Doping

Ah the Russian hackers did their job well, but perhaps also shed light on something that needed it.

I have remained ambivalent towards this, rather than splutter with holy, righteous indignation that serves the internet shouty men/women well, conveniently ignoring all of their human flaws. He clearly had a history of asthma/allergy and used medication to control it. That said the vast majority of his sporting career and the successes within it were achieved without a TUE. So everything on the track, all those Olympic golds and his hour record. No pollen on the track. Also for his Worlds ITT win no TUE: late season, no pollen. Also in even in the years he did have a TUE for his GTs he was winning stage races for fun, Paris-Nice, Dauphine, Romandie etc. before he got the TUE. earlier in the season, less pollen and also less time spent out in the fields in the middle of it.

His description of his allergies is what I repeatedly experienced growing up and well into my twenties and it is absolutely burtal. Over the counter medications do not help, I was prescribed a steroid nasal spray and that only barely helped. If you haven't experienced a violent allergy attack then it's difficult to empathise but I couldn't breathe, eyes swollen and itchy, nose literally pissing mucus, if you could call it that. After several hours it was just a steady stream of water-like stuff pissing out of my red-raw nose. I regularly had asthma attacks on the back of it, and had both a normal and steroid inhaler for it. I imagine this is the sort of stuff you'd need a TUE for. However even these stronger meds didn't eliminate the condition completely, depending on the size of the allergen dose I got that day. Skin irritation and rashes, fatigue, permanently blocked nose when it wasn't pissing mucus it was a fucking nightmare which is why when I read the reasons for his TUEs I immediately identified with them.

Bottom line they were within the legal framework of the sport. Its down to us as individuals the motives behind them. Either the condition is a lie and he went down the age-old route of obtaining a TUE under false pretences and he's probably dropping other PEDs too, or it was something that had to be strong enough to eliminate a chronic condition. Having suffered a similar chronic condition, and anyone who has had bad allergies will tell you, there is no easy fix, and at best you are mostly managing it and avoiding the worst of the attacks, rather than stopping the suffering altogether.

The fact the TUEs are limited to the GTs is a positive signal to be, rather than a negative one. Those were the races he was going to be most susceptible to his allergies, and his other significant wins were achieved without TUEs.