Tour de France = Tour de Fraud = Deaths and Suicides

There are much sadder cycling tales
- Gwen Knapp
Sunday, August 6, 2006

Saturday was a sad day for cycling. It might even rank in the top 25.

That all depends on how many Dutch and Belgian cyclists died young
about 15 years ago because their hearts stopped in the middle of the
night. Nobody knows the exact figure, since the media can't track all
of the wannabes whose drug experimentation fatally thickened their
blood before they became recognizable names.

Floyd Landis' name, barely recognizable a month ago, will now be known
and tainted forever. Barring a legal performance that scales mountains
bigger than any rider has ever conquered, he will become the first
Tour de France champion stripped of his title. The great tragedy of
Landis' positive drug test, which a second sample confirmed Saturday,
is that it doesn't qualify as the greatest doping tragedy tied to a
man who wore the yellow jersey.

Marco Pantani, who won the race in 1998, died in a hotel in the
Italian coastal town of Rimini in 2004. He had overdosed on cocaine in
a room that contained a large stash of drugs and crazed notes that
suggested suicide.

Pantani, a wildly colorful figure who once wore a blond wig during a
race, had been implicated in doping more than once after his 1998 Tour
win. He was under investigation for much of the last four years of his
life, and organizers booted him from the 1999 Giro d'Italia because of
a failed blood test. The notes in his hotel room reportedly railed
against the officials who had investigated him.

It's not clear whether doping accusations or doping itself fueled the
breakdown that led to Pantani's death. But performance-enhancing
drugs, especially stimulants and hormones, can work like lighter fluid
on an unstable or addictive personality.

Pantani's death wasn't exactly an aberration among Tour riders. Since
the event started in 1903, war stoppages and repeat winners have
limited the list of champions to 54 names. Four have taken their own
lives.

Consider this disturbing passage from the book "Lance Armstrong's
War'' by Daniel Coyle.

Pantani's name would be listed alongside other Tour de France
champions who had killed themselves. ... Poor Rene Pottier, who won in
1906 and hanged himself from his bike hook in his garage a year later.
The handsome Luis Ocana, who won in 1973 and shot himself in 1994.
Elegant Hugo Koblet, who won in 1951 and intentionally drove his car
into a pear tree in 1961. Not to mention sad-eyed Thierry Claveyrolt,
who won the king-of-the-mountains competition in 1990 (but not the
Tour itself) and shot himself in 1999.

There are all sorts of background stories here. A marriage gone bad. A
financial crash. But why is it that many other people survive such
things, and some of the toughest men on the planet can't recover
emotionally? No doubt, the sport attracts the eccentric and
obsessive-compulsive. Who else would ride the 2,100 miles in 20 days
for the Tour de France?

Landis, who rode on a decaying hip, fits the profile perfectly. In
addition to debating whether his off-the-chart testosterone levels say
about the validity of his win, we might want to consider what the
excess hormone could do to him physically and psychologically.
Testosterone is powerful stuff, an upper when it's abundant, and a big
downer when it disappears. Using it synthetically can cause the body
to stop producing the natural kind.

To help him cope with the devastating news of his failed drug test,
Landis has hired prominent lawyers, who have aggressively started
spin-doctoring on his behalf. He could probably use a plain old
physician even more.

Landis' win was seen as a movement toward a cleaner sport. Anti-doping
reforms had already swept seven fishy contenders out of the Tour. A
new blood-doping test had knocked Olympic champion Tyler Hamilton, an
endearing personality, out of the game. Fans wanted someone they could
believe in. That's why Saturday and the test results were so hard to
take.

But Dec. 6, 2003, was much worse. Jose Maria Jimenez, a 32-year-old
former Spanish cyclist, died of a heart attack that day, just like
more than a dozen Dutch and Belgian cyclists in the late '80s and
early '90s. He was in a psychiatric hospital at the time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

wilhelm wrote:

That all depends on how many Dutch and Belgian cyclists died young
about 15 years ago because their hearts stopped in the middle of the
night. Nobody knows the exact figure, since the media can't track all
of the wannabes whose drug experimentation fatally thickened their
blood before they became recognizable names.
All those Dutch cyclists? Who then?

Ever heard of Brugada's syndrome btw?

Derk

Some antidotal evidence that cycling mirrors America

Three of the top club teams in this state are sponsored by law firms
who field fast masters racers. A few of these riders are lawyers by
profession. I heard one these masters racers the other day talking
about "getting off the juice". All rumors aside about who is juicing
and not, I find the lawyer/cyclist comparison interesting. My opinion
is the following:

Lawyers a highly competitive, image conscious, elitist, willing to
break rules behind the scenes to win, will deny wrong doing to save
their careers.

Cyclists a (see lawyers!)

--
rpm120


wilhelm wrote:
There are much sadder cycling tales
- Gwen Knapp
Sunday, August 6, 2006

Saturday was a sad day for cycling. It might even rank in the top 25.

That all depends on how many Dutch and Belgian cyclists died young
about 15 years ago because their hearts stopped in the middle of the
night. Nobody knows the exact figure, since the media can't track all
of the wannabes whose drug experimentation fatally thickened their
blood before they became recognizable names.

Floyd Landis' name, barely recognizable a month ago, will now be known
and tainted forever. Barring a legal performance that scales mountains
bigger than any rider has ever conquered, he will become the first
Tour de France champion stripped of his title. The great tragedy of
Landis' positive drug test, which a second sample confirmed Saturday,
is that it doesn't qualify as the greatest doping tragedy tied to a
man who wore the yellow jersey.

Marco Pantani, who won the race in 1998, died in a hotel in the
Italian coastal town of Rimini in 2004. He had overdosed on cocaine in
a room that contained a large stash of drugs and crazed notes that
suggested suicide.

Pantani, a wildly colorful figure who once wore a blond wig during a
race, had been implicated in doping more than once after his 1998 Tour
win. He was under investigation for much of the last four years of his
life, and organizers booted him from the 1999 Giro d'Italia because of
a failed blood test. The notes in his hotel room reportedly railed
against the officials who had investigated him.

It's not clear whether doping accusations or doping itself fueled the
breakdown that led to Pantani's death. But performance-enhancing
drugs, especially stimulants and hormones, can work like lighter fluid
on an unstable or addictive personality.

Pantani's death wasn't exactly an aberration among Tour riders. Since
the event started in 1903, war stoppages and repeat winners have
limited the list of champions to 54 names. Four have taken their own
lives.

Consider this disturbing passage from the book "Lance Armstrong's
War'' by Daniel Coyle.

Pantani's name would be listed alongside other Tour de France
champions who had killed themselves. ... Poor Rene Pottier, who won in
1906 and hanged himself from his bike hook in his garage a year later.
The handsome Luis Ocana, who won in 1973 and shot himself in 1994.
Elegant Hugo Koblet, who won in 1951 and intentionally drove his car
into a pear tree in 1961. Not to mention sad-eyed Thierry Claveyrolt,
who won the king-of-the-mountains competition in 1990 (but not the
Tour itself) and shot himself in 1999.

There are all sorts of background stories here. A marriage gone bad. A
financial crash. But why is it that many other people survive such
things, and some of the toughest men on the planet can't recover
emotionally? No doubt, the sport attracts the eccentric and
obsessive-compulsive. Who else would ride the 2,100 miles in 20 days
for the Tour de France?

Landis, who rode on a decaying hip, fits the profile perfectly. In
addition to debating whether his off-the-chart testosterone levels say
about the validity of his win, we might want to consider what the
excess hormone could do to him physically and psychologically.
Testosterone is powerful stuff, an upper when it's abundant, and a big
downer when it disappears. Using it synthetically can cause the body
to stop producing the natural kind.

To help him cope with the devastating news of his failed drug test,
Landis has hired prominent lawyers, who have aggressively started
spin-doctoring on his behalf. He could probably use a plain old
physician even more.

Landis' win was seen as a movement toward a cleaner sport. Anti-doping
reforms had already swept seven fishy contenders out of the Tour. A
new blood-doping test had knocked Olympic champion Tyler Hamilton, an
endearing personality, out of the game. Fans wanted someone they could
believe in. That's why Saturday and the test results were so hard to
take.

But Dec. 6, 2003, was much worse. Jose Maria Jimenez, a 32-year-old
former Spanish cyclist, died of a heart attack that day, just like
more than a dozen Dutch and Belgian cyclists in the late '80s and
early '90s. He was in a psychiatric hospital at the time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

rpm120 wrote:
Three of the top club teams in this state are sponsored by law firms
who field fast masters racers. A few of these riders are lawyers by
profession. I heard one these masters racers the other day talking
about "getting off the juice".

Do you have any inside info on what Lafferty is on ?

Donald Munro wrote:
rpm120 wrote:
Three of the top club teams in this state are sponsored by law firms
who field fast masters racers. A few of these riders are lawyers by
profession. I heard one these masters racers the other day talking
about "getting off the juice".

Do you have any inside info on what Lafferty is on ?

Double secret probation. Don't tell him.

R

wilhelm wrote:
Not to mention sad-eyed Thierry Claveyrolt,

Thierry Claveyrolat - the eagle of Vizille. Vizille is not a bad town
but living there all year round could be enough to drive anyone over the
edge! Also the home of Paul Kimmage during his racing career. Paul
being the brother of sucessful Irish cyclist Raphael and a bit of a
dabbler in the "Pot Belge" himself.

FYI: Geoffrey Wheatcroft wrote a similar article to the above in the
Trib in 2004:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/02/21/edwheat_ed3_.php