Cycling marathons such as the Tour de France requires rigorous training and a very high level of cardiovascular fitness. How would steroids help you ask? Well Erythropoeitin is a hormone our body naturally produces. Basically, it's in charge of the red blood cell production. This drug is relevant to cyclists because more red blood cells means more oxygen, and that means insane levels of cardio. The Tour de France is a 3500km race over 23 days, so to sustain their pace, many of these athletes turn to performance enhancing drugs.
EPO's certainly come with some costs. Increasing the number of red blood cells can clog veins and arteries. Thicker blood also increases the chances of getting a stroke or a heart attack. Around the time EPO's became popular, many cyclists died from heart attacks (7 in 2003-2004). But despite the dangers, cyclists continue to use EPO's because winning gold is their dream. There have been numerous scandals, but the biggest one happened in 2006. About 60 cyclists were found guilty and couldn't compete in the Tour. What's even crazier is that in the same year, the winner ended up getting stripped of his title because he was also doping but managed not to get caught. It seems that doping will always be an issue in cycling, unfortunately.
SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/sep/24/tyler-hamilton-tour-de-france
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/39997062/
SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/sep/24/tyler-hamilton-tour-de-france
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/39997062/
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| Lance Armstrong admitted to using EPO's during his training for Tour de France |
This blog post was very interesting to read! I did not know that doping in cycling was such a huge problem. I have heard about Lance Armstrong using these drugs, but I had never heard of any other cases. It is sad how many people think that they can get away with using performance enhancing drugs without being caught. I hope that professional athletes think of the consequences of their actions and try to win fair and square. Also, I suggest that you do not copy-paste anything into your blog post because it will highlight anything you copy-pasted as well as anything you type afterwards. Other than that, great work! :)
ReplyDeleteI copypasted the name of the steroid cause it's hard to type, thanks I was wondering why that happened
DeleteWow I'm really devastaded that Lance did dope, he was my childhood hero and now he riped my dreams to shreads, some popel look up to Micheal Jordan but I look up to lance. It's sad that some of our modern heroes would drop so low as do do dope, like I'm crying right now. But I would like to thank you for bringing out the truth to all the people of the world.
ReplyDeleteHey man I'm here for you if you wanna talk about it.
DeleteEven though I had my supicions of Lance doping in his competition i could never fully agree with them until now. I was also completely unaware that there are such things as "oxygen - enhancing" drugs. But if you were aware of the high risks of taking such a substance, why in the world would you bother? Clearly, each and every single one of these cyclists would like to win a gold medal for themselves but I seriously think that they sould rethink their decisions before putting their lifes in danger.
ReplyDeleteI guess gold is really tempting. Thanks for reading
DeleteCycling really does have a huge steroid problem. It is tragic that man as great as Lance Armstrong who combated a form and cancer and defeated it admitted to the use of steroids. It is true when they say never to meet your idols. The world of cycling really needs to get its act together.
ReplyDelete