Some empirical notes on the ‘epo epidemic’ in professional cycling.

Journal of Athletic Enhancement , 2013

In the aftermath of USADA’s doping charges, Lance Armstrong eventually acknowledged the use of banned substances during his professional cycling career. Reckoning his confessions, we decided to evaluate Armstrong’s sportive accomplishments by comparing his winning time trial achievements with achievements demonstrated by other riders in similar races over the years. In time trial racing, there are no collaborating riders on the course, making opportunities to profit from other riders’ efforts through drafting impossible. Time trial performances thus solely depend on the strength and endurance of the individual rider. Accordingly, we argue that an examination of the ‘historic’ variation in these individual performances will increase chances to detect the influence of illicit doping aids on Armstrong’s performances. In view of his doping use, we expected that his performances would be faster compared to performances of his counterparts in foregoing and succeeding years. We scrutinized archival records of the cycling sport and retrieved information concerning Armstrong’s winning time trial performances (N = 7), realized in the Tour de France (1999–2005), as well as performances of other riders (N = 55) who, from 1934 to 2010, won races in the three European Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a España) and all faced time trial distances comparable to Armstrong’s (50–61 km). We examined our research question by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with riders as the independent variable (Armstrong vs. the other riders) and mean km/h performances as the dependent variable in which we controlled for the influence of year of competition (i.e., the year in which riders won their time trial) and distances of the trials on riders’ speed. ANCOVA initially revealed that Armstrong (Mkm/h = 49.37) indeed raced faster relative to the other riders (Mkm/h = 44.67, p ≤ .05). However, this main effect disappeared (p = .80) after controlling for the influence of competition year on riders’ performances, b = 0.20 km/h, p ≤ .001. Distance did not have a significant influence, b = -0.03 km/h, p = .84. ANCOVA further indicated that all but one of Armstrong’s performances fell within the bandwidth of the 68%–confidence interval. Reckoning the historic variation in riders’ performances, Armstrong’s achievements do not appear to be outstanding or atypical, implying that effects of the performance–enhancing doping aids he resorted to are limited. Alternatively, his performances can also be plausibly explained by a gradual progress in speed over time, which is characteristic for professional cycling races such as the Tour de France.

Technium Social Sciences Journal

The cycling champion Lance Armstrong was at the heart of a doping system that gave rise to one of the most important scandals the sports world has ever known. Numerous studies have been devoted to the topic, adopting a medical, ethical, legal or psychological point of view. However, no research has addressed the organizational dimensions of an extremely sophisticated doping system that allowed Lance Armstrong to win seven successive Tours de France. The objective of this paper is to propose a reflection on these underestimated organizational dimensions, in particular as regards the management of the supply of doping products during the different stages (“étapes”) of the Tours de France. Beyond the specific case of doping in professional cycling, lessons can be drawn on the understanding of the logistical mechanisms related to the traffic of illicit substances.

American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajssm/2/5/4 © Science and Education Publishing. , 2014

This archival study (N = 100) compared Lance Armstrong's time trial wins to victories demonstrated by all former multiple Grand Tour winners (1949-1995; Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Indurain) and by riders who won similar races in the three major European Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and Vuelta a España) from 2006 to 2013, who were either involved in doping affairs or not. Regression analyses yielded a non-significant M = 142 seconds difference between Armstrong vs. the aggregated other riders (∆R2 = .001, p = .20). The effect emerged after controlling for the influence of competition year (b =-12.23 s per year, ∆R2 = .045, p ≤ .001) and trial distances (b = 84.64 s per kilometer trial distance, ∆R2 = .933, p ≤ .001) on the variation in riders' speed. Furthermore, Armstrong along with other riders who were suspended for doping use or who acknowledged having used doping in the 2006-2013 periods did not outperform riders who were not involved in doping affairs during the same years (M =-68 s, ∆R2 = .01, p = .35). Findings disprove the argument from ignorance, a false logic which refers to the often heard opinion that cyclists' performances over time (including Armstrong's wins) are mainly determined by their use of increasingly potent doping aids. However, in contrast to this logic, the distances of the time trials constitute the main determinant of riders' performances rather than the year in which they competed, and riders engaged in doping affairs did not significantly outperform riders who were not.

Sport in History, 2005

Since the Tour de France doping scandal of 1998 there has been a concerted effort to 'clean up' cycling. But has this meant a change in attitude regarding the use of doping within the professional cycling community? In order to compare norms and values of today's elite cyclist with those of earlier periods, three historical phases in modern cycling are identified, and an account of professional cyclists' preparations is given for each phase. Because of the different attitudes to doping found between riders of different categories, the article considers it necessary to reject the commonly held view that elite cyclists all take part in the same deviant subculture. The 1998 Tour de France scandal made it clear to everyone that doping was being systematically used within the sport of cycling. [1] The investigations by the French police revealed that an entire cycling culture Á/ riders, coaches, doctors and officials Á/ had secretly lived with and practised doping as part of their particular lifestyle. Since then, a major effort has been made to clean up the sport. Cycling's governing bodies and a number of public institutions have been involved and have contributed to the intensified campaign against the use of drugs in the sport. A key event in this campaign was the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999 and the signing of the

2013

The rediscovery in the past four years of the widespread and highly organized use of performance-enhancing drugs—known as “doping”—in professional cycling has thrown the sport into a period of turmoil. Through a critical historical analysis, the article argues that profound institutional changes introduced into professional cycling by the sport’s governing body both facilitated and reflected the increasing commercial penetration of the sport. These institutional transformations put new pressures on team managers and racers, leading to significant changes in team organizations and rider preparation, in part fostering a new social organization of doping practices.

Open Access Library Journal, 1, e1045.

Studies examining efects of doping in professional road racing building on archival records of the three major European stage races — the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a España — concluded that riders’ inal performances in the ‘epo era’ (> 1990) strongly improved, yet declined since 2004. However, these observations can be criticized on methodological grounds. First, the current study concentrates on the criterion used in these ‘historic’ studies to indirectly examine efects of doping agents on riders’ speed, arguing that time trial performances are more valid than inal performances to evaluate these efects. Second, we will pay attention to an informal logical law — the Texas sharpshooter fallacy — which may have biased indings and conclusions presented in the studies. To empirically substantiate our critique, we analyzed mean kilometers per hour (km/h) performances realized by winning riders in all time trials on lat and rolling terrain in the three tours (1933–2013, N = 325). Regression analyses revealed no evidence for non–linear in– or decreases in riders’ speed beyond the 1990s, but a straightforward linear progress over time of b = 0.16 km/h per year (R2 = 0.50, p ≤ .001). Findings corroborate our comments on previous archival studies and qualify opinions about efects of the ‘epo epidemic’ on cyclists’ achievements, since the time trial performances delivered in these years are no exemption to the observed linear progress in speed.

Sports Medicine, 2007

Anti-doping activism represents the mainstream of the current anti-doping campaign and includes both an ethical critique of doping and a call for the sharpening of sanctions. At the same time, evolving evidence indicates that systemic doping in some sports has existed on a larger scale than most observers thought possible. Doping has historical roots in the physiological demands of extreme endurance sport. The Victorian philosophy of sportsmanship and fair competition that emphasises the importance of a capacity for self-restraint and expresses a code of honour, once associated with the gentleman ideal, is the basis of the current anti-doping movement. The problem with this focus is the assumption that there is a contradiction between high-performance endurance sports and doping practices that is not found in the historical record. Compared with the hundreds of professional cyclists who have tested positive for banned substances in recent decades, the list of offenders in the marathon is very short. At the same time, the low number of positive tests is an inadequate basis for estimating the extent of doping among elite marathon runners today. A better understanding of this phenomenon would require something like anthropological fieldwork conducted in this subculture.

2012

Abstract: In this note, we analyze whether the International Cycling Union's 'index of suspicion', which reflects the extent to which a rider is suspected of using doping, correlates with performance during the 2010 Tour de France and the one year period before and after the 2010 Tour de France. Though our point estimates suggest a medium sized performance improving effect of being suspected of doping, the index of suspicion can only explain a very small part of the variation in performance.

Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 2014

Hermann, A. & Henneberg, M. (2014). Long term effects of doping in sporting records: 1886, pp.727-743. Best life times of top athletes, Olympic records, world records, and any doping information were collected from the IOC, IAAF, WADA and national anti-doping associations. About 1560 records of male and female athletes in 22 disciplines of summer and 4 winter sports were collected. Data were analysed for long-term effects of doping using non-linear regression techniques. Comparisons were made of pre-1932 records (when steroids became available) and post. Analyses were repeated using 1967, when widespread use of doping was formally acknowledged. After these dates records in a number of disciplines did not improve as predicted by extrapolation of pre-doping years results. Averaged best life records for 'doped' top athletes did not differ significantly from those considered 'non-doped'. Even assuming that not all cases of doping were discovered, the practice did not alter sporting records as commonly believed, Doping may be damaging image of sports without benefitting results.

There is strong evidence that athletes have approached the improvement of their performance with intelligence and creativity from the very beginnings of formal competition. This has involved the evolution of training methods, the development of equipment and experimentation with diet. However, the introduction of significant prizes in events such as the ancient Olympics quickly corrupted the noble goals of seeking athletic perfection for itself or as a tribute to the Gods. Certainly in the ancient Olympic Games competitors used a variety of herbs and funguses as stimulants and hallucinogenics. Philostratus, a 3rd-2nd Century BC sophist, reveals that doctors helped athletes prepare for their events at Olympia and advised cooks in the preparation of concoctions containing such ingredients as the juice of the opium poppy to deaden pain. However evidence is hard to come by as they carefully hid their efforts from the Hellanodikai, the judges, as athletes continue to do (König, 2008; Papagelopoulos, Mavrogenis, and Soucacos, 2004). It is possible that the English word ‘doping’ originates in the Dutch word dop, a viscous opium juice, probably similar to that used by the ancient Greeks (Bowers, 1998).