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Doping Control
I have been meaning to put something on the forum for anyone who is interested since being called for doping control at the RTTC round 4 in Scotland. Prior to this I didn't really have any idea exactly how it went and there are a few things that might be useful ( I hope) if anyone is entering an event where there could be testing.
Firstly it is useful to go and see if your number is on the board ASAP and certainly before you drink too much. My first thought is always to have a drink but luckily in Scotland I hung around at the finish for Stuart, had one sip of water from his bottle as riding back and then saw my number was up. This is quite important because when you are tested they use some of the sample to test the strength of the specimen and if it is too diluted then you have to wait around ( until you are a bit more dehydrated and you need to pee again). With only 1 sip of water after the race I was only just inside the limit so I am thinking you need to be reasonably dehydrated for it to be OK. The sample needs to be a certain quantity as well - so don't go before you are really ready as if it is short you have to wait and start again!
2nd point is to take some form of ID - OK if it is a road race as you probably have your race licence and luckily as it was so far away for me I had my driving licence but I don't usually take this to local events. If you need reading glasses as well it is important to have these - I really struggled because you take responsibility for every step of the test - reading lengthy paperwork, choosing your own testing kit etc and then checking all the numbers on everything match up exactly. The advice I was given by the testers and by other riders is to make sure you name everything you have taken ( they ask you for the previous week) so even if you can't remember if you had a paracetamol 7 days ago or 8 it is worth putting it down because they will be looking for things that haven't been mentioned - any anomalies. In terms of what is allowed, yesterday at the RTTC 6 ukad had a stand and gave out some little cards with info on how to check which I thought might be useful. For medications google globaldro.com - it will ask for your nationality and sport and then you can basically type in any brand and it will tell you if it is prohibited or sometimes if it only prohibited in certain formats. I have now printed out the results for the searches I did for regular medication I have to use with the date stamp which was the advice given at the stand yesterday. There is also info for TUE's at ukad.org.uk/about-TUE and for those that take supplements you can use
informed-sport.com or ukad.org.uk/supplements. There is a clean sport app that you can download as well so you can have the info to hand if you pop into the chemist with a cold!
Hope that is of some interest.
Jackie
Firstly it is useful to go and see if your number is on the board ASAP and certainly before you drink too much. My first thought is always to have a drink but luckily in Scotland I hung around at the finish for Stuart, had one sip of water from his bottle as riding back and then saw my number was up. This is quite important because when you are tested they use some of the sample to test the strength of the specimen and if it is too diluted then you have to wait around ( until you are a bit more dehydrated and you need to pee again). With only 1 sip of water after the race I was only just inside the limit so I am thinking you need to be reasonably dehydrated for it to be OK. The sample needs to be a certain quantity as well - so don't go before you are really ready as if it is short you have to wait and start again!
2nd point is to take some form of ID - OK if it is a road race as you probably have your race licence and luckily as it was so far away for me I had my driving licence but I don't usually take this to local events. If you need reading glasses as well it is important to have these - I really struggled because you take responsibility for every step of the test - reading lengthy paperwork, choosing your own testing kit etc and then checking all the numbers on everything match up exactly. The advice I was given by the testers and by other riders is to make sure you name everything you have taken ( they ask you for the previous week) so even if you can't remember if you had a paracetamol 7 days ago or 8 it is worth putting it down because they will be looking for things that haven't been mentioned - any anomalies. In terms of what is allowed, yesterday at the RTTC 6 ukad had a stand and gave out some little cards with info on how to check which I thought might be useful. For medications google globaldro.com - it will ask for your nationality and sport and then you can basically type in any brand and it will tell you if it is prohibited or sometimes if it only prohibited in certain formats. I have now printed out the results for the searches I did for regular medication I have to use with the date stamp which was the advice given at the stand yesterday. There is also info for TUE's at ukad.org.uk/about-TUE and for those that take supplements you can use
informed-sport.com or ukad.org.uk/supplements. There is a clean sport app that you can download as well so you can have the info to hand if you pop into the chemist with a cold!
Hope that is of some interest.
Jackie
Comments
It's reassuring to know that this happens as there have been a lot of chat in races about this recently.
I hope i dont get called as i may be some while putting up all my TUEs. unfortunately mine are to slow me down not speed me up.
On another note, if you aren't a professional then you can probably get a retrospective TUE for a medication which is prescribed by a DR - but ONLY if you declare you've taken it when doing the test. The testers aren't out to catch recreational riders who have taken a lemsip to get through their days work (but still declare the lemsip).
I read with interest about the athlete who had received a ban for self medicating with prednisalone (probably badly spelt), I agreed with that ban, it's a strong performance enhancing steroid, which should only be used when prescribed. My wife has had it three times in the last 2 or 3 years when hospitalized with asthma, and it was like a miracle cure. My guess is that rider knew exactly what the prednisalone was doing to their riding.
ps don't nearly cry when you get the result of a test and its a negative, which is what I did after my first one. Negative is good!!!