The Greatest Cycling Doping Scheme Fell Apart Around The...

In 2012 the greatest cycling doping scheme fell apart around the ringleader, Lance Armstrong. He was called a cheat, bully, and stripped of all seven of his consecutive Tour De France yellow jerseys. At the heart of all of this was a drug called EPO and a method called blood doping. In an investigation by the International Cycling Union (UCI) they found that the period between 1990 and 2000 to as an â€Å"epo epidemic† (Lodewijkx 3). And even now dozens of professional athletes get banned over the use of this substance every year. After the â€Å"witch-hunt† that was the trial and eventually lifetime banning of Lance Armstrong from professional cycling there is evidence that rHuEPO may not even help these world class athletes perform any better than non-rHuEPO using athletes. The largest problem in cycling today is the instantaneous bans and little investigation that goes along with the use of rHuEPO by the UCI. This essay asserts that the UCI instead of putting these h arsh bans on the athletes should examine: rHuEPO physiologically rather than through speculative models, the extent which a cyclist’s performance is enhanced in a true race environment, and the psychological fallacies that come with rHuEPO use and cyclists who win a lot so they may eliminate rHuEPO use. The critics of these banned or suspended athletes would argue that since rHuEPO does give a significant advantage to the athletes that use it, then in turn they should have a consequence for cheating. Per Jenkins,