MikeBiker
03-15-2004, 11:54 AM
http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news?slug=reu-dopinggaumont&prov=reuters&type=lgns
PARIS, March 15 (Reuters) - Former Cofidis rider Philippe Gaumont says he would have been kicked out of his team if he had refused to take performance enhancing drugs.
"If you did not take drugs, you were just fired after a year," Gaumont, who is under investigation in an alleged doping scandal involving Cofidis, told Monday's Le Monde newspaper.
Gaumont, a 1992 Olympic bronze medallist in the 100-km team competition, has been accused of drug taking twice in the past. He tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone in 1997 and for amphetamines in 1999.
<TABLE cellPadding=1 align=left border=0 hspace="10" vspace="5"><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>He said he did not take anything in the first six months with his first team, Castorama, whom he joined in 1994.
"In June, 1994, a team doctor gave me a shot of Kenacort and it went on from there," he added.
Kenacort is a corticosteroid, a banned substance which reduces fatigue and swelling.
Gaumont said he was amazed by the quantity of drugs he had to take before time trials.
"An intravenous injection of Fonzylane to dilate the veins and let the blood spread well. Some injectable caffeine. A pill of Theostat so that I could breathe easily and some analgesic to stop pain," he said.
Gaumont said random tests were ineffective.
"The tests occur during training and races. Every rider knows that intravenous erythropoietin (EPO) stays for three days in the urine. So you just have to act consequently and stop the treatment three days before the test.
"And the effect of EPO is still effective 10 days after you take it." EPO stimulates the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells.
The rider said he had never been told about the risks of taking banned substances.
"The only risks I was told about were the risks of being caught. "I take full responsibility for my mistakes, but it is the whole system leading us to doping that has to be judged," he said.
PARIS, March 15 (Reuters) - Former Cofidis rider Philippe Gaumont says he would have been kicked out of his team if he had refused to take performance enhancing drugs.
"If you did not take drugs, you were just fired after a year," Gaumont, who is under investigation in an alleged doping scandal involving Cofidis, told Monday's Le Monde newspaper.
Gaumont, a 1992 Olympic bronze medallist in the 100-km team competition, has been accused of drug taking twice in the past. He tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone in 1997 and for amphetamines in 1999.
<TABLE cellPadding=1 align=left border=0 hspace="10" vspace="5"><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>He said he did not take anything in the first six months with his first team, Castorama, whom he joined in 1994.
"In June, 1994, a team doctor gave me a shot of Kenacort and it went on from there," he added.
Kenacort is a corticosteroid, a banned substance which reduces fatigue and swelling.
Gaumont said he was amazed by the quantity of drugs he had to take before time trials.
"An intravenous injection of Fonzylane to dilate the veins and let the blood spread well. Some injectable caffeine. A pill of Theostat so that I could breathe easily and some analgesic to stop pain," he said.
Gaumont said random tests were ineffective.
"The tests occur during training and races. Every rider knows that intravenous erythropoietin (EPO) stays for three days in the urine. So you just have to act consequently and stop the treatment three days before the test.
"And the effect of EPO is still effective 10 days after you take it." EPO stimulates the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells.
The rider said he had never been told about the risks of taking banned substances.
"The only risks I was told about were the risks of being caught. "I take full responsibility for my mistakes, but it is the whole system leading us to doping that has to be judged," he said.