Doping in Belgium Amateur Ranks

frenchfighter

Belgian website DMorgen.be is reporting that “Sunday riders” are the new group of customers who are now doping. The website quotes the drug unit of the federal police as saying, “It worries us that some people in their fifties are taking drugs in order to compete with cyclists half their age.” This comes from the unit’s annual report from 2013.

“Use is often measured by the number of positive controls from professional athletes, but drugs are not only used in competition,” says Jan Van den Boeynants, head of the hormones unit. “It’s quite exceptional that not it’s not only elite athletes, but mostly for fitness people and recently more and more recreational Sunday riders.”

Because studies are still ongoing, there are no figures in the annual report about how many cyclists have been caught. Police investigation shows that the riders realise that what they are doing is wrong. “Why do they use different mailboxes or let them deliver their package to their neighbour of 78 [years old]?” Asks Van den Boeynants. Usually the riders buy commodity drugs such as testosterone on Chinese websites and will buy other products from illegal labs in the EU.

“They costs 300 euros per injection and are therefore more expensive than oral drug products, but also pose greater risks to human health by the stronger concentrations and the lack of medical knowledge.” A new trend seen by the drug unit is in so-called “research chemicals”. These are drugs that are not marketed because they are not good enough, but still be sold for their performance enhancing side effects.

http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/993/Gezond ... ping.dhtml