Barend de Arend

Rode one on Monday. Very keen on this as well.

At the back of the peloton the door was wide open. People were getting dropped out of the peloton chasing Jungle Bob. Bora and Jumbo guys did their work, and then dropped off. If they were chasing slowly you wouldn't see that. Peloton was down to 32 riders. 69 riders finished.

Jainism? Buddhism? There were vegetarians 2500 years ago.

It could be argued that food storage (grains and salted meat) are why we were more successful than the other apes. It could also be argued that diet adapted to circumstance (exercise, and environment.) More exercise needed more protein, and a diet in the arctic likely contains much more fat than a diet in the tropics. It's very likely that we have gene expressions that activate under harsh conditions and change our dietary requirements. "Harsh" could be starvation, extreme temperature, or just exercising 40 hours a week. So what does the average couch potato in a moderate climate (or heated / cooled house) need? That's what most of the research tries to answer.

rear wheel looks full of yellow stickers. mavic neutral wheel?

WADA has drawn a second line: the TUE line. Substances that you're allowed to take, but must ask permission for. You agree to this line too. That line says that there are valid reasons to take certain medications. When your well being requires the drug, and you can justify that, you're allowed to take the drug. One such reason is diabetes. If you can prove you have diabetes, you are allowed to take insulin. If you don't have diabetes, you're not allowed to take insulin. I don't feel right telling a diabetic: if you want to ride your bike, you must stop with your insulin injections. I think a diabetic should be allowed to live his life, and it's great that medical science now allows for that. (there are actually two TUE lines: acute and chronic)

I'm trying to illustrate that there are illnesses that need treatmentthe point of any treatment is to bring you back to normal (not supernormal) -- or as normal as possible. You should be able to live a normal life.the sport has rules for treating illnesses (TUEs)

Devil's advocate: If you need medicine, should you just sit on the couch and watch TV? Wait, you're not allowed the watch TV, because the medication you're on are eye drops. Where do you draw the line? When are you allowed to live a life?

If the meds were right, can the doc sue for bringing his name in disrepute? If the meds were right, and did not contain a banned substance? If the meds were right, contained a banned substance, but the cyclist was correctly informed?

If I saw all the evidence, there's a chance I'd believe it. The stocktake sheet for one. We'll never see all the evidence, though. The appeals board might see all the evidence, but now you're opening up: - doctor patient confidentiality - doctor malpractice problems - name smearing, libel, etc. My guess is any good lawyer would prevent all the evidence from coming out, so we'd get a "he said, she said..." scenario. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof... Note that if the doc did provide the wrong meds, the cyclist is lucky: he wasn't allergic to the wrong medsthe wrong meds didn't make him sickerthe wrong meds weren't neutralthe wrong meds, by chance, still cured his ailment (how often is this true ???)the wrong meds were banned

I'm assuming a field medic, doc or pharmacy would have a stock list and do a stock take. This seems to be a common practice. It should be possible to check if this doc did a stock take. So if the meds were wrong, the doc would know a few days later that the wrong meds got provided to someone. If the stock-take is any good you would be able to narrow it down to just a few patients since you can check which med you've got one too much of. Ethical docs would try to track it or notify patients for side-effects. Non-ethical docs would imply a whole big can of worms.

Because they're medics first, and race medics second. If you fall and break your leg, do you want the painkillers, or don't you?

Checking is easy Obtaining a TUE if it's warranted is not so easy.

Most top-level pro cycling teams will have a doctor that is very familiar with drugs that are likely to receive a TUE, and work with the UCI and/or WADA in obtaining a short-term TUE for an emergency. Most GPs are not aware. The process isn't easy for a normal GP or a normal guy in the street. If "race medic" means a ER24 or other paramedic, then they might not know. However, they should know the drugs prescribed, and should inform the patient of the drugs provided. At the very least to check for allergies.

Time to update your settings, or calibrate your power meter.