USADA is coming to Colorado Racing

Submitted by Kris Thompson on

It was announced at the Local Associations of USAC meeting last weekend that USADA is developing a testing program that will provide education and testing resources of athletes at the amateur level of cycling and that program will be coming to Colorado in 2013. The program was piloted in the Florida area already where apparent drug usage was high and so high that some could say that Florida is leading the effort to clean up amateur racing by creating their own Florida Clean Ride Fund. But even so, tempers are still high as earlier in September a race director in Florida refused WADA access to riders

When WADA drug testers showed up unannounced at the 2012-13 Florida State Championship Series last weekend, race promoter Dave Bergen refused to allow the technicians to collect samples because “he had no prior warning or notification” and he had “never seen dope testing conducted” for a local amateur event.

USADA will be showing up to at least one high profile race in 2013 according to Chris McGee. While Colorado may not be apparently as bad as Florida it has had it share of suspensions and one high profile suspension of Chuck Coyle ends this month.

Here is more information on the matter from the ACA webpage on the matter

We had the opportunity to meet with USADA's Andrew Morrison, Sport Testing and Resources Director, last weekend at the USA Cycling Local Association Summit in Colorado Springs. Our conversation focused on how to both educate our athletes, and how to best provide testing and deterrents to ensure that our athletes are competing on a clean, fair playing field. It is important to note that ALL athletes at USAC events are subject to both in- and out- of competition testing by USADA.

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USAC is building a Local Association Anti-Doping Program, which will coordinate efforts, help target testing by USADA, and provide funding for LAs to bring USADA presence to local events. At this time, cycling is the only Olympic sport in the USA that is working on this sort of program.

It is important to point out that this is made possible by the ACA and their new relationship with USAC

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33 Comments

ALL racers in USAC event?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Testing of cat 3 and cat 4s is ludicrious. The anti-doping funds could be spend far better in other ways. Requiring 3/4s to get TUEs to avoid being scandalized and crucified for testing positive for banned substances that medically necessary and prescribed by their MD is an unnecessary burden.

Is asthma that prevalent here?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

I ride on a prominent local team and race regularly but I know of nobody on our team with asthma or has used an inhalent before a crit. I also frequently ride with cat 1/2s from other teams and I've never witnessed anyone from another team using an inhalent. Am I just naive? Personally, I welcome testing in Colorado. Maybe because I've never been exposed to performance enhancers and sometimes wonder if I'm racing at an unfair disadvantage.

And regarding the FL race promoter, did the guy know he had drug users in his race? What a douche!

I can't speak for the general

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

I can't speak for the general racing population but I have asthma and I have two teammates who do as well. I use an Albuterol inhaler before every race. I also take Singulair (Montelukast Sodium) daily. I'm not going to go through the hassle of getting a TUE for a Cat 4 bike race. The use of both substances is 100% medically justified. As mentioned above there are over the counter drugs that would trigger a positive, e.g., Sudafed. I know of a teammate as well who takes Testosterone for andropause, aka, Low-T. I'm all for clean sport, but requiring documentation from cat 4s is overkill.

Some of you idiots need to go

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Some of you idiots need to go look up the drugs they test for under USADA. I did before I did some national races, I did not in any way think I was going to win, or even get tested, but I wanted to make sure. Albuterol and Singulair are on the approved list.

Don't believe me? Go to the USA Cycling web site, there is a link the the doping control site there.

Trying this again because I

Submitted by bob (not verified) on

Trying this again because I get the weirdest errors...

Yes actually asthma is that prevalent and it's only getting worse but the difference is in how bad your asthma really is. Like the poster just below me right now I take Singulair and use an Albuterol inhaler as needed but I always take 1 puff before I go cycling or any other highly aerobic activity because the medicine keeps the bronchial tubes from closing off and turning a ride into an actual emergency. As a kid I had absolutely terrible asthma and really couldn't do much but as an adult I found better medicine so I was able to start cycling and doing other outdoor activities that I never could before.

I think some people have the impression that asthma medicine is somehow a PED but it sure as hell isn't. The Albuterol is a beta2 agonist so it will keep the bronchial tubes open for a while but if you ride over your AT for an extended period your lungs will clog up and kick off a raging case of asthma where a non-asthmatic would just start coughing and have to slow down. The inhaler will also raise your heart rate and blood pressure a bit and neither of those are good for a cyclist in my opinion so anyone who might be sneaking a hit from an inhaler is probably just fooling themselves but I'm fat, old and slow with no game.

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