Banned from Strava for Doping

davidof

Mikael Gallego was a star of the Grenoble cycling scene, he held 367 KOMs including some prestigious climbs. His time for the uber steep Bastille above Grenoble was 7'34", ahead of a number of pros, a number of pros who have since been banned for doping. If you've ridden the Marmotte or other cyclosportifs he's probably ridden past you like you were standing still.

Last year a routine control by the French Anti Doping agency revealed a cocktail of drugs in the urine of the cyclist including corticoïdes, morphine and testosterone. Since then Gallego's performances have been a shadow of what they once were, on cycling forums he said he'd "lost 30 watts" due to "training issues" but other riders hinted at darker issues.

Now Gallego has been banned for 4 years - 2 more than is usual for a first offense due to a refusal to admit the offense. Contacted by the press he said they were side effects of products taken for a bad shoulder and he had all the prescriptions but had not had the time to send them to the anti doping agency.

Gallego has now been removed from Strava and 367 emails sent to the happy new recipients of KOMs. However rumours are that he is not the only local cyclist controlled positive this year. All that for some fish and chippers and a bit of Strava glory. It was also his performances on Strava that first raised suspicions, a kind of performance passport for amateurs. One rider wrote: "I'm the same weight as Micka and yet he's just put 2'15" into me on the Montaud hill climb, that's normal, Strava shows he's putting out 45 watts more than me but I'd really like to know what his training is because our CP20 on the Col de Porte in mid May was the same as mine and I've only managed to scrape an extra 5 watts over the summer".


https://www.ledauphine.com/sport/2019/0 ... our-dopage

bompington

That explains why I don't have any KOMs

homers_double

What authority do french ADAs have to take samples from members of the public?

Not that I'm condoning his actions but it just seems odd that they would do something like this - Unless he was competing of course.

bondurant

Sounds like he was racing as well otherwise what could he have been banned from?

davidof

homers double wrote:

What authority do french ADAs have to take samples from members of the public?

Not that I'm condoning his actions but it just seems odd that they would do something like this - Unless he was competing of course.

there were rumours apparently so he was controlled when he did a competition, Strava were made aware and presumably kicked him off the platform. He was one of the top KOMers worldwide. I think Emma Pooley is #1 though, so just having a lot of KoMs doesn't mean you are a doper.

slowmart

Never be surprised by what people say or do.

Wise words as the capacity for stupidity in humans is infinite

cld531c

Surely it is easier to just pretend you are a woman if you want to win things rather than messing about with drugs. Especially as Strava are happily promoting McKinnon and her 'lady penis' competing...https://www.strava.com/clubs/231407/posts/6394329

Alejandrosdog

cld531c wrote:

Surely it is easier to just pretend you are a woman if you want to win things rather than messing about with drugs. Especially as Strava are happily promoting McKinnon and her 'lady penis' competing...https://www.strava.com/clubs/231407/posts/6394329

does she still have one? incase she wants to change again when the racing is over?

cld531c

Yep - shes quite proud of it on Twitter!
And you know a true lady can never make up her mind so better to be safe than sorry :-)

slowbike

cld531c wrote:

Yep - shes quite proud of it on Twitter!
And you know a true lady can never make up her mind so better to be safe than sorry :-)

Hmm - that's one angry Twitter feed ...

cld531c

Indeed!

Tiesetrotter

I'm 53. Everyone below 50 is age doping and stealing my top 100 place in the KOM's. Ban the lot of you I say.

cycleclinic

What about e bikes. An older lady flew past me on a hill yesterday.

step83

thecycleclinic wrote:

What about e bikes. An older lady flew past me on a hill yesterday.

a loud "Oi" and waving fist should be employed followed by a sternly worded letter to your MP.

Ebikes are a bit of a pain, the road I live on is a steep hill and all the KOM's for it are now E mountain bikes, you see them whizzing up the hill while the purely mechanical riders are wheezing up behind them. Not much we can do, you can report it on Strava but then the next twenty fastest people up it are all on the same.

Dorset_Boy

Strava have a separate ebike category don't they? Report the lot of 'em if they can't be honest about the type of bike they're riding!

AlgarveCycling

Dorset Boy wrote:

Strava have a separate ebike category don't they? Report the lot of 'em if they can't be honest about the type of bike they're riding!

Yes, they do. But some folks want the KOM Kudos even if they didn't earn them. I think they want to impress non-cyclists they know, because any cyclists they do know would see the lie.

I'm fairly fortunate in that most segments seem ok where I live but there are some obvious cheats too. I reported one needy person who came here for a holiday and left with 3 KOM's, all on 6-10% gradients, approx. 1km long and at average speeds above 60km/h and top speeds of nearly 90km/h!

He is quite active on Strava too, looking at his profile. Very unimpressive average speeds. All his KOM's are from his holiday's abroad though... :roll:

Strava removed him from those I reported. Hopefully they banned him too.

Most of my KOM's are from shortish hills and sprints, well above the e-bike assist level so unless a chipped e-bike or one that requires a license is around, they won't be competing for them.

AlgarveCycling

Tiesetrotter wrote:

I'm 53. Everyone below 50 is age doping and stealing my top 100 place in the KOM's. Ban the lot of you I say.

I wish we had Strava back when I was racing in my 20's (1990's!) 50 now but only joined Strava in July this year. Only got back into cycling this year!

Mind you, 21 KOM's since the end of July! I guess where you live helps depending upon how many 'good' cyclists are around. I'm in the Algarve, Portugal now. But, lots of racing locally, Pro too so some segments are insane. Plenty of tourists riding about and great winter training location.

seriishly

Because Strava

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o2FcHLOE6Q

dennisn

There are plenty of people who will do pretty much anything for even a very little bit of fame,

davidof

Another local cyclist busted for doping in fish and chippers, this time the guy is a 47 year old professor of computer at the prestiguous Lyon 2 University. I wonder if he cheats on his research too?

Le site de Julien JACQUES (univ-lyon2.fr)

Microsoft Word - Projet de publication - M. JACQUES.docx (afld.fr)

Why oh why do they do it?

He was taking Prednisolone, which you may get proscribed for legitimate reasons so presumably the anti doping agency had some reasons for the ban.

ugo.santalucia

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21106053#Comment_21106053

He probably does cheat on his research too and given how research is funded, he does have all my sympathy. I decided not to go that route and never got funded… luckily I found a teaching only position, so I am out of that game.

Funding agencies only care about success, they don’t want to hear anything unless it is success.

As for the Strava bit… does Strava actually take a stand against doping? And is doping more effective than all the other ways people use to achieve KOMs?

photonic69

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21106053#Comment_21106053

All got all my personal bests whilst being treated with Prednisolone for Acute Pancreatitis and Jaundice. I was on a very high dose for 2 months during the summer of Covid 2020. Best time for cycling. Never bettered these times but then again many health issues and cancer I'll never better them in my lifetime.