Believe AFM

From the Cycle-Smart blog:

http://issues-org.blogspot.com/2006/07/is-landis-dirty-does-it-matter.html

My respose was:

Some losing battles are worth fighting, and doping in sports is one of them. I’m a professional athlete, a professional cyclist, in fact. For me there’s a very clear difference between the equipment I choose, the air I breathe, or the food I eat, and requiring illegal medical assistance to recover from training or to enhance my performance — particularly if the manner of using those substances bypasses the body’s checks and balances of the lungs and stomach and is taken intravenously. That’s the difference between living at altitude or taking a vitamin, and injecting synthetic EPO that Dr. Fost seems to miss.

Sports are games, it’s true. And games have rules. Playing by those rules and seeing what a human is capable of within those rules is the very essence of sports. Dr. Fost says those rules are hypocritical, but it’s his logic that most of the dopers I know use to justify their actions, and rationalize thier contribution to what is now an epidemic in sport.

When I descend a mountain or sprint in a pack, I know what the risks are. I can see them plainly. But I shouldn’t be forced to take unknown medical risks simply as an requirement for participation in my sport. If my genetics determine that no matter how hard I train, I won’t recover as well or transport oxygen as quickly as the best, that’s the whole point of competition. I can always do something else, or compete at a lower level. Right now, I compete at a lower level on the US pro circuit because I compete cleanly. I can live with that, literally and figuratively.

All I can say if fuck ya .... I think I should get some "Believe AFM" pins made ...