Doping

Philippa York on this:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/14/chris-froome-team-sky-drug-test

It wasn’t like now when you read that high percentages of elite cyclists have exercise-induced asthma. Although I’m not medically trained, I’d suggest there might be an explication for this.

When you make a massive effort your lungs often tighten up so you would often be coughing at the back end of a race. I thought it was a normal reaction of the body to limit the damage being done, maybe even a weakness which emerged after time. Apparently it’s neither nowadays.

So exercise-induced asthma was probably widespread, but once the medical staff realised that riders could be treated for it now they will tell a rider who suffers that you can manage those symptoms and there isn’t the decrease in performance there would be before. It’s maybe not quite performance enhancement, but it certainly removes a restriction or decrease that otherwise may have occurred. A grey area indeed.

I enjoyed the 'explication' bit, possibly a result of speaking a lot of French? :)