“You don’t ride the Tour de France on mineral water alone…”Jacques Anquetil (5 time Tour de France champion)
Kelme’s Jesus Manzano has blown the whistle on doping within the European peloton. Critics are dismissing him as a disgruntled ex-pro with an ax to grind with his former employer (the Spanish professional cycling team Kelme), but the explicit detail of his allegations seems too honest and elaborate to discount. Look at this frightening laundry list of drugs ingested by Manzano during his brief (2 year) professional career:
Actovegin (extract of calves blood which supposedly improves oxygen carrying capacity)
Albumina H. (protein in blood plasma)
Androgel (testosterone)
Aranesp (Darbepoetin alfa = super EPO)
Celestote (corticosteroid)
Eprex (EPO)
Genotorm (growth hormone)
Hemoce (plasma)
Deca durabolin (anabolic steroid)
Humatrope (growth hormone)
IgF1 (insulin growth factor 1)
Neofertinon (hormone to stimulate ovulation and estrogen production)
Neorecormon (hormone that regulates red blood cell production)
Norditropin (growth hormone)
Nuvacten (corticosteroid)
Trigon (asthma drug)
Urbason (corticosteroid)
Ventolin (bronchial dilator)
Oxandrolona (anabolic agent)
Vitamin B12 (essential B vitamin)
Triamcinolona (corticosteroid)
Testoviron (testosterone)
Aspirina (analgesic, anti-inflammatory)
Oxyglobin (artificial haemoglobin intended for anaemic dogs)
Hemopure (artificial haemoglobin)
Ferlixit (iron)
Caffeine (stimulant)
Hemassist (artificial haemoglobin)
Prozac (antidepressant)
Manzano nearly died during the 2003 Tour de France stage to Morzine when an injection he received the morning of the stage was rejected by his body. I remember seeing pictures of him collapsed on the side of the road (see photo above) and the official story line was simply “heat exhaustion”. According to Manzano in the March 24th Cyclingnews.com,
“It was the first mountain stage and in the morning they tested a substance that I had not experimented with. This substance was taken according to your weight. It is injected into a vein and the unique thing that it does is to keep your hematocrit low but raise your haemoglobin.
“In the morning they injected 50 ml of this product into me. Before the start I was in the village, I spoke on the phone with my girlfriend, Marina, and I told her: ‘Prepare yourself, because I know today that I am going to ride well.”
On the day’s first climb, the Cat. 2 Col des Portes (km 50), Manzano and Richard Virenque set off to try and catch the early break with Paolo Bettini, Rolf Aldag, Médéric Clain and Benoît Poilvet. Virenque would not work with Manzano as he had Bettini in front, leaving Manzano to try and close the gap himself. But after three kilometres of climbing, “I started to have sensations of dizziness, with a lot of heat, very cold sweat, contrasts of hot and cold, but above all, a lot of cold. In spite of the July heat, I began to shiver and feel strange. Virenque looked at me and attacked. I went for another half a kilometre and there was a corner. It was so hot that the tar of the asphalt had melted…the only thing I remember was that I was dizzy and I could not longer ride straight, if I crashed, whether they would carry me off, where they would take me.”
Manzano recalled his experiences subsequent to his crash, and said that he was given an injection in the ambulance as well as an electrocardiogram. “I felt strange, as if my tongue had swollen, as if I couldn’t breathe. If they had put a hole in my throat I would have thanked them.”
Manzano believed that whatever he took in the morning before the stage resulted in his near catastrophic dehydration.
Sheer madness. I really want to believe that the majority, hopefully an overwhelming majority, of professional cyclists are clean, but the sport I love is in jeopardy of implosion. What corporation would want to finance a team and have their name dragged through the mud and associated with illegal drug use? I’m sure Kelme is very pleased with this publicity…
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