Ketones

Daroxtar

Interesting and somewhat damning article about British cycling's use of ketones in the build up to the 2012 Olympics https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/british-cyclists-part-of-secret-ketones-trial-for-2012-london-olympic-games/
Some highlights

"The athletes had to sign waivers to accept full responsibility for any associated risks, along with non-disclosure agreements to keep it all private. In order to counter any "negative perceptions and publicity" arising from a potential leak, UK Sport was set to launch a PR plan focusing on Team GB being "ahead of the curve compared to its competitors".......
......"

"UK Sport does not guarantee, promise, assure or represent that use of ketone esters is absolutely World Anti-Doping Code compliant and therefore excludes all responsibility for use of the ketone ester," read the document.

"WADA might exercise ... their rights to regulate … [and] collect blood samples or retrospectively test old samples. This may occur if there were pressure of the media if the concept was to leak. However … ketosis is a temporary physiological state and would be difficult to prove or test with any post-event samples."

British cycling team in ethics shocker....

nilhg

Sure it's only cheating if you get caught......

Large bottle small glass

nilhg wrote: »

Sure it's only cheating if you get caught......

Ketones aren't on a banned list.

An Irish researcher Dr Brendan Egan from DCU has done a lot of work on investigating the possible performance benefits of using ketone esters.

I thought the main criticism was using the Olympic athletes as guinea pigs with research project effectively.

Its a weird concept; ketones are typically only available as a fuel source when we fast or are starving. The human brain uses about 600cals a day of glucose; the ketones are a back up system when food and therefor glucose is not available.

Having ketones available when glycogen and fat is also available is pretty unnatural.

Lot of top teams have been using them; pretty sure Alaphilippe was using them in 2019

Whatever about the rights and wrongs of them and the side effects, the fact that they have NDA's and mention WADA and testing at all says a lot about the mentality of British Cycling at the time imo.

2020 they are a thing for sure but back then in 2012 when jiffy bags were also a thing????

nilhg

Large bottle small glass wrote: »

Ketones aren't on a banned list.

An Irish researcher Dr Brendan Egan from DCU has done a lot of work on investigating the possible performance benefits of using ketone esters.

I thought the main criticism was using the Olympic athletes as guinea pigs with research project effectively.

Its a weird concept; ketones are typically only available as a fuel source when we fast or are starving. The human brain uses about 600cals a day of glucose; the ketones are a back up system when food and therefor glucose is not available.

Having ketones available when glycogen and fat is also available is pretty unnatural.

Lot of top teams have been using them; pretty sure Alaphilippe was using them in 2019

"UK Sport does not guarantee, promise, assure or represent that use of ketone esters is absolutely World Anti-Doping Code compliant and therefore excludes all responsibility for use of the ketone ester," read the document.

The mentality back then seems to have been similar to the attitude to stuff like salbutamol, legal in normal theraputic use but when you push the envelope it runs into a grey area very quickly.

It's pretty common knowledge that Sky were using ketones even though Froome 100% denied it in 2015.

magicbastarder

was the waiver the athletes had to sign a hard copy?
if so, all it will need is a scan of one of these to appear in the press. what a colossal moment of idiocy that will have been, if true - creating a paper trail of their subterfuge.