# Roland Green, such BS!



## CARBON110 (Apr 17, 2002)

If this is any kind of example of what Tyler has to look forward to. In Rolands case the USCF/UCI should not punish riders for personal health concerns that are valid and obviously valid. Give me a break, what a bunch of asses for the verdict of the hearing. I will miss not seeing Green this spring

Green suspended for asthma inhaler slip-up
Canadian mountain bike racer Roland Green has been retroactively suspended for six months after testing positive for prednisolone, a synthetic corticosteroid, at the UCI MTB World Cup in Houffalize in May 2004.

A hearing was recently conducted through the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada with the participation of Green and the Canadian Cycling Association (CCA). The hearing found that an infarction of UCI anti-doping rules had occurred, but there were mitigating circumstances: the prednisolone came from Green's asthma inhaler and Green had failed to keep up the necessary paperwork to use it.

The panel ruled that Green should serve a six-month suspension, the minimum for this offence, from July 4, 2004 to April 4, 2005, a period that includes the normal mountain biking inactivity period from November 1 to January 31. The UCI Anti-doping Commission has accepted the ruling.

Through the CCA, Green offered the following statement. "At the Houffalize, Belgium round of the World Cup on May 30, 2004 I tested positive for the medication in my asthma inhaler. Normally, this would not be a problem, since I have been cleared to use this medication for the past five years. However, last spring I failed to have my paper work completed before leaving for Europe, which meant that I was not officially cleared to use it. This was completely my fault and, as a result, I have received a six-month suspension, and will not be allowed to compete until April 4. All of my sponsors, friends and family have been very supportive under these trying circumstances. My first race back will be Sea Otter Classic on April 14. I am really looking forward to racing again."

According the CCA, "prednisolone is a substance commonly found in medication used in the treatment of asthma. In this particular case the substance was contained in a prescription product known as Symbicort. The use of this medication cannot be considered performance enhancing, and Green has a documented history of exercise induced asthma."

The suspension will not affect Green's status as a member of the Canadian national team.


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## spookyload (Jan 30, 2004)

Tough deal for RG, but he was man enough to fess up to the fact he screwed up and didn't do something he knew he was supposed to. I don't think he will get a bad wrap as a cheater from this, so it really won't hurt him in the end. In fact I have much respect for him in his statment. It isn't often someone admits they were wrong.


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## divve (May 3, 2002)

....so what's Tyler guilty of.....the indigestion of too many red gummy bears?


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## mattv2099 (Aug 27, 2004)

CARBON110 said:


> If this is any kind of example of what Tyler has to look forward to. In Rolands case the USCF/UCI should not punish riders for personal health concerns that are valid and obviously valid. Give me a break, what a bunch of asses for the verdict of the hearing. I will miss not seeing Green this spring
> 
> .


#1 Green has NOTHING to do with the USCF. It's the CCA that is Green's cycling federation.

#2 Green's suspension ends in early April. That means he will miss 1 month of the mountain bike season. Thus you will only miss green for 1 month. Green's first race will be the Sea Otter. Which has been his traditional first race in the past. However, this year it's been moved back a couple weeks to April.

#3 Tyler hamilton's defense is that the testing methods are not reliable enough to be used for doping control. Tyler's defense says nothing about himself or his body. it's 100% based on bashing the credibility of the test.


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## JBergland (Feb 13, 2004)

Mr. Green is a professional... and as such, should know what paperwork he needs to have and when. At the very least, hire/assign someone to take care of that stuff. I've got more respect for Green after his statement. It gets pretty old to hear people says "I didn't know what I was drinking/eating", "The 'test' must be wrong/inaccurate", etc., etc. Cheating is bad enough, but to then blame everyone other than yourself???? Like I said, that stuff gets old!!!!

JB


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## FatTireFred (Jan 31, 2005)

FISHY... Symbicort does not contain prednisolone, it contain budesonide and any modern assay would be specific enough able to differentiate the difference. Symbicort also contains formoterol, a beta-agonist/bronchodilator similar to albuterol or salmeterol. No asthma inhalers contain prednisolone, so if the assay was correct he was either taking prednisolone or prednisone (rapidly converted in the body to prednisolone) ORALLY. There's either BS reporting, reliance on an outdated lab using non-specific assay, and/or something bigger going on.


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## tempeteOntheRoad (Dec 21, 2001)

*You are "in the zone" man...*



FatTireFred said:


> FISHY... Symbicort does not contain prednisolone, it contain budesonide and any modern assay would be specific enough able to differentiate the difference. Symbicort also contains formoterol, a beta-agonist/bronchodilator similar to albuterol or salmeterol. No asthma inhalers contain prednisolone, so if the assay was correct he was either taking prednisolone or prednisone (rapidly converted in the body to prednisolone) ORALLY. There's either BS reporting, reliance on an outdated lab using non-specific assay, and/or something bigger going on.



My opinion: something bigger lays under. But mister Green is quite happy with this slap on the wrist. This asthma thing is nothing at all compared to what should be suspected... But we'll see if he wins big races again (which I doubt).


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## SilasCL (Jun 14, 2004)

*Asthma....right*



tempeteOntheRoad said:


> My opinion: something bigger lays under. But mister Green is quite happy with this slap on the wrist. This asthma thing is nothing at all compared to what should be suspected... But we'll see if he wins big races again (which I doubt).


The asthma problem in the peloton is something that we should all be concerned with. Maybe it's from riding behind those motorbikes all day, but it seems like 2/3rds of these guys have an asthma condition which allows them to use an inhaler. I wonder if it's because inhalers typically contained banned performance enhancing drugs? Nah, those guys are too nice and honest to do something like that.

Silas


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## nwilkes (Jun 21, 2004)

FatTireFred said:


> FISHY... Symbicort does not contain prednisolone, it contain budesonide and any modern assay would be specific enough able to differentiate the difference. Symbicort also contains formoterol, a beta-agonist/bronchodilator similar to albuterol or salmeterol. No asthma inhalers contain prednisolone, so if the assay was correct he was either taking prednisolone or prednisone (rapidly converted in the body to prednisolone) ORALLY. There's either BS reporting, reliance on an outdated lab using non-specific assay, and/or something bigger going on.


budesonide is metabolized to a prednisolone species by one of the hepatic P450 NZs. take off your tin foil hat.


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## JTS628 (Apr 22, 2003)

CARBON110 said:


> The use of this medication cannot be considered performance enhancing,


Does this mean that the medication is not considered performance enhancing in this case or that the medication is not performance enhancing period? If the latter, who cares who takes it and for what, or is this like the THC suspensions in mountain biking?


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## FatTireFred (Jan 31, 2005)

nwilkes said:


> budesonide is metabolized to a prednisolone species by one of the hepatic P450 NZs. take off your tin foil hat.


yeah sure, but the other major metabolite is 6ß-hydroxybudesonide. Like I wrote before, any decent lab with the right assay can differentiate the two.


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## Spunout (Aug 12, 2002)

Throwing out a bone: The inhalants are used to mask HGH.


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## Fredke (Dec 10, 2004)

FatTireFred said:


> yeah sure, but the other major metabolite is 6�-hydroxybudesonide. Like I wrote before, any decent lab with the right assay can differentiate the two.


You're assuming that the press release was written with the kind of precision you'd find in a journal paper. It's quite possible that the lab correctly identified the substance, but the PR person who wrote up the press release omitted some of the details in order to write a brief story aimed at the general public, not biochemists.


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## benInMA (Jan 22, 2004)

It is so hard to imagine how someone could ever get to be a professional cyclist with exercise induced Asthma.

No doubt EIA can be controlled enough to let someone cycle actively but you'd think even with medication it would be enough of a handicap to keep someone out of the pros.


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## argylesocks (Aug 2, 2004)

i have asthma & use an inhaler. It gave me an extra boost and helped me move from cat5 to cat4 in ONLY 10 RACES!!!!


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## Utah CragHopper (May 9, 2003)

Here's what Philippe Gaumont had to say about why a huge number of pros are asthmatics:

"Here's how it works," he said. "The team doctor sends you to see an 
allergy specialist. The specialist says you are allergic to dust mites 
and prescribes a spray... When you go to a doping control, you declare 
your allergy and that you have a prescription for Nasacort (a product 
Gaumont says masks cortisone), which you used in the morning in a nasal 
inhaler. At the same time, you've taken in injection of Kenacort (a 
banned substance), since at the control they can't tell the difference 
between a spray and an injection."


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## FatTireFred (Jan 31, 2005)

Fredke said:


> You're assuming that the press release was written with the kind of precision you'd find in a journal paper. It's quite possible that the lab correctly identified the substance, but the PR person who wrote up the press release omitted some of the details in order to write a brief story aimed at the general public, not biochemists.



yeah, I think that's what I meant by "BS reporting" in the first post


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## CARBON110 (Apr 17, 2002)

*guys please*

Cmon there are alot of ashma cyclists. Besides even if Roland was doping it doesn't make you that much faster and Roland SMOKED the competition like Lance does in July.


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## Dwayne Barry (Feb 16, 2003)

Thanks for saving me the trouble of finding that quote.

People have been saying this for a long time and Gaumont confirmed it. Basically, as I understand it, you get a prescription for some sort of corticosteroid so that you have an excuse for the increased corticosteroid levels in the blood. Kenacort seems to be the popular one to inject on race morning. The idea being that you will burn muscle (and fat?) to offset the burning of your limited glycogen stores, thus delaying fatigue and allowing you to throw down the power in the 6th hour of a classic!


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## AmateurBiker (Feb 28, 2005)

JTS628 said:


> Does this mean that the medication is not considered performance enhancing in this case or that the medication is not performance enhancing period? If the latter, who cares who takes it and for what, or is this like the THC suspensions in mountain biking?


Perhaps the BMS (best medical student) guys on this page could answer your little pharmacological inquiry. I think the real reason why riders take glucocorticoids is because of their dose-related effects on carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism. They release amino acids from your muscles and increase serum glucose levels. I suppose the increased serum glucose levels would make up for some minor muscle loss in a race, but with long-term use it would be damn stupid, and you could even wind up with osteoporosis. But then again, I ain't no expert, neither on drugs, nor on anything else.


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## Dwayne Barry (Feb 16, 2003)

Spunout said:


> Throwing out a bone: The inhalants are used to mask HGH.


I'm pretty sure that there is still no test for HGH, so riders are free to dope with it to their heart's content.


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## nwilkes (Jun 21, 2004)

AmateurBiker said:


> Perhaps the BMS (best medical student) guys on this page could answer your little pharmacological inquiry. I think the real reason why riders take glucocorticoids is because of their dose-related effects on carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism. They release amino acids from your muscles and increase serum glucose levels. I suppose the increased serum glucose levels would make up for some minor muscle loss in a race, but with long-term use it would be damn stupid, and you could even wind up with osteoporosis. But then again, I ain't no expert, neither on drugs, nor on anything else.


I am not sure what the time scale for severe changes in metabolism is when on corticosteroids. Considering that a "short" course is around two weeks. I think the increase in plasma glucose is from gluconeogenesis, which is like an adaptation to starvation that takes a while to kick in (body sees no carbs incoming so it makes some of its own out of various spare parts, like muscle). Other options may be considered like immune suppression. If one gets injured, but can keep the inflammation down one can possibly keep racing. I think intra-articular injections of prednisolone are used for a similar purpose clinically, but I'm not sure. Over time this can cause diabetes, adipose redistribution, punctuate acne, etc. I heard (complete hearsay) that this may work in aiding recovery as well. 
As for masking all kinds of other things, the most suspect masking agents are the beta-2 agonist meds like albuterol, terbutaline, metaproterenol and salmbuterol(sp?). But *only * when taken orally. Besides, if you took them orally your head would spin way too fast too watch TV, let alone race. That is supposed to be why inhalers are permitted and oral doses of the beta-2 agonists are not. 
It is obvious in this case that the guy always had prednisolone in his serum because of the inhaler, but had paperwork to back it up. Then he failed to fill out the paperwork and a normal by product of his treatment was no longer permitted. If his prednisolone levels had been outrageously high it would be quite a bit more of a spectacle.
Simple.

Anyway, I could be wrong.


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