topflightpro

They send you the jersey, but I'm not sure if you get a sorry.

kensuf

You definitely don't get the photo of yourself on top of the podium, unless you are good with photoshop.

Ygduf

I take one of me on the top step each race, just in case I need it later.

gsteinb

Yep, the race clean surcharge continues to aggravate me. Never mind the whole overly complicated license renewal process.

topflightpro

I thought they were instituting auto-renewal this year.

(They tried, but the CC they have on file for me is no longer valid.)

gsteinb

I'm not an auto renewal kind of guy. Not a huge fan of leaving CC info and stuff around. besides my card has been reissued three times since last year

topflightpro

I didn't think I signed up for it, but then got an email saying I was. But like you, my CC has been reissued multiple times in the last year - which is why my renewal didn't go through.

jsk

Yeah I got an email yesterday saying I had been auto-renewed. Which is strange because I don't remember signing up for it and generally make it a rule not to allow vendors to save payment info (except for Amazon and a couple others I use regularly and trust).

rubiksoval

Same!

Was just told license fees are going up after Dec. 31st. After spending 10 minutes resetting my password multiple times for the new site, and then adding the license to my cart, and THEN seeing that extra $25 bucks on top. Really irritating.

I find it ridiculous that they're continuing to target specific categories. Make everyone pony up some or none at all. I mean, who's being busted, anyway? Seems like it's a bunch of masters racers (men and women), and then a dude that gets lapped in cat 4 races?

Whatever.

Doge

It may be starting to work. I've mentioned these things are only as good as enforcement.
Yesterday I was talking to the new World Champion in the Mens 60=65 points race. New as he got 2nd in Oct, but 1st (the USA guy) got busted by the UCI last week. So another we'll send you the award in the mail thing. But still I was happy to see this list a bit longer.
https://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/C...EN_English.pdf
Quite a few are getting sanctioned now (inc Russia), so if these sanctioned rates go up, I'll be curious if the usage rates go down.

Racer Ex 

Tell him I say hello and congrats. Chatted with him about subbing for me in the TP after my ladder attacked me.

I'd be surprised if the use rates have gone down much. Sad to say I think they may have gone up in certain segments of the racing population. Too much info and availability at a touch of the screen.

Not seeing a sea change in human nature, which is what really drives this.

The guy who got popped was a licensed medical professional, taking an experimental drug that had been shelved after it caused multiple tumors in mice.

Do we really think Joe Blow will be holding to a higher standard? Or that folks would courier NyQuil?

Ten years from now we will laugh at our naivete.

Doge

The raw data on that linked PDF has more recent names than older names. So for that PDF, there are more busted. That could mean more are using, or more are being caught.


If anything I'm too cynical. Both views are unsettling to me and made cycling a clear carrier any parent would want to avoid. I'm less bothered by the doping than the culture around it. I didn't want my kid "discovering" late 20s that he needed to lie, and dope to win.

I still believe some can win without doping. I still do wonder how much it matters. The busted junior was really not good at all. That is rude to talk about a junior that way, but he was both caught and admitted using.

mattm

Wouldn't increasing rates for everyone go against the idea of getting more people racing?

Personally I'm glad Race Clean is busting people, and I'll happily pay for it. I dunno about you, but I have a really expensive bike - hell, my shoes cost more than bikes I rode as a kid - so $25 is nothing.

If USAC was doing nothing there would be a lot more people complaining than are complaining now. At least they're trying.

gsteinb

I might miss the trying part. I was at one race where there was testing last season. They tested one guy in my race. Not really feeling like I got my $25 worth.

rubiksoval

Licenses used to be, what, 35? Then they decided everyone should pay to race all disciplines, even if you don't want to. Then they added a surcharge and reraise the license fee, so now 35 is 100. Big difference.

Why charge cat 1s 25? If it's about money, charging everyone $5 would get more. Do they think cat 1s dope more? Seems like it's mostly masters getting popped. There's a disconnect.

furiousferret

The pointy end dopes more. That means top level masters and Cat 1 and 2 racers. Masters usually have more resources ($$$) to dope. I'm sure guys at the lower end dope as well, but its much fewer and there may be different intentions (like a racer doping for gains in weight lifting or a racer not knowing or caring he has a prescription for a banned substance). To be fair, I wouldn't want USAC testing 3's and 4's as much as the pointy end.

Racer Ex 

I don't know if I'd agree with that, as far as the pointy end. That's who gets tested, and barely at that. So naturally that's who gets caught. I'd guess there'd be a lot more positives if you took one masters and one Cat3 crit field in SoCal and tested everyone.

I've never been tested in close to 700 races which includes a lot of Nats and state podiums. I know there are dopers out there, but I also know you can win at that (Masters 1/2) level without doping because I've done it. I would place a pretty good wager on several folks I know being clean who win a lot as well.

The guy they caught at worlds was a standing joke with his peers, that they caught him was really a total IQ test, which he failed. Totally.

Side note: FWIW my license ends up coming in at over $200 with the UCI and Race Clean charges.

gsteinb

a number of the high profile amateur positives over the past several years admitted that their doping began in the lower categories.

rubiksoval

I think that's just conjecture. Is there actual data that points that way? I don't see how there could be. You're only going to catch people you test. If you don't ever test cat 4s or 5s, then you can't say that there is less doping there.

In any case, as gstein mentioned, what testing is being done anyway? I think I did two races this year that tested.

They don't necessarily need to test 3s and 4s at the same level as pros and 1s. There's just that threat. Again, everyone paying $5 would raise a lot more money than charging the limited number of cat 1s $25. Besides, seems like targeted testing is where the action really takes place and has effect.

Hermes

And then there is this https://cyclingtips.com/2017/11/eigh...elta-colombia/

The UCI has announced that no less than eight riders tested positive for banned substances during this year’s Vuelta a Colombia.

Most were caught using CERA.

Doge

Call me naive, but I think non-master Cat 1 racers dope the least.

Doge

I saw that. I think there is more being done.

Banning Russia from the Olympics both surprised me and encouraged me.
The Icarus movie producer/cheater exposed WADA in a way that I think they decided to step it up.

That small group of PEDs they are catching should be the current length of the WADA list and they should bust as many as they can for that, and then add a PED or two each year that they can and will detect and enforce.

The current list it too long.
Get rid of TUEs.

Racer Ex 

Que Cera Cera.

furiousferret

That's fair, the data we have access to compared to the overall population of riders is so sparse its unfair to paint any sort of picture. I just don't see guys at the bottom doping; unless they fly through the bottom ranks (which does happen). It may be different in other countries *cough* Colombia *cough* where you can buy this stuff over the counter. While deployed in Kuwait, half our platoon was some type of deca (or other steroid) stack.

I'd rather not see 4's or 3's get tested unless there's finger pointing. It just doesn't seem like a great allocation of money.

If guys are spending $200 on fees imo that's an issue.

USAC should just blanket test swaths of people; they could throw away all the samples that day.
That alone is going to weed people out.

At my wife's work half the people end up quitting before they even pee in the bottle. I suspect there'd be a few no shows at races as well. Even if they do, they won't go back and their buddies won't either.

mattm

https://www.usacycling.org/resources/race-clean/updates

179 total tests in 2016, targeting 200 in 2017.

I saw testing a local/small crit this year; sadly I didn't get tested.. would be nice to say that I did, but I made sure to tell USADA that I was glad to see them there etc.

There was definitely testing at Masters Nationals as well.

Am I the only Cat 1 here who is fine with paying extra to get testing? @Ygduf where you at, chime the F in!