Thursday, November 25, 2010

Domestic Cyclists Caught Doping

So I've been waiting for some news from the Joe Papp investigation and yesterday we heard about two riders who were sanctioned for EPO use: domestic pro, Charles "Chuck" Coyle, and masters rider, Neal Schubel. As for Coyle, he not only used EPO but he also purchased insulin growth factor, whatever that is. Coyle raced for several pro teams. A VeloNation article discussing Coyle said that his team's website listed some of his career highlights as:
wins in the Boulder Roubaix Road Race, the King of the Mountains competition at Mt. Hood, the best sprinter award at the Tour of Utah and the sprint king jersey in the Tour of Tobago (Trinidad & Toabago).
This is an interesting combination of highlights. Normally, we don't expect someone to win the King of the Mountains in a race that has a ton of climbing and then to win the best sprinter award in another climbing race. Maybe all the pure sprinters DNF'd at the Tour of Utah?...Strange.

As for strange though, Coyle's results are nothing compared to Schubel's. The strange thing about Schubel is that he has almost no results and the results he does have would mostly be considered poor even if he wasn't doping! Let me explain.

The VeloNation article about his doping describes his results as "modest." However, if you look him up on USACycling.org's website, you will see that the guy hardly ever raced and when he did race, his odds of finishing were less than 70% (5 DNFs and one 99th place which is probably a DNF out of 17 races).

Of the 11 races where Schubel finished he had 8 races where he placed 12th or lower! Now, keep in mind, these are masters races where the fields are usually less than 50 to begin with and usually only about 10-15 guys are under a Cat 3. So far, I would not categorize his results as modest.

The only results he has that are decent are three top 10 results including 4th, 6th and 7th in some races I've never heard of. I looked up these races and his 4th place finish was in a field of 11, his 6th place finish was in a field of 13, and his 7th was in a field of 15. And this guy is shooting up EPO!

Well, I never would expect someone like this to be risking his life by taking EPO. I can see someone like Lance Armstrong doping to make his millions, especially when the entire peloton is doping. However, when there is some guy who can't finish a race unless he dopes and can only muster a 4th place in a field of 11 old guys is doping, it makes me wonder how widespread doping is.

In the end, this guy must have absolutely no integrity at all or he must be very lazy or both. Maybe he has money but no discipline to work out and so he buys some EPO in hopes of finishing a race! I have no idea why someone like this would dope but it definitely says something about his character.

If someone has another theory, let me know...

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