Depression and Doping

I found this article in the Guardian interesting and revealing.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/100-to ... ion-doping
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/100-to ... ion-doping
Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom
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F8&king unbelievable
EDIT: I've just wigged out on the Twatter about it
EDIT: I'm not on twitter, should I sign up?
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A few factual innacuracies as well: what, exactly, is the bigger and better thing that Obree has gone on to after his depression? I'm glad he's dealt with it, I like him a lot (see my signature), but professionally I don't think he's topped beating the hour record twice. "Forfra" only means "from the front" literally - in Danish it means "start again" or "take it from the top". Blunt statement of who has produced the highest power ever (Contador, apparently, Riis second) - based on....? Oh, that'll be Vayer I imagine.
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Question is whether cycling causes depression or whether depressed people are attracted to cycling.
Truth is probably a bit of both.
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Beers of Belgium Cycling Club UK
Forgetting who wrote it for a minute, which is hard with the snide comments about marginal gains etc
The annoying thing about an article like this is that it is a pure opinion piece that could have been better researched and linked to actual evidence. I am not saying her assertions are wrong but within the first few paragraphs she asserts that there is strong evidence that there is a link between forms of doping and depression, but doesn't reference anything. Later she links us to a study by Patten, which in its conclusion says that the study doesn't show causal influence.
Only if you want to look at pictures of cats.
^This x1000
A simple test would be to perform a diagnostic test for depression on all professional cyclists rather than just citing cases that fit a preconceived opinion. You could the compare them to national and global figures fo depression to see whether cycling is as bad for mental health as the author thinks.
I found the reference to research baffling as it has no real relevance to the point they are trying to make but I suspect they've thrown it in to try and give some legitimacy to their viewpoint.
Chapeau.
It stigmatises depression as a symptom of doping, rather than an affliction suffered by many.
The writer is someone with a track record of doping gossip mongering and now, with this article, she has invited us to compare riders who admit depression with know dopers such as Pantani and Vandenbrocke. The resulting nudges and winks from the self-appointed guardians of the sport may discourage those that need help from asking for it.
This is dead on Rich.
I take a steroid nasal spray and inhaler and have problems with sores around my mouth and the Doc says it could easily be a side effect of using steroids. The junk that Pro Cyclists use and have used must have some serious side effects and I have wondered how these riders function as I get all sorts of side effects from different Prescription drugs. Inhalers also gives me the shakes for starters.
Also being well known and the adulation of fans, to then go to a non de script, anonymous retirement must bring it's problems. It's tricky if that ending comes from being banned and thrown out in disgrace. I guess a retired ex doper may feel as though they were playing the game by doping and why should they be made a scapegoat for the sport.
I knew someone who was a small time pro in France and he hated it. The Manager was like a dictator and he was constantly on the limit and always told he was too fat. One instance, this guy was in a break in a race where the sponsor had turned up. The break was caught and this rider was dropped by the main peleton and the Manager berated this guy for getting dropped in front of the Sponsor.
Being a bike rider isn't all glamour for sure and it's a hard life.
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I like kindles and everything but one of their major drawbacks of ebooks is that any numbskull can get anything published now...
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and another x1000
and I do !!!!
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There's plenty to criticise: causal links and bandwagon-hitching in particular. But accusations of hypocrisy (is it so hard to spell?) are too extreme. Congratulations to Ambassador Micron for smuggling some of the sport's evocative myths on her wagon.
Not sure. The passage below certainly sticks in the craw.
"Imagine being 22 year old Jonathan Breyne, positive for Clenbuterol after a failed test in China, unable to eat because you have no appetite, making yourself ill as your world falls apart around your ears, the only world you’ve ever known, driven to attempt suicide because of comments on internet forums. Or Mauro Santambrogio, turned pro at 20, working in a night bakery, alone with your darkest thoughts, tweeting your suicide note. Imagine having hundreds and thousands of words, of scathing comments forensically dissecting your worst decisions, your biggest mistakes."
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Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells
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I haven't done any scientific research into the effect of beards in the peleton but I've got loads of anecdotes so I'm sure of my facts!!
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells
Me neither. In 2012 I would be more likely to take a fundamentalist view. I think it's a cleaner landscape now so I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt.
You could see this as precisely the kind of inhumane snark that FG stands accused of (not directed at TWH). I'm sure the real journalists will get their fair share of the expanding cake.
It's one of the most on-the-money posts in these fora for quite some time. And I consider that quite an accolade as we have some very intelligent contributors.
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I think the difference is that UKCylingExpert is a well defined comedy tweeter. There is no real danger of people taking it seriously. However festinagirl/micron/Suze Clemitson is trying to establish herself as a serious writer writing serious articles. That requires that she seperate herself from the snark of the doperati - of which she is a founder member - but as we can even see in the same article, she can't stop herself from snidely accusing a team with no serious evidence against them, of cheating.
She can't have it both ways...
- @ddraver