Lemond’s plan raises questions
Posted on 15. Oct, 2008 by Josh in Bike Racing
Starting with some pointed questions at Lance’s Interbike press conference and continuing in an interview with Cyclingnews, Greg Lemond has been touting an anti-doping plan that would return a positive test when a rider’s power output exceeds what his VO2 max indicates as possible for him or her.
It’s more of a concept than a detailed proposal, but it seems to be based on the idea that power output can be manipulated by doping while VO2 max cannot. Although the logic behind the Lemond plan is sound, implementing it would ask as many questions as it answers.
What if WADA and AFLD can’t agree on an exact number for the ratio of power to VO2 max that separates clean from dirty? I can’t envision either one of those organizations giving in to the other, but a compromise would mean that politics are adjusting the science. If they each run their programs with a different set of numbers, then there’s the possibility that a rider could be considered clean by one agency and dirty by another. Although the recent UCI-ASO peace treaty gives the UCI drug testing authority of the Historic Calendar, the AFLD still has legal authority to test anyone competing on French soil. It’s a controversy waiting to happen.
And when do we raise the threshold, and by how much? Fans in any sport always think that their era’s athletes are the best, but every sport gets more competitive when training evolves, equipment improves, and the talent pool grows. All of those things are happening in cycling, so we can’t have a system that doesn’t allow for tomorrow’s clean athletes to be better than today’s. But it’s impossible to know when that leap forward happens except in hindsight, which means that some riders will have to be wrongly punished in order to keep the system up to date. “You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette” is not a good basis for a system that’s supposed to ensure fairness.
