Just got home to find the March (and believe me I have checked it’s not the April) edition of Procycling. Just in bed giving it a quick look see and what do I find on page 129?

A full page advert “How elite athletes are gaining an edge”.

Ho hum another new gel/bar/drink mix.

No it’ s EPOBOOST! It’s ok though cos unlike blood doping or “drugs” this is an ok way to increase Epo and thus red blood cell production cos it’s natural.

As said I double checked it isn’t the April Fool issue.

It’s almost too unbelievable for words.

Now I suspect this product is a pile of placebo poo. But what has really hacked me off is that a mag that carries stories almost monthly about doping And cheats could carry an ad like this. As always money talks but to my mind they have lost any right to raise the issue of doping ever again. Riders do it for prestige and cash, the mag sells advertising for a dubious product for cash.

You’re all in the same boat so if I were you I’d keep my mouth shut from now on.

OR maybe it’s a subtle ploy to gauge reaction. They will be getting a pretty blunt one from me tomorrow morning!

There is a sport clinic in durham dedicated to taking pro atheles and allowing them to safely take illegal doping substances. There are some people making a killing helping people cheat. This seems no different.

Really Rideallday? can you give me there details, I’ve always had to to dope myself and Im crap, so that sounds spot on, post on here or email in profile Cheers

It’ll be echinacea with a bloody silly name and a stupid price tag.

There was an article in the last issue of Cycling Plus confirming that some study had found a correlation between consumption of echinacea and a rise in EPO level.

A quick Google search would appear to suggest that the stuff has been marketed in the States for ages, with echinacea as the as the only active ingredient.

@colnagokid YGM

OP what is your problem?

Seriously?

Do you want to ban healthy foods? Carbohydrates?

cynic-al – nice troll, was going to answer your comment until I saw it was you.

My problem is that;

1. It’s nothing but a scam. TBF anyone who falls for it has no one but themselves to blame. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, anymore than any other advert that exploits vulnerable people

2. I have a problem with many supplement ads seen in cycle mags. To me it smacks of leading weak people down a slippery slope. It used to be said that Greg Lemond would not take intravenous vitamin injections that were prevalent in 80’s pro cycling. His philosophy was that once you’d lost your needle virginity the temptation to have it deliver illegal substances would be too easy to overcome.

Or perhaps I’m just an overly sensitive naive nonce.

Not a troll at all. You don’t know it’s a scam, and if you were to ban this where would you draw the line? Any ban would catch all sorts of products.

The notion that answering an ad in a bike mag will surely lead you to buying illegal drugs is a nonsense IMO, unless you are Mary Whitehouse and I claim my £5?

A bit like when the England football team were rumoured to be dosing themselves with a dodgy substance to increase their creatin levels.

It turns out the “dodgy substance” was a 12oz sirloin steak.

No idea if EPOBOOST is a placebo but there are plenty of legal products that you can buy that are variants of banned drugs. Steroids for the most part. So I wouldn’t assume that just because you can buy it that it’s not a drug. You are likely to fail a drugs test though, but…

You don’t have to dig very far to find private clinics that cater for sportsmen (blood tests, monitoring etc). Have a dig in the sports drugs forums and you’ll turn them up quick enough.