]

So troops, make your voice heard in the fight against doping in cycling by displaying the BikePure wristband and headset spacer!

And yes, I did race against at least one of the BikePure founders! See if you can find him in this results sheet from the Irish Rás!

results sheet

Bike Pure - And Why the Athletes Must Speak

I had a great anti-doping heart-to-heart with BikePure earlier this afternoon. I wish I had $1,000,000 so I could donate part of it to support BP and propagate their message...I don't, but I'm still trying to help by contributing to BP the details of my sordid affair with EPO and doping in general. I hope other cyclists who've taken similarly misguided paths will consider working with BikePure to drive the grassroots fight against doping - which has to start with free, open dialogue and a realistic assessment of what the hell has been going on not just in cycling, but in sport in general with regards to the use of performance enhancing drugs and illegal methods of preparation.

I believe that it is vitally important for athletes who've doped and are seeking redemption to tell the truth about what they did, what they gained by doping, and perhaps most importantly, what they may have lost. Doping is something that pays almost immediate dividends, but apart from perhaps the monies spent on actual doping products or medical supervision, it doesn't reveal its full cost in terms of harming the well-being of the athlete and his sport until much later - and usually only after the wheels have come off. Scientific studies and research, including as the work done by Birekeland KI, Stray-Gundersen J, Hemmersbach P, et al. Effect of rhEPO administration on serum levels of sTfr and cycling performance. Med Sci Sport Exerc 2000; 32:1238-43, have confirmed that EPO can improve athletic performance in as little as four weeks, but there is little data or even informed discussion of the long-term adverse effects of EPO use on the physical and mental health of athletes. Patrick Mignon of France's CESAMES - the Research Center on Mental Health, Psychotropics, and Society - writes:

"If the knowledge of the physiological effects of doping has progressed, this is not the case for that about the long term consequences of doping on the state of health of former athletes, whose physical dependency might be one of the characteristics. This calls for the appropriated apparatuses for observation that could link the careers of athletes to their health history (wounds, consumption of psychoactive substances, recourse to mental health) and quantitative studies (combination of grids for questionnaires, elaboration of questionnaires aimed at targeted groups or at the general population). The analysis of the pharmacological effects of a substance is not enough. To it must be added the sociological analysis of dependency as a dependency on a life style that supposes the involvement in the career of top level athlete. This must be carried out through the analysis of the organization of time and of the relations between an athlete and the actors in charge of them. The analysis of high level sports as a life style thus leads back to a reflection risk behavior, to analyze the question of drugs i sports as both an aspect of this life style and a way of managing the exit from the world of sports..." [Editor's note: The Research Center on Mental Health, Psychotropics and Society (CESAMES) is a mixed research unit of France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the University René Descartes Paris 5.]

Though I've had some opportunity to speak on the dangers of doping and retell my own story as a warning to others, I hope that over time I will be able to play a more active role in the anti-doping movement, especially with regards to educating young athletes on the full spectrum of risks they face by involving themselves in doping.

More on the Birkeland study:

"BIRKELAND, K. I., J. STRAY-GUNDERSEN, P. HEMMERSBACH, J. HALLEN, E. HAUG, and R. BAHR. Effect of rhEPO administration on serum levels of sTfR and cycling performance. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 1238-1243, 2000.

Purpose: We assessed the possibility of using soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) as an indicator of doping with recombinant erythropoietin (rhEPO).

Methods: A double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted with the administration of 5000 U of rhEPO (N = 10) or placebo (N = 10) three times weekly (181-232 U[middle dot]kg-1[middle dot]wk-1) for 4 wk to male athletes. We measured hematocrit and the concentration of hemoglobin, sTfR, ferritin, EPO, and quantified the effects on performance by measuring time to exhaustion and maximal oxygen uptake ( O2max) on a cycle ergometer.

Results: Hematocrit increased from 42.7 /- 1.6% to 50.8 /- 2.0% in the EPO group, and peaked 1 d after treatment was stopped. In the EPO group, there was an increase in sTfR (from 3.1 /- 0.9 to 6.3 /- 2.3 mg[middle dot]L-1, P < 0.001) and in the ratio between sTfR and ferritin (sTfR[middle dot]ferritin-1) (from 3.2 /- 1.6 to 11.8 /- 5.1, P < 0.001). The sTfR increase was significant after 1 wk of treatment and remained so for 1 wk posttreatment. Individual values for sTfR throughout the study period showed that 8 of 10 subjects receiving rhEPO, but none receiving placebo, had sTfR levels that exceeded the 95% confidence interval for all subjects at baseline (= 4.6 mg[middle dot]L-1). O2max increased from 63.6 /- 4.5 mL[middle dot]kg-1[middle dot]min-1 before to 68.1 /- 5.4 mL[middle dot]kg-1[middle dot]min-1 2 d post rhEPO administration (7% increase, P = 0.001) in the EPO group. Hematocrit, sTfR, sTfR[middle dot]ferritin-1, and O2max did not change in the placebo group."

Support BikePure on Twitter:

Bike Pure

Recently I was contacted by BikePure to offer my feedback on efforts they are contemplating to "change all of cyclesport for the better." I was intrigued, to say the least, and offered my honest thoughts and opinions, and I wish BP success in their mission. I wear the blue BP wristband when it doesn't clash with my kit, and intend to install the BP headset spacer if I am able to build-up a new carbon bike. There is not much commentary for me to offer, and the point of this post is more to make you aware of the organization and the debate it inspires. I'll post some basic info below, but recommend you give thought and contemplation to their efforts. You may agree, you may not...but at least you'll have taken the time to think about the issue.

WHO IS BIKE PURE?
"Bike Pure is an independent, non profit organisation, committed to redirecting trust to Professional cycle sport. Bike Pure is an umbrella group for all concerned parties in cyclesport. A medium to let the fans, riders, teams and cycle trade join together in a united stance for an new era of clean cycling." - BikePure website

Visit BikePure first, and then take a look at what is being discussed at CyclingNews.com here. Excellent article in the press covering BikePure is here.