Lance’s Best Defense: The Te’o Effect

The recent headlines that have stolen the countries attention have been Manti Te’o and the girlfriend that may have only ever existed in his head.  There have been stories from teammates, press releases from Notre Dame, an NFL player’s public testimony that she actually exists and an alleged friend of the fictionally deceased girl being interviewed on ESPN.  This interview took place over the phone I might add.  Wasn’t that Te’o’s big mistake, trusting the voice of a person he’d never seen?  ESPN should know better. 

With all of the sadness and disappointment coming from this story at numerous levels, there is one person who has likely welcomed this flurry of headlines coming out of the sports world like a warm invisibility cloak.  Lance Armstrong.  The fact that everyone in the free world knew Lance was guilty months, if not years before he hit Oprah’s couch made his story much less compelling.  The Te’o story isn’t just a sports story but one that has crossed over to the tabloids.  This has provided Lance with a bit of a smoke screen as he makes an admission that has been over a decade in the making.  On the other hand, had Te’o’s story never happened the only thing the sports world would have had to offer mainstream news would have been the NFL playoffs headlined by Ray Lewis’ impending retirement.  Lance’s story would have dwarfed that.  If Lance’s admission had been unexpected and hit the papers at the same time the Te’o story did this may be a much better scenario for Manti and the University.  The press would have found Lance’s story much more newsworthy. 

If Lance’s story would have come out by itself he would have had reporters rifling through his trash and camping out at his house to get a paparazzi style photo of him in a ball cap.  Although he is getting his share of attention, there is a lot of money being spent right now on forensic technologists in an effort to locate the source of the avatar Manti was “dating”.  Everyone knew Lance was doping, there’s no mystery there.  There are no more needles in his trash and no more EPO in his fridge.  Te’o’s girlfriend is a much more interesting train wreck to watch.  The Lance locomotive crashed a long time ago and has begun to rust over.  Te’o’s wreck still has metal pieces flying through the air and smoke billowing from the engine.  If I were a conspiracy theorist I would say that Lance may have constructed the entire Te’o story as some elaborate distraction to take the sting out of his admission but Lance wouldn't do that would he?

Lance has a lifetime ban from competitive sports that could be lowered if he helps investigators.  Should Lance be allowed to compete again?

Do you care a little too much?

I read a story about cycling last week that was pretty sad.  It revolves around the New York Gran Fono that took place in May of 2012.  Fondo's are basically a cycling festival including bike races, vendors, a bike Expo etc.  The NY Gran Fondo this past summer had more intrigue than usual thanks to a racer named David Anthony.  In the article at THIS LINK you can read that he popped for EPO while at the event.  Just to be clear, this guy was not a Pro cyclist with millions in endorsements on the line if he failed.  He was simply a Cat 3 racer.  If you read my last post, you realize that being a Cat 3 racer might be cool for a weekend warrior but it is certainly not going to get you on the landing page of VeloNews.com unless of course you fail a drug test during a Cat 3 race.  This guy has a real job and decided to take drugs in order to beat other fully employed husbands and fathers at a weekend group ride.

Hematocrit is the percentage of your blood that is made up of red blood cells.  They are the little servants that dutifully deliver oxygen, four molecules at a time, to your demanding muscles.  The more you have, the better your endurance.  Adult men typically register hematocrit levels that range between 40-45%.  Amgen which is the largest biotech company in the world created Erythropoetin (EPO) in the early 90's primarily to help cancer patients who were going through chemotharapy.  It is a wonder drug really.  Chemotherapy wreaks havoc on your red blood cell count that results in the significant drop in energy experienced by patients after treatment.  EPO is administered to increase the body's production of red blood cells to give patients their energy back.  As is the case with most revolutionary discoveries, they end up being used in unintended ways.  Cyclists began to realize it's potential for sustained endurance/power when climbing hills particularly during extended stage races.  As a bit of irony, Amgen is the primary sponsor of the Tour of California.  That's kind of like having a commercial break half-way through your AA meeting and hearing, "The second half of this AA meeting is being brought to you by Budweiser, the King of Beers.  Drink responsibly"  It's a place Amgen shouldn't be.  As a bit of trivia, I interned at Amgen while I was in MBA school.  Fantastic, and very successful company; poor marketing department.

In 1997, before there was a test for EPO, the International Cycling Union (UCI) placed a max hematocrit limit of 50 for anyone participating in sanctioned racing events.  Mr. Anthony reported his normal hematocrit to be in the "low 40's".  He said that his doping regiment resulted in him keeping his hematocrit at "52-53", a full 10 points higher than his walking around number.  This is nearly 25% more red blood cells than he naturally had. Apparently this wasn't just a "I only did it once and you caught me" situation.  They rarely are.  After being caught he admitted to a $1,000/month EPO habit in order to elevate his hematocrit to a more "competitive" level. 

I think the story hit me because it kind of feels like it could be me.  Before anyone goes making wild assumptions I want to be clear about what I've used as "performance enhancers".  My list includes Gatorade, Clif Bars, Cliff Shot Bloks and GU.  I understand the frailties of the human condition and know that being over 40 years old means that even with EPO I wouldn't be as good as I could have been when I was 27.  The similarities are that we are both over 40, both started cycling in 2009, both went headlong into training and loved it from day one.  That's where they end.  The differences are that I spent about $200 last year on my "performance enhancers" (mostly cliff bars and Bloks) while he spent thousands on illegal drugs and injected himself with live proteins to artificially increase his chance of winning.

Want to know how to increase your hematocrit legally?  Get enough sleep.  Go to bed an hour earlier during the training season and you'll give your body enough time to regenerate.  Rest will help you recover quicker as well.

Long story short, if anyone beats me in a race this summer, I want them tested.  ;-)  Lesson number two, get your priorities straight.  Unless you get paid to do it for a living (which I would love by the way) cycling shouldn't be in your top 5.