DOPED RIDER WENT UNDERCOVER TO EXPOSE DOPING | RIDER SUPPORT

This week we're diving into one of the wildest anti-doping stories in cycling—USADA's use of undercover informant athletes to expose dopers, and what happens when a governing body goes rogue. We'll also break down the key stages you can't miss at this year's Vuelta a España, explain those daily racing fines you see published, and settle a heated debate about fueling on the bike with carbs versus protein.

Key Takeaways

• USADA allowed athletes who tested positive for doping to continue competing without sanctioning in exchange for wearing wires and informing on teammates—a practice that undermines fair sport and lacks any regulatory framework in the World Anti-Doping Code
• Putting doped athletes back in competition creates illegitimate race results and unfairly deprives clean athletes of titles, contracts, and recognition, essentially incentivizing rule-breaking rather than preventing it
• The new yellow card system starting in 2025 aims to punish the principal offender rather than proxies; accumulating three yellows results in ejection, six in a year triggers a 30-day suspension
• You need carbohydrates on rides above Zone 1 intensity because glycogen stores deplete after 90 minutes; simple sugars like glucose and fructose in gels are rapidly absorbed and spare muscle glycogen better than protein or fat
• For time trial helmets without wind tunnel access, borrow multiple helmets from club mates, test them on the same hill, or look for helmets with published wind tunnel data showing drag reduction at various yaw angles
• Stage 9 (Motril to Alhaurín) and Stage 20 (Villa Crayon to Pico Blanco) are the key mountain stages at Vuelta 2024, with Stage 20's 5,000m of climbing directly impacting the final time trial

Expert Quotes

"It's like something out of a cheap paperback—USADA have gone totally rogue, there's no provision for this in the world anti-doping code."

"If you allow athletes who've committed an anti-doping violation to continue competing, the whole trust goes in that. We can't trust the results we see on the screen because there's sleeper agents in there who have committed offenses."

"If you're not eating carbohydrates on the bike you're on an absolute hiding to nothing—almost every study will back up that you perform better with carbohydrates than a ketogenic diet."