Pantani

[Jimmy]

Since the price of a drugs programme was tens of thousands a year, and the prize a fell running hero stands to win is a pair of Pete Bland's finest socks, and on a good day a vest thrown in, you would rightly laugh out loud: it is cheaper to buy them from the van than medication to cheat, and runners are generally yorkshiremen, tightfisted or both!.
On the other hand to be out doing big fell races in some of the weather they throw at us, we all have to be a few jelly babies short of a packet, so not sure logic is how we get there!!

I'm sure you're right.. but even at my crap level, I've had jokey conversations with some much better runners where we were talking about getting competitive advantage from being at altitude in the Alps, oxygen tents etc. Of course that's totally legit, but the hyper-competitive mindset is still there, even at that level of athlete. Funny & pathetic, but it's not about money very often I think. There have been some highly embarrassing cases of totally rubbish amateur athletes being busted (cylists) for self administered EPO regimes! Incredible but there's no end to human weirdness.

Anyway, I need some un-shattered illusions or I'll go and get the rope

[alwaysinjured]

I'm sure you're right.. but even at my crap level, I've had jokey conversations with some much better runners where we were talking about getting competitive advantage from being at altitude in the Alps, oxygen tents etc. Of course that's totally legit, but the hyper-competitive mindset is still there, even at that level of athlete. Funny & pathetic, but it's not about money very often I think. There have been some highly embarrassing cases of totally rubbish amateur athletes being busted (cylists) for self administered EPO regimes! Incredible but there's no end to human weirdness.

Anyway, I need some un-shattered illusions or I'll go and get the rope

I know...masters athletes cheating to win age group amateur races. How pathetic.
How can they ever think they "won" if they knew the "success" was earned that way?

I just thought the mindgame of someone cheating to win a pair of pete bland socks amusing!

Have you noticed the website "digital EPO?" you can even cheat your upload files for strava and win KOMs!

What worried me more, was at the A-ROD clinic, a lot of the clients were parents paying for doping for kids.

[Jimmy]

I know...masters athletes cheating to win age group amateur races. How pathetic.
How can they ever think they "won" if they knew the "success" was earned that way?

I just thought the mindgame of someone cheating to win a pair of pete bland socks amusing!

Have you noticed the website "digital EPO?" you can even cheat your upload files for strava and win KOMs!

Still haven't bothered to find out what strava is yet...some sort of global positioning tracking device? I'll have a look at this digital EPO site though.

The masters athletes cheating to win amateur races is no more pathetic than the pro-elite 'public-pleasers' like the Pirate though if you think about it.

[Mike T]

" The masters athletes cheating to win amateur races is no more pathetic than the pro-elite 'public-pleasers' like the Pirate though if you think about it. "

Agreed.

[brummievet]

I recommend Pantani- The Accidental Death Of A Cyclist.

Non- judgemental (good), suggestive that he was killed by a betting sydicate (odd), Wiggins saying he didn't feel worthy to be in the same race as Pantani (true!)...and containing footage of him in his pomp in 1998 when he was the last person to win the Giro and the Tour (sublime).

A good turn out at Pictureville in Bradford where I am sure there were some moist eyes in the dark.

Maybe he really was killed by a betting syndicate. Seems they're looking into it again:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28637575