Originally Posted by
maartendc
Alright then.
Steroids are probably among the things that professional cyclists used to take. More importantly they used to take blood boosters such as EPO which give a boost in red blood cell count, very beneficial to endurance athletes. In more recent years, they went to blood transfusions even, reinjecting themselves with old blood that was extracted previously. Pretty gross stuff. There have been many books written about all of these practices in the 90s and 2000s.
Most of us who enjoy professional cycling racing choose to believe, or hope, that the sport is now much cleaner. At least any abuses are not as rampant as they used to be, controls are stricter and better. Athletes are tested during training as well, at random times. No sport will probably ever be 100% clean, but we can try.
Thanks. Let me ask, since the fallout over steroid use within the sport (following Armstrong, et al.) have you noticed a significant drop in the performance of the pros? More specifically, did you notice that professional time trial speeds began to diminish after the sport became more regulatory with steroids? This was more along the lines of what I meant in my OP. Thanks