The coffee stop could be a moral minefield for the weekend warrior in the not to distant future
You love your local clubs coffee run on a Saturday and Sunday morning, right? Well, it could be put in serious jeopardy if clean-racing all-American boy, Taylor Phinney has his way. He's suggested any form of pain-killer and caffeine should be made an illegal performance enhancer and that he doesn't dabble in such substances unlike the majority of the professional peloton.
Alright, so Phinney was talking more about pain killers and caffeine in tablet form rather than in your coffee cup or coke can and he himself even admitted that he still drinks coke during a race, but it's a slippery slope we're talking about here.
If we're to ban anything that aids in the enhancement of a cyclists performance starting with pain killers and caffeine tables, won't coffee be next, followed shortly after by energy gels, electrolyte mixes, tri-bars, race radio's, bikes that the poorest man in the race cannot afford, and so on and so forth?
Each of those items aids your performance over a competitor in a little way. Take two cyclists of equal fitness. Give one energy gels and it could give him an advantage. If one is used to the heat but the other isn't, and the one who isn't gets electrolytes, isn't that giving him an advantage that naturally he wouldn't have? The time-trial bike also aids your performance and likewise a $5,000 bike as opposed to a $500 bike. The later isn't an issue at the professional level, but the principle still applies.
Where do you draw the line?
The idea of an Omerta on your local club ride sounds absurd, but don't rule it out entirely. I reckon within a couple of years -- given the kind of support behind Phinney's remarks this morning -- you'll be locking your bikes up around the corner from the coffee shop, putting on your disguise, and sneaking in the backdoor as a group to get your fix before heading back out on the road claiming complete innocence to anyone who raises an eyebrow.
For what it's worth, I applaud Phinney for speaking out anyway. It's good to see him denouncing Lance Armstrong in light of the recent weeks evidence unlike a number of other aging or former pros who continue to live by that hear no evil, see no evil. But I suppose it's better to have it that way around than to have the old boys heading out the back door telling the truth and future generation of cycling moving in and remaining silent.
