A few days ago on 27th october a number of newspapers a.o. HET NIEUWSBLAD (Belgium), LE SOIR (Belgium), THE TIMES (U.K), LA GAZZETTA DELLO SPORT (Italy), LÉQUIPE (France) published a manifesto for a clean cycling world. This is a commendable initiative but all together too general and too little.
What really is needed is a new Antidoping Watchdog, based on the physical science of the power production. While the biochemical analysis of urine and blood will always be the most logical method to find residues of doping, we need an alternative method that is less invasive to the cyclist and is less vulnerable to all sorts of cheating and masking.
Considering that doping is supposed to enhance performance it is only logical that we should monitor performance itself. Monitoring the climbing power in the Tour de France over the last 28 years shows extremely clearly the effect of successive periods of doping practices and also shows clearly the physical limits beyond which performance without heavy doping is not possible. (See my blog "Dopig en Klimvermogen" on www.bloggen.be/fietsica - soon to be translated into English) The method was first described by Mr. Antoine Vayer and Mr. Frédéric Portoleau and today is still applied in a rather complicated way. First we have to register the live TV reports of the great tours, Italy, France, Spain. After painstaking timing of the climbs and detailed knowledge of the elevation profiles we can compute the power that was developed. However with today's methods all could be much faster and easier.
Here is my 6-point proposal.
1. A new Watchdog is created. The members of this agency should have no function within the established agencies such as the UCI, WADA etc.. 2. All top-class cyclists should ride with an on-bike powermeter such as an SRM, a Powertap, Quarg etc... 3. After each stage all these cyclists and/or the top 10 of the stage must transfer their data files to a central database belonging to the Power Watchdog 4. The powerdata files are analyzed by the watchdog but must also integrally be accessible to the public and the media. Special attention is given to the final climbs in the mountain stages. 5. A scientific commission will establish procedures and performance levels that identify ALARM levels
What will happen when a cyclist rings the Alarm bell is still to be decided, but very special attention will at least be given.
A few days ago on 27th october a number of newspapers a.o. HET NIEUWSBLAD (Belgium), LE SOIR (Belgium), THE TIMES (U.K), LA GAZZETTA DELLO SPORT (Italy), LÉQUIPE (France) published a manifesto for a clean cycling world.
