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New WADA Prohibited List 2015


hawkeye's picture

By hawkeye - Posted on 28 November 2014

Clicking thru one of the links in today's MTBA newsletter i found that the 2015 banned substances list has been uodated.

Interestingly, and contrary to my earlier belief, pseudoephedrine (aka cold tablets) had not been on the list. However that changes for next year.

From 1 January athletes must cease use of it at least 24 hours prior to competition.

http://asada.govspace.gov.au

Lots of other "interesting" products come onto the list next year as well... a bit of an eye opener.

Hop fiend's picture

Could/would/should have taken a couple of cold n flu tablets before tonight's road race as finished last in E grade!!!

GiantNut's picture

I have a Park Tools blood transfusion kit in my camel back for occasions such as this - should be fine. Although the last time I used it the IV line snagged on a tree. Not Nice Smiling

Lach's picture

.... interesting that they have put this (back) on the monitoring list for 2015.

I'm sure I heard an elite female Fling finisher being interviewed at the end of the race saying that she had taken some No-Doze at the last feed station. I'm sure it wasn't because she felt she might nod off in the last section.....

hawkeye's picture

I've seen them used by others a couple of times, heard of other instances. Red Bull and V drinks are more common substitutes, and provide about the same amount of caffeine.

It'll shake up the sports nutrition market if they ban caffeine. Lots of product has it mixed in, such as GU Roctane gels, High5 EnergyGel+, Endura gels and others.

More likely they'll introduce limits so that moderate use will be OK, rather than an outright in-competition ban.

StanTheMan's picture

Pizza is rocket fuel.

I expected to see that on the banned list as well.

spindog's picture

fortunately they haven't worked out this combination is the schlitz! Eye-wink

hawkeye's picture

... Jason English's secret!

ps's picture

Thats a good example of the confusion around PEDs. Caffeine is currently legal and in doses over 400mg some people may get a performance advantage while some of the energy drinks are illegal in competition but OK for training.

So nothing suspicious about having or taking NoDoz but you are a drug cheat if you have an energy drink with you on race day. Actually drinking it just means that you would fail a drug test but my understanding is possession is technically enough to get a doping infraction.

And then there are the recreational drugs.

Lach's picture

.... the interesting thing is that they have now put it (back?) onto the monitoring list (i.e. they will be testing for it, but will not take any action), presumably because they think it might be being a bit overdone?

What is in energy drinks that makes them illegal in competition (but OK in training?)? I thought they were mainly caffeine delivery mechanisms...

ps's picture

If you look on the asada sanctions list http://www.asada.gov.au/rules_and_violations/san... the drug is Methylhexaneamine.

See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/arti...

or http://speedendurance.com/2014/08/09/does-anabol...

so its not RedBull but some of the minor backs seem to have it.

ps's picture

If you look on the asada sanctions list http://www.asada.gov.au/rules_and_violations/san... the drug is Methylhexaneamine.

See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/arti...

or http://speedendurance.com/2014/08/09/does-anabol...

so its not RedBull but some of the minor backs seem to have it.

noddman's picture

would baked beans be reguarded as rocket fuel as I believe if they are cosumed in excess there maybe an emissions issue to be delt with. Sticking out tongue

Antsonline's picture

This is a good article on how totally rubbish, arbitrary and short-sighted this 'banned or not banned' discussion is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/opinion/sunday...

How can a governing body be the one to define an ethical boundary?

Why are musicians lauded and praised for taking mind bending drugs to write lyrics and melodies that they couldn't do whilst 'sober / clean'? Dylan, Hendrix, The Beatles, Clapton, Elton John, Bowie - imagine how long a list you write that is full of 'Role-Models'...

How can a 50yr old man told he should take every single form of medical supplement possible to improve the quality of his life, but not the quality of his sport? In effect, if he battles with his libido, and loses his wife, that's nature. Surely by providing him a supplement to improve his situation it actually creates an playing field that is no longer level for those who have no need for it - and therefore disproves Charles Darwins approach to evolution?

Instead of just reading a list and saying 'cant take a codral this year, but could last year' or 'this drink isnt cheating, but that one is cheating' why not think of the subject as less binary? No-one is cheating anyone in MTB in Australia. LOTS of people will take performance enhancing supplements - almost everyone on this forum will be.

hawkeye's picture

And your response worries me.

It comes down to this: some things are harmless, some are not.

Blood transfusions and EPO: numbers of lesser known riders have died in their sleep from cardiac arrest thanks to EPO. Others have had their blood bags mixed up with those of other riders with catastrophic results. Those that got pinged for doping infractions from the foreign blood in their system got off lightly. They lived.

Stimulants (amphetamines) were at the root of Tom Simpson's death on Mont Ventoux in the Tour. These most recently banned stimulants operate the same way, in that they can be used to allow the rider to very successfully ignore the signals their body is sending them that they are in trouble.

For anyone who thinks it should be open slather on PEDs, may I recommend Les Woodland's "The Crooked Path To Victory: Drugs And Cheating In Professional Bicycle Racing" and "The Secret Race" by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle. Both are ripping reads, entertaining ... and tragic, at the same time.

Knowledge is a developing thing. Should we really expect the list won't change each year as more and better information becomes available?

StanTheMan's picture

hawkeye. everybody has a different angle.

Does anyone on this forum actually do this stuff? apart froma few who may be elites. And perhaps stand to have a chance of getting to the next olympics? I would be surprised. My doping consists of taking Gu's and perhaps drinking gatoraide here & there. Oh yea....Pizza is my rocket fuel

But honestly at first I thought were all doing a bit of public masterbation with discussing this stuff.

I doubt many here would have had blood tests or had to give urine samples.
ohhh yea I got my helmet checked for Australian compliance once at the mont....

I think its time to lighten up chaps.

StanTheMan's picture

The good wife has just brought home some Beetroot Juice. She says it might come in handy for tomorrow mornings TT around Manly Dam with warthog & chitts.....Ohhh wait....

pharmaboy's picture

It's all well and good to bring out the examples of death Hawkeye, but you also have to put t in the context in which it occurred. It occurred in secrecy as it was cheating, and usually without good medical care and scientific study to make the use both effective and safe.

No one seems to care about athletes careers ruined because they took a banned substance with no ergogenic benefit - banning has been the default position not one where WADA had to show it was an aid nor if it was being abused .

l'd like to think I'm a pragmatist not an idealist, banning and testing hasn't stopped doping, moreover it's probably made it more advantageous to those that use

It's not dissimilar to the argument about illicit drugs generally - there are good arguments in both directions. The only wrong position is perhaps the dogmatic one

Lach's picture

.. sure there are arguments both ways (as there are on most issues), but at the end of the day somebody has to draw a line that says "right on this side" and "wrong on the other". While I have issues with the way that line is administered at times in relation to drugs in sport (Sharks / Bombers / Dank etc being a major case in point), and you can argue about where precisely that line should be, I firmly believe that there has got to be that line.

hawkeye's picture

you can get into serious trouble. Ferrari was reportedly mortified and carried a burden of guilt, feeling that what he had Lance on was a major contributor to his testicular cancer.

It was a doctor and a head of department in a Spanish hospital who between them are thought to have accidentally switched the blood bags that led to Tyler Hamilton getting pinged (if memory serves me correctly). Imagine if it had been an incompatible blood type?

Why should aspiring athletes be placed in the position of having to make these choices in order to follow their dreams?

It's an interesting topic. The way people react to it when it is raised here has also been interesting.

It's worth reading up on this aspect of the sport's history. Les Woodland's book is a good place to start. It shows there is nothing new under the sun.

ps's picture

Have a read of the english language translation of "Breaking the Chain" by Willy Voet. All of that information was in the public domain around the time Lance got into EPO. The decades long history of drug use in euro cycling moved from 'interesting' to sad for me after reading that book and understanding that the whole Lance thing was avoidable (not to mention the many, many deaths).

Have you considered that some of your comments may potentially encourage drug use? After all the most common justification seems to be that everyone was 'doing it'.

Personally I think there is a huge difference between local amateur MTB racing and the pro euro scene where they had knowledge, supply chains and techniques that evolved over many decades. So while the drug testing line started almost 50 years ago in 1965 its still as much an ethical issue as a definitive black and white (or grey) list.

The best hope for the pro's appears to be to ban the doctors for life.

hawkeye's picture

sunlight is the best disinfectant.

*Not* talking about it and allowing it to remain hidden was one of the factors that allowed it to fester so long (40+ years).

Voets' book is on my acquisition list.

CB's picture

If you want to borrow it Hawkeye .

CB

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