Wednesday’s Mailbag: Dr. Dawn and dopers, plus Moody’s demon
The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside Communications, Inc.
The dual toll of doping
Editor:
Dr. Dawn Richardson’s article (see “Ask the Doctor: The surprising dual toll of doping”) deserves praise for attempting to address the root causes of doping and also the role of physicians role in competitive cycling.
One of the most reprehensible aspects of sports doping is the role of physicans as the technicians behind it. These physicians have been nothing more than mechanics trying to getting maximal performance out of biological machines. Instead of acting as an advocate for the patients welfare, some of them have put their patients at serious risk. It stands without saying that any physician involved with doping should be suspended from practice.
Physicians really need to step up to this and take responsibility for their patients’ welfare, especially team doctors. There can be a real conflict of interest as they are generally employed by team management and likely to be increasingly responsible for the enforcement of doping policies. Cyclists must be able to expect the same level of confidentiality as any other patient.
One issue I may diverge from Dr. Richardson is that I do not believe a successful outcome of rehabilitation would necessarily mean a return to competitive cycling. I would not target a bulimic’s treatment to a return to modeling. Some of the culture of competition may in fact place these riders at too high a risk of relapse to justify their return to that world.
Mark Greve, M.D.
Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University
Injury Prevention Center
Kudos for taking time to understand athletes
Editor:
As one of the team physicians for USA Cycling and a master’s rider myself, I was impressed with Dr. Richardson’s article. Her unique viewpoint on the seemingly co-existent diagnoses of substance abuse and mental illness in the cycling community of doping was eye-opening. I had never really associated the two but in retrospect with what I have seen and heard, it almost seems common sense. It will definitely change the way I approach the topic and change how I interview patients/athletes.
Having served at the Olympic Training Center, with several NCAA teams, professional basketball and football teams, it is interesting the number of patients I have seen with hints (if not full-on diagnosis) of mental illness. And yet I’ve never really associated that with an increased risk of doping. It sometimes takes fresh eyes to change perspectives.
Kudos to Dr. Richardson for taking the time to understand the athletes and their backgrounds. The more we understand about why people dope and the potentially horrific outcomes, the better we can prevent it.
Kenneth K. Adams, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs
RehabCare Group
Ex-dopers have value in peloton
Editor:
Thank you, Dr. Richardson, for an insightful and very useful opinion. You are the first person I have heard arguing publicly for the value of reformed dopers in the peloton. There tends to be a great deal of shrill vengefulness in the tone of any discussion of those caught using performance-enhancing drugs.
And while such behavior cannot and should not be rewarded, as you point out, I agree very much with your assessment that people like Bjarne Riis, for example, should be considered seriously as powerful allies in eliminating the practice from the sport. Not only is their knowledge a great asset, but also they can sometimes be the most vocal proponents of change.
David Neale-Lorello
Edgewater, New Jersey
That darn demon
Editor:
I recognized myself in Greg Moody’s report, “The Rime of the Ancient Cyclist: Facing the demon.”
Last year I attempted to become a member of the “brotherhood of the nuts of Mont Ventoux” by climbing this mountain three times in the same day, via its three different roads. I had trained and prepared well (as well as a 64-year-old guy can on southern Ontario’s hills).
On the second climb from Malaucene the demon suddenly appeared with perhaps 7km to go. High winds and cold weather made his offer, to quit, very appealing. It was made even easier by the fact that my wife was following me in the car. After reaching the top for the second time, and being drained physically and probably more emotionally, the demon won. I quit ! And this despite the fact that I had 26km of downhill before me, giving me ample time to recover and attempt the third climb from Sault, which is considered the easier of the three climbs.
All I know is that I got to try it again and beat the demon.
Joachim Wulfers
Milton, Ontario, Canada
Actually, the demon is more of a pig
Editor:
Greg, your “demon” is what I’ve referred to as the “pig” for many years. Like your demon, the pig jumps on your back when you’re most vulnerable to his insidious suggestions. He’d been lurking around during my most trying moments for some time, but it wasn’t until I began competitive cycling in 1980 that he formally introduced himself.
I’m now a middle-aged fat guy with four young kids and little time to ride, but the pig still drops by from time to time. Now, however, I welcome his visits. When I explained to my kids that the pig is my friend, they responded with blank stares and then a sort of Luke-Darth-Daddy-revulsion. But articles like yours confirm my belief that I’m correct in opening my pudgy arms to him. I know that when the challenges are greatest and the competition for anything is most intense, the pig is talking to everyone in the game. He starts out slyly with something like, “Pssst. Hey… Can I ax you sumtin’?”
I’ve got a pig with multiple personalities, a sort of schizo-pig. He usually starts out like a guy on a street corner in Brooklyn. Once he’s got my attention, though, he morphs into something like Martin Luther King with his “I have a dream” speech. Very convincing. I befriended him not only because he’s an eloquent speaker, but also because he lets me know when everyone else is about to quit. When he’s thundering like a prophet on a mountain top, I’m about to win.
The last line of your article says that you’ve got “to stop listening to him.” I disagree. Give him a megaphone. Put him in the support cars that follow the peloton. Wire him up so that he speaks to everyone in the pack through their little ear pieces. Paint the roads with “Vive La Cochon.” Or something like that. But don’t stop listening. When he gets loudest, you attack.
Mike Bois
Cape Cod, Massachusetts
The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside Communications, Inc.