EPO

bigal.
bigal. Posts: 479
edited December 2009 in The bottom bracket
If you had the oppurtunity to try EPO, would you. :?:

I am just curious as there are a lot of peolpe who sit in judgement on the whole cycling-drugs topic and are actually never faced with the situation or decision to try performance enhancing drugs.

If I am an honest I think I would try it if I was advised by a Doctor on the subject. :!:

Comments

  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    Not a f**king chance.

    If any doctor advised me to use EPO I wouldn't trust them, as they'd be looking after their own financial interests rather than giving me impartial advice on my health.

    As far as I'm aware, we still don't know what the very long term effects are from doping up perfectly healthy athletes even with the most sophisticated forms of blood-boosting.
  • andy_f
    andy_f Posts: 474
    My Mother has been using Evening Primrose Oil for years and she swears by it.
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  • STEFANOS4784
    STEFANOS4784 Posts: 4,109
    Probably not because i don't think i would notice any difference as i'm not at the top of my game, plus i pump enough sh1te into my body already :wink:
    GHowever if it guarunteed i could hold 30 mph over 80 miles i would consider it (though wouldn't race, just for the fun) :wink:
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    Summer beast; http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr34 ... uff015.jpg
  • Aggieboy
    Aggieboy Posts: 3,996
    I like Jeff Lynes voice, especially in the Wilbury's.
    "There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world, t'would be a pity to damage yours."
  • eh
    eh Posts: 4,854
    Yeah I would have no worries if I were pro, when you have been smashed about in a race for the 3rd day running and have another god knows how many days to go, then I suspect I'd take anything that may help. (Well mybe not now they have a test but circa 1995 no probs)

    As an amateur I wouldn't as big stage races don't happen and my pay packet doesn't depend on race results.
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    If I was a pro - no way. But as a very bad amateur that probably won't ever amount to anything - would be interesting to give it a go and see if it makes any difference.
  • Vino
    Vino Posts: 184
    Pokerface wrote:
    If I was a pro - no way. But as a very bad amateur that probably won't ever amount to anything - would be interesting to give it a go and see if it makes any difference.

    PM sent

    Ave got some spare Calves
  • mask of sanity
    mask of sanity Posts: 610
    Never. No sense of achievement if you've done it by cheating!
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    mask of sanity wrote:
    Never. No sense of achievement if you've done it by cheating!

    No salary if you didn't for a lot of them. It's not black and white is it?
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • mask of sanity
    mask of sanity Posts: 610
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    mask of sanity wrote:
    Never. No sense of achievement if you've done it by cheating!

    No salary if you didn't for a lot of them. It's not black and white is it?

    I don't see it as being all that complicated to be honest. If you're at pro level and get caught then you'd lose your salary anyway. And there are things that are a lot more important then money. Integrity for example! That's my opinion anyway!
  • Stewie Griffin
    Stewie Griffin Posts: 4,330
    I would drink petrol if someone (who I believed not one of you hitting reply and saying yeah do it, it really works :roll: ) said it would make me faster.

    No I wouldnt take EPO, but could well do some ephedrin or clenbuterol if Im finding it difficult to shift that last couple of stone next spring :oops: .

    I dont compete and I ride on my own for fun 8)
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    mask of sanity wrote:
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    mask of sanity wrote:
    Never. No sense of achievement if you've done it by cheating!

    No salary if you didn't for a lot of them. It's not black and white is it?

    I don't see it as being all that complicated to be honest. If you're at pro level and get caught then you'd lose your salary anyway. And there are things that are a lot more important then money. Integrity for example! That's my opinion anyway!

    It's easy to say... but imagine you're a 24 year old second year pro, no results as yet. You've been a full time cyclist since you were 16, you've nothing to fall back on and now the team is saying you have to go on their "programme" if you want to stay in the Bigs?

    Just as well you've got more integrity than damn near every pro cyclist of the 1990s eh? I suppose all those guys that did cheat were just lacking in moral fibre or were just bad people, weren't they?
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    I agree with what disgruntledgoat is saying.

    You're a young pro, you're living the dream... but your contract has nearly expired and you have no results. In comes the team prepatore, says "take this, it'll help you recover, all the other riders take it". I mean, come on... why wouldn't you? The chances of being caught are still very, very slim.
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    johnfinch wrote:
    Not a f**king chance.

    If any doctor advised me to use EPO I wouldn't trust them, as they'd be looking after their own financial interests rather than giving me impartial advice on my health.


    You might just look upon EPO a little differently if you had cancer or kidney disease.
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    If you have cancer you get treated with all kinds of nasty chemicals, not to mention radiation.
    I think it's fairly clear that here we're not talking about normal medical use, for which drugs have to go through a stupendously lengthy and complicated testing process.
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    dennisn wrote:
    johnfinch wrote:
    Not a f**king chance.

    If any doctor advised me to use EPO I wouldn't trust them, as they'd be looking after their own financial interests rather than giving me impartial advice on my health.

    You might just look upon EPO a little differently if you had cancer or kidney disease.

    Well, obviously yes, if it's part of a medical treatment then that's different. The benefits would outweigh any potential dangers.

    But the OP was talking about taking it to boost performance in cycling, and that was the context in which I was responding.
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    johnfinch wrote:
    dennisn wrote:
    johnfinch wrote:
    Not a f**king chance.

    If any doctor advised me to use EPO I wouldn't trust them, as they'd be looking after their own financial interests rather than giving me impartial advice on my health.

    You might just look upon EPO a little differently if you had cancer or kidney disease.

    Well, obviously yes, if it's part of a medical treatment then that's different. The benefits would outweigh any potential dangers.

    But the OP was talking about taking it to boost performance in cycling, and that was the context in which I was responding.

    I know, it's just that sometimes these very useful drugs(i.e. EPO, steroids, etc.) really get bad press simply because some people "abuse" them(so to speak).
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    dennisn wrote:
    I know, it's just that sometimes these very useful drugs(i.e. EPO, steroids, etc.) really get bad press simply because some people "abuse" them(so to speak).

    Yes, quite right.
  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    steroids have a bad press among idiots who only can think about steroids as fun for gym meat-heads. Most vaguely intelligent people know that they're just a class of hormones and medically rather useful for containing inflammation/allergic reaction/suppressing the immune system.
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  • bigal.
    bigal. Posts: 479
    Interesting mix of views and answers.

    If you had the chance to use EPO under Lab conditions would you???

    Also for the experts out there. If you used EPO under Lab conditions for a period of time, say 2 or 3 months how much of a gain would you get once you stopped using it. Would any benefits just stop when you ceased using EPO or would the fact that you have been training harder and probably faster just simply improve your performance due to the fact that your body has got used to performing at a higher level.
  • timdanaher
    timdanaher Posts: 120
    There was an absorbing article written by an American chap that I've never been able to find since, where he detailed his experimentation with EPO -- amateur cyclist, in his 40s, not done for gain, simply documenting his experiences. Before EPO he was a four-stone apology, afterwards he was two separate gorillas.

    I remember him stating that by far the biggest difference was in the amount that he could train and recover. He basically never got tired. I remember thinking 'I'll have some of that'. Trouble is, what do you do when you have to stop taking it, and your performance crashes?

    Maybe Roberto Heras could answer that one.
    Cheers,

    Tim

    http://vizarch.blogspot.com
  • ThreeLionsBrian
    ThreeLionsBrian Posts: 134
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    mask of sanity wrote:
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    mask of sanity wrote:
    Never. No sense of achievement if you've done it by cheating!

    No salary if you didn't for a lot of them. It's not black and white is it?

    I don't see it as being all that complicated to be honest. If you're at pro level and get caught then you'd lose your salary anyway. And there are things that are a lot more important then money. Integrity for example! That's my opinion anyway!

    It's easy to say... but imagine you're a 24 year old second year pro, no results as yet. You've been a full time cyclist since you were 16, you've nothing to fall back on and now the team is saying you have to go on their "programme" if you want to stay in the Bigs?

    Just as well you've got more integrity than damn near every pro cyclist of the 1990s eh? I suppose all those guys that did cheat were just lacking in moral fibre or were just bad people, weren't they?

    Not bad people, just cheats, invalid, don't exist along with their "results"! Don't people have pride in what they achieve any more.

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