Anthropology Professors Finds Way To Blame Sponsors For Doping In Cycling

With a grant from the World Anti-Doping Agency, anthropology professor Brian Gilley has spent the last year studying attitudes among under-23-year-old cyclists towards use of performance enhancing drugs. Using American amateur collegiate cyclists as his control, Gilley interviewed elite junior and young adult Italian, Belgian, and American riders and found a surprising mix of responses about willingness to dope. The majority, he says, believe intense pressure from team managers and sponsors forces them to cheat in order to be competitive. Some of Gilley's findings delve into conspiratorial opinion, like that doping is part of a secretive, intentional long-term training regimen encouraged by European trainers for even very young cyclists and that pressure to dope is entrenched both in their national culture and within cycling culture. Read More...

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