Take a lesson from the professionals.
Edmund R. Burke, Ph.D.
Active.com
7/20/2001
Tom Able-Green/Allsport
Mountain climbing specialist, Richard Virenque is sitting out the Tour de France due to a doping suspension
As drug testing gets more sophisticated in the sport of cycling, so does cheating. In fact, scientists fear they may one day have to test not only blood and urine for the over 100 banned stimulants, narcotics, anabolic agents, diuretics and hormones, but also genes.
As genetic research and manipulation become more commonplace, cyclists may find ways to reprogram their genetic codes to become stronger and faster. For now, cheaters have to settle for less futuristic methods that simply keep them one step ahead of the latest drug-testing technology.
Willie Voet, the French Festina cycling team masseur for whose arrest by customs officers in 1998 spawned a drug scandal at the Tour De France, described some tricks cyclists used to beat urine tests.
In his recent book, Chain Massacre, Thirty Years of Cheating, Voet admitted cyclists stuffed a condom filled with "clean urine" up their anus with a rubber tube hidden by pubic hair to provide an untainted, body temperature urine sample.