More masters doping

[LegendRider]

Originally Posted by bigbill

When I was racing in the early to mid 90's, we knew who was doping, they'd show up at the March races all puffed up and vascular. They'd win the early season stuff totally based on the wattage they could turn. Most would back off by late spring to not attract attention to themselves. David LeDuc was the biggest offender I knew of. He'd get in a break on a crit and bide his time until he'd ride away with a few laps to go. I'm glad he finally got busted a few years ago. It was just about small payouts, primes, and medals.

I don't think I ever saw a masters crit where LeDuc *didn't* lap the field.

[redir]

Originally Posted by LegendRider

I don't think I ever saw a masters crit where LeDuc *didn't* lap the field.

I remember in one field he went off the front with another guy who was a good continental pro and stayed away the whole race, lapped and finished second. This was a pro/1/2 race not even Masters. He was like 60 years old at the time. It's a damn shame too becasue the guy was naturally talented but chose to cheat. He still would have been impressive, I still would have looked up to him... Oh well.

[bigbill]

Originally Posted by redir

I remember in one field he went off the front with another guy who was a good continental pro and stayed away the whole race, lapped and finished second. This was a pro/1/2 race not even Masters. He was like 60 years old at the time. It's a damn shame too becasue the guy was naturally talented but chose to cheat. He still would have been impressive, I still would have looked up to him... Oh well.

I did a road race in Rock Hill that neutral rolled out at 25 mph then picked up to 30 mph which kept the pack together, just a smooth fast pace that didn't allow LeDuc to get away. Big pack sprint at the end, about half the field was still there.

[benb]

Regarding the paralympics some of the team sports there have a handicap/scoring system where the team is assigned ratings based on how handicapped it's members are... that is surely an area ripe for cheating, if someone can get a false score indicating they are more impaired than they actually are their team will pick up a competive advantage.

That boosting thing is totally insane. Where is the money that motivates people to go to these extremes... ? Usually it's about money but it's hard to see that in paralympics.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by benb

That boosting thing is totally insane. Where is the money that motivates people to go to these extremes... ? Usually it's about money but it's hard to see that in paralympics.

I believe that most cheating is about ego, rather than money. Yes, cheaters may be directly going after money - but since money is often just a way to measure one's worth/importance, the real object is about ego. Regardless of one's age or natural talent, some people have an unusually strong need to feed their ego, and will cheat to gain an extra ego boost even if there is no money involved.