By Jane Rynbrandt, Tough Girl Cycling

Author: Jane Rynbrandt

When I found out at our Tough Girl “Kick off the Season” meeting that we would be writing a blog geared toward women on 303cycling.com website, I was really excited. First, it’s a hard world out there for us women on the Front Range; we are surrounded by intimidating landscape, challenging races and events and let’s face it, a lot of male racers and riders (who can be both intimidating and challenging). I have a lot of experience both on and off the bike with cycling. I have been with Carmichael Training Systems for almost 5 years as a coach and racing bikes for 8 years.

I found it increasingly difficult to decide what to write about. Obviously I want to share some coaching/training advice to help everyone enjoy riding and racing their bike more. I’ve learned so many things over the years, from professors, books, research articles, fellow coaches, athletes, my own triumphs and failures. It’s hard to just pick a few tidbits to share.

I have been working on this story for a while now (6+ months). Trying to gather information about the problem of doping in cycling in particular the problem in the amateur ranks.

One of the big questions is who actually does the drug testing. The drug testing is done by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Who is USADA?

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which began operations on October 1, 2000, is a non-governmental agency responsible for implementation of the World Anti-Doping Code in the United States. USADA's budget is funded by a U.S. federal grant and with revenue generated from dope-testing contracts between USADA and the USOC and other organizations.

The one big issue that Colorado has with this setup is that the local governing body is the American Cycling Association (ACA). The ACA is what is known as a Non-Governing Body (NGB). From people I have talked to that are familiar with the USADA and the ACA say there are two major hurdles if the ACA would ever want to implement a drug testing program:

• The USADA dealing with a NGB
• Cost

There are so many ways to approach anti-doping but nothing can take the place of unannounced or even pre-determined doping control (of top finishers).

I talked to a couple of people that have a very good understanding of the doping issue and in particular illegal performance enhancing drug use. I asked the question How wide spread do you think the problem is in amateur cycling? Both of them believe that the majority of dopers in the US are amateurs. This would make sense just by the shear number of riders that are amateurs. There are only so many professional riders out there.