Tramadol abuse in cycling

[fiamme red]

http://www.velonews.com/2017/02/feature/painkillers-and-cycling-tramadols-dark-danger_430306

The primary issue seems to be that tramadol is almost exclusively a bike racing problem. WADA estimates that 80 percent of tramadol abuse occurs within this sport. WADA has been reticent to ban something seen as a legitimate and often needed medication across almost every other sport it oversees. The logic is that tramadol’s performance enhancing qualities in other sports are not significant enough, and its dangers as an opioid are not acute enough, to justify a ban.

But in cycling, it’s becoming increasingly clear that tramadol’s toll on riders is real, possibly deadly, and its benefits to performance should not be underestimated...

[buddybikes]

Yuck - horrid stuff. Was on it during my pre-surgery back fusion, didn't really work and same side effects as regular opioid. Toradol is another, doesn't have mental side effects as tramadol, but does yucky things to body if taken regularly.
Used by NFL like eating skittles.

[sales guy]

They use it all the time in 'GO' bottles.

[fignon's barber]

Learned a new term today, "finish bottle". The more I read this stuff, the more hopeless and disgusting I think pro cycling is.
First off, there is no reason to use oral tramadol, other than abuse in this case. If you really needed to use tramadol for muscle pain, you would compound it in a cream and use it topically with no systemic effect.
I think part of the root problem is that pro riders take their medical advice from advisors who's main expertise consists of gluing tubulars.

[buddybikes]

Highly addicting, regardless what has been posted by some in medical community. There is now a "super tramadol" tapentadol also.

[wallymann]

xxx

[KSCycling]

nothing more than a Tylenol should be allowed. Other pain killers should only be approved for a short period of time after a major injury or surgery.

[54ny77]

It's stuff like this, and then some, that an acquaintance refuses to let his kid get involved with pro cycling. Has the talent too. Anyone who says drug use isn't happening isn't in deep. More like deep denial.

Oh well. There's always curling.

https://www.wired.com/playbook/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/curling_f.jpg

[shovelhd]

Tramadol and Toradal are rampant in the NFL. I question their statistics.

[benb]

The bar seems to be set such that sketchy behavior starts even before riders get to the very top of amateur racing.. the Pros are seemingly completely over the line almost all the time. It seems obvious when you can make yourself feel so rotten if you overdo it just at the level a lot of us are at, and they are attempting so much more.

It's like distances/durations of races & frequency of races need to be reduced if there is ever any hope of breaking the culture that's developed.

[redir]

Fortunately I have not needed pain killers in a long time but when I do I always ask the Doctor for Ultracet. It's the only thing that actually works for me. Vicodin works for like two days then I build up so much tolerance to it I'd have to triple the dose. But Ultracet keeps going. I think it's a great drug, too bad it gets abused. I could definitely see it being abused in pro cycling. It doesn't make you tired and loopy like the hydrocodone pills do but it definitely fights pain.

[William]

It's stuff like this, and then some, that an acquaintance refuses to let his kid get involved with pro cycling. Has the talent too. Anyone who says drug use isn't happening isn't in deep. More like deep denial.

Oh well. There's always curling.

https://www.wired.com/playbook/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/curling_f.jpg


Curling has its own Labatts-related performance enhancing issues. :)





William

[fiamme red]

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/features/lees-lowdown-tramadol-the-biggest-non-secret-in-pro-cycling/#.WJs2WtQrK9I

Hallucinations? :eek:

Former Sky rider and confirmed doper Michael Barry said of the non-prohibited drug that it is “as performance-enhancing as any banned drug I had taken” and added that “some riders took Tramadol every time they raced, along with a handful of caffeinated gels to counter the drowsiness it induced.”

BMC Racing’s Taylor Phinney also detailed its use in the peloton, saying that it was prevalent and the possibly the main cause of crashes late in races. “You see so many late-race stupid crashes that I almost wouldn’t be surprised if some or most of those crashes are caused by people taking these hard-hitting painkillers at the end of races,” he said.http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/tramadol-side-effects-920.jpg

[Luwabra]

I was lucky enough to have shingles in December. I was so miserable the doc shot me up w toradol- holy hell My immediate reaction was I guarantee this is huge in pro cycling. It was amazing the difference within 30 seconds. It's gross what people will do to themselves to compete at the top level.

[makoti]

it's stuff like this, and then some, that an acquaintance refuses to let his kid get involved with pro cycling. Has the talent too. Anyone who says drug use isn't happening isn't in deep. More like deep denial.

Oh well. There's always curling.

https://www.wired.com/playbook/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/curling_f.jpg

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

[MattTuck]

Ban it. They can get a TUE if they need it.

:D:D:D:D:D:D

[rnhood]

They don't need a TUE. They need to compete clean, or go do something else. Same for other Olympic sports. It was appalling to see what kinds of TUE's the athletes had been taking at the RIO Olympics, especially the tennis players. Prednisone, Ritalin, Tramadol, etc.

[sfscott]

This is not a cycling issue. It's an issue across society and isn't limited to drugs.

Credit cards are a useful tool if managed prudently. So are most drugs. Opiates are a godsend for post op and cancer patients.

Excessive use or misuse can ruin lives.

Providers are too quick to prescribe and the black market is too efficient to.

[benb]

They don't need a TUE. They need to compete clean, or go do something else. Same for other Olympic sports. It was appalling to see what kinds of TUE's the athletes had been taking at the RIO Olympics, especially the tennis players. Prednisone, Ritalin, Tramadol, etc.

Damn right.. if you need to take opiates or a lot of these other things you don't need a TUE you need to go home and get in bed/rest/heal.

[Joxster]

It's old news, Genetic modification is where it's at these days

[MattTuck]

Is there a way we could observe the effects of tramadol (and other pain killers) use in some data?

Some hypotheses I have could be (all relative to some time period when tramadol use didn't exist, and other PEDs had lesser impacts):
Consistently higher average speeds
Higher average speeds in the last 10 km
More racing days (or, conversely, shorter rests between major races)


I'm not sure we'd see any of these, and so I'm a bit perplexed as to where the positive effects of these are seen.

[Mikej]

Interesting - it appears to be a re uptake inhibitor of norepinephrine and serotonin -

[benb]

Is there a way we could observe the effects of tramadol (and other pain killers) use in some data?

Some hypotheses I have could be (all relative to some time period when tramadol use didn't exist, and other PEDs had lesser impacts):
Consistently higher average speeds
Higher average speeds in the last 10 km
More racing days (or, conversely, shorter rests between major races)


I'm not sure we'd see any of these, and so I'm a bit perplexed as to where the positive effects of these are seen.

It's all probably too muddy to tell anything. The period before Tramadol might have been the period where there was more EPO/Blood doping. So speeds could be slower now but that wouldn't tell you the Tramadol wasn't working.

Also they had finish bottles before Tramadol so the test of "higher average speeds in the last 10km" isn't going to tell you much as you'd have to know what was in their finish bottles before. IIRC finish bottles are very very very old, amphetamines is something I've read they've used, and we know amphetamines has been abused since the 1930s at least.

To do any kind of scientific A/B testing you'd have to have test subjects who told the truth.. these guys are always of course lying about what they are putting into their bodies so you can't tell anything. Heck from the sounds of it most of the time they are not even keeping private records well enough to tell if what they are doing is actually beneficial. It sounds like at the top of the doping game guys like Ferrari were smart enough to do that but riders who were on their own definitely aren't.

[MattTuck]

http://www.velonews.com/2017/02/news/barry-says-sky-prioritizes-results-riders-health_431009

Retired professional Michael Barry told The Telegraph that he thinks Team Sky puts results before riders’ best interests and that the British team has been “unethical” in providing painkiller tramadol to its cyclists in races.



“It is a health issue,” Barry said. “Taking care of athletes should be a team’s priority. Instead everyone involved has a ‘bias’ [agenda], from the mechanics to the team directors — everybody’s jobs are reliant on the athletes’ performances, so priorities are skewed, and people will do whatever they can to gain an edge, whether pharmaceutical or technological. But this wasn’t just a problem at Sky. It’s a problem for the sport in general.”