Richie Rude Announces Return to the EWS
Yeti-Fox Factory Race Team rider Richie Rude has announced today on Instagram that he will be returning to the EWS after being under investigation by the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD).
The case which we reported on back in November involved both Rude and Jared Graves when it was revealed that they both tested positive for the banned substances Higenamine and Oxilofrine at the third round of the EWS in France.
So far this year Rude has sat out of any major competition waiting for the final verdict from the AFLD and it appears today that they have served him an eight-month suspension, which he has has been able to serve retroactively because of his choice not to compete in the season so far. The suspension put forward by the AFLD will end on June 26 allowing Rude to enter into the fourth round of the EWS in Canazei, Italy.
 | "Thank you to everyone who has had my back for the last 8 months, family, friends, and sponsors. I would not be here today if it weren’t for you guys! You guys might be wondering, why am I thanking everyone? Well… I am super pumped to announce that I will be back racing in Italy for the next stop on the EWS calendar. Before I get back to racing I would like to fill everyone in on what has been going on in my world. Firstly, I would never do anything to harm this sport or jeopardize the result of another athlete or myself by cheating. Everyone works way too hard and a lot of sacrifices are made, I respect all my fellow competitors and love my fans and support system too much for that. So, in case some of you weren’t up to speed… Last year I had a doping infraction while racing in France. This whole thing was a shock to me. All in all, it was accidental ingestion of the substance. I had run out of water and used someone else’s bottle as we climbed up to the start of another stage. Due to it being accidental and the French anti-doping authorities also seeing it in this light, my “suspension” was backdated to when I stopped racing last season, and now I am free to continue the sport that I love. I'm thankful to be moving on from this. I hope this brings awareness and stands as a learning experience to others. Again, I want to say thank you to everyone who has stood by me and I look forward to seeing everyone at the races again soon!" |
Alongside the post on Instagram Rude included a more official statement regarding the incident which we have included below.
Official Statement:
I am pleased to announce that I have been cleared to race in the remaining Enduro World Series races of 2019. My first race will be in Canazei, Italy, on June 29. I am also looking forward to competing in the Big Mountain Enduro series and other races on my original schedule. I would like to thank the Yeti-Fox Factory Race Team and my sponsors for supporting me throughout this process.
The French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) recently ruled that I would serve an eight-month suspension for testing positive for trace amounts of banned substances oxilofrine and higenamine, on May 13, 2018, at EWS Round 3 in Montagnes du Caroux, France. My win from that race will be automatically vacated.
My other results and wins in 2018 at EWS Round 7 in Zona Zero, Spain, and Round 8 on Finale Ligure, Italy, will remain intact. My decision to refrain from racing until a ruling had been made by the AFLD allowed the suspension to be retroactively served starting Oct 26, 2018, and ending June 26, 2019.
With the AFLD process complete, I can now discuss the facts related to my case. I ran out of water after many hours in the saddle on Day 2 of the EWS Round 3 in Montagnes du Caroux, France. After climbing to the top of the stage, a fellow racer offered me a drink from a water bottle that was filled with a mix of water and dietary supplement. Fatigued and dehydrated, I took a few drinks from the bottle. We later determined that the bottle contained an over-the-counter supplement, which led to the unintentional ingestion of the banned substances for which I tested positive. I accept full responsibility for what happened in those late stages of day 2 and can only hope that this situation can serve as a learning moment for others, and that it helps to strengthen anti-doping testing and education throughout the sport.
Thanks again to my sponsors and all my fans. I can't wait to get back to racing!
I am pleased to announce that I have been cleared to race in the remaining Enduro World Series races of 2019. My first race will be in Canazei, Italy, on June 29. I am also looking forward to competing in the Big Mountain Enduro series and other races on my original schedule. I would like to thank the Yeti-Fox Factory Race Team and my sponsors for supporting me throughout this process.
The French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) recently ruled that I would serve an eight-month suspension for testing positive for trace amounts of banned substances oxilofrine and higenamine, on May 13, 2018, at EWS Round 3 in Montagnes du Caroux, France. My win from that race will be automatically vacated.
My other results and wins in 2018 at EWS Round 7 in Zona Zero, Spain, and Round 8 on Finale Ligure, Italy, will remain intact. My decision to refrain from racing until a ruling had been made by the AFLD allowed the suspension to be retroactively served starting Oct 26, 2018, and ending June 26, 2019.
With the AFLD process complete, I can now discuss the facts related to my case. I ran out of water after many hours in the saddle on Day 2 of the EWS Round 3 in Montagnes du Caroux, France. After climbing to the top of the stage, a fellow racer offered me a drink from a water bottle that was filled with a mix of water and dietary supplement. Fatigued and dehydrated, I took a few drinks from the bottle. We later determined that the bottle contained an over-the-counter supplement, which led to the unintentional ingestion of the banned substances for which I tested positive. I accept full responsibility for what happened in those late stages of day 2 and can only hope that this situation can serve as a learning moment for others, and that it helps to strengthen anti-doping testing and education throughout the sport.
Thanks again to my sponsors and all my fans. I can't wait to get back to racing!
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-Johnny Cochran
"Man, we've done the tainted supplement defense SO many times. It's boring. Let's add a fun twist and throw another rider's water bottle in there!"
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill
The supplemnet in question in this case is BPM labs "the one" which if you want to look it up. Now states Higenamine in the ingredients list, but in older versions, and in the tub in this case was listed as Nandina Domestica (fruit extract) and the oxilofrine component is still labelled as Synephrine HCL. Things get tricky when you type these ingredients into the WADA search and not a single result comes up, which tells you everything is OK. So we had to dive a bit deeper into finding out how these things got in our systems, and when we did, we found of that many ingredients have many different variations, and names, which is what has caught us out.
We also found out since learning the hard way, just how prevalent these ingredients are in off the shelf pre workout drinks, which is a bit scary when you first hand find out the consequences, and how unregulated products with these ingredients are. Even a teenager could walk in to a supplement store and buy this, no questions asked. I've also since learned that 1 in 5 off the shelf pre workout drinks (in Australia at least) have something banned in them.
Everything i've mentioned above had to be proven beyond doubt to the AFLD (french anti doping) theres no corruption, or loopholes, or lawyers spin put on it. Just facts and real consequences.
So i'll put my hand up all day long and say im guilty of negligence. MY mindset was that I'v never sought anything performance enhancing, and Ive never had an issues with the Dozens and Dozens of in and out of competition doping tests ive had, so all will be good. I git a bit too relaxed with the whole process, I never thought there was any chance I could ever be in this situation, yet here we are. A moment of Negligence yes, premeditated cheaters, hell NO!!!!
Maybe ask yourself, would you ever think you need to do extensive study and research, on every ingredient of every thing you ever put in your body?
Combine that with what I said above, and hopefully you get a clearer picture of how this very unfortunate situation has come to be.
Possibly the main reason i'm writing this is the amount of uneducated and downright false comments here. Some of you really should be a bit more careful with your wild assumptions and accusations. There are real people on the other side of this. Its obvious that many just want to be hateful and drag people down, and that's pretty sad. When road cycling and in Particular Lance Armstrongs name gets thrown in the ring, WOW, are you serious??? Consider the things iv'e mentioned, and maybe think again.
People all seem to think theres some kind of Magic pill out there, that will take them from weekend warrior to world class level podium guy. Nobody stops to think that maybe the 25+ hours a week spent training, in the gym, on the bike, not going out with your friends, 5am starts, the constant crahses, injuries and sacrifices, has a bit more to do with it. The work that goes in is simply incomprehendable to most, and it's what makes the difference. Everyone who trains and competes at that level understands that, Which I would say is the main reason no other pros have spoken up about this.
Mistakes were made, and we're both paying the biggest price for that. It's added more stress to my life, on an already extremely stressful time. So maybe take the time to consider both sides of the equation before spreading some uneducated hate, and misinformation.
Keep fighting the good fight!
You have been honest in admitting your naivety. I think it highlights in the quest to be at their peak physical form, people are willing to put things in their body they don't fully understand. The fitness industry seems to be built on a web of complete horseshit and people are treading the line between what is legal and what is not.
The question is, why bother? Our sport was born in the woods, not in a test tube, yet 'sports' drinks and kitchen sink supplement companies are pushing this stuff down our throat as a way to get better and faster. They have taken the sport from us and made it into something it's not.
We need to educate ourselves, but especially the future generation of riders, that this isn't the way and this isn't our sport. If people choose to get that close to the line for their performance where they have to question what is going inside them, then maybe riding about in the woods isn't for them.
Ryno power should be used as cat litter and nothing more.
Searched on google "WADA higenamine" first link has it as prohibited. Searched "Synephrine WADA", first link has it as prohibited as oxilofrine (synephrine). Searched "Nandina Domestica WADA", first link is a scientific paper with higenamine and nandina domestica in the first sentence.
Either you are insulting our intelligence or you are quite challenged. By the way I don't follow EWS, but I do know who Richie Dude is, but your excuse is mind blowing. Don't you have some doctor in the team who can answer questions you have trouble researching for yourself?
Jared - keep on the road to recovery. We want to see you healthy again.
Typing those things into google later on, is how we came to know they were banned, nobody googles every ingredient on every thing they consume. Thats what the WADA site is meant to be for, and the site that is meant to be used to search for info on these things.
I'm not sure why my comments are so "mind blowing" nothing but the facts fella. I know people don't appreciate being bullshitted. If you don't like or accept what I wrote, thats up to you, just trying to give some honest answers to help people understand the situation a little better.
At the end of the day, every rider is not too disimilar to the weekend warriors, we all go our seperate ways between races, train, and prepare, and try and be our best for the next race where the whole process starts again.
Even in the past working with coaches, nutritionists, and sport scientists (all of which was independantly funded off my own back might I add) none of them ever talked about things like this.
No one seems to realize Jared has competed at the top of a lot of different aspects of cycling. He's been around racing/competing for so long and has never had an issue. If anybody thinks an Olympian and World Champion never got drug tested then they are dillusional. To compare them to Lance Armstrong... Lance had doping allegations for years and years. He had a ton of his wins vacated, lost all of his sponsors and now might be able to get a free bike if he takes a few pictures for his Instagram of himself riding it. Richie and Jared didn't even lose their supplement sponsor over this. The only win that was vacated was the win from that event of the failed test and to think the French took an American racer like Richie at his word when the story of what happened came out is downright laughable.
The scariest thing is that there can be many "workout drinks" that contains that kind of stuff without people knowing. Anyone can be controlled at races in France so we could all be concerned.
reason enough not to bother with these stupid supplyments.
Some people have a wrong point of view how this whole process works. Athletes don't travel with a 5kg pack of supplements. So sometimes it's up to us mechanics/staff to provide athletes with everything they need. And sometimes you find yourself in a small ski town and your happy that you we're even able to find electrolytes or Bcaa's.
At this point we've been naive as well, because we didn't check all the ingredients. We're all learning from this and it's a wake-up call for us, to take it more serious and to not trust regular supplements.
I'm not taking any guilt away, but if you're calling Jared a cheater and villain, you've got it all very wrong.
No one is claiming a 'magic pill', and we are all well aware it was a supplement that caused the breach, not something more extreme.
For me, the issue has been that the EWS have been very vocal about their hard line anti drug stance but then the first time they have a positive test, they go quiet then appear to back down. If they have given a lenient punishment due to the fact Richie only had minute, non performance affecting traces in his system (as you'd expect from a couple of mouthfuls of a drink) why haven't they released a statement to say this?
Obviously Richie wouldn't want to name you in his statement, but this only added to the perception that we weren't getting the full story as fans. I think the story should have come from EWS, not Richie. They should be providing the facts to fans and competitors, and then Richie and yourself can portray your side of the story after.
Was Richie banned, or did he just not race whilst the investigation was ongoing? If the positive test was in May, why didn't it come to light until after the season? How come Richies results stand?
I had to take a bunch of nutrition classes for my degree, and one of big things they taught was that nutritional supplements aren't needed and due to Utah congressman, aren't regulated so to me it's shocking that people don't k ow.
Regarding supplements, it is pretty far out how Utah drives the regulatory situation in the USA. I go back and forth on the topic. I am generally in favor of letting well informed adults make their own decisions as to if they want to take a substance or not, but I am also frequently shocked at the level of ignorance in the general public regarding even basic concepts of nutrition. There is no easy answer. I lean toward regulations requiring full disclosure and purity testing of ingredients, but against regulations that ban something from sale, if it has the potential to be used relatively safely and responsibly.
As to what you were taught about "supplements" being unneeded, that is true from a nutritional perspective, if one has a well rounded diet. I am not sure that most people do, though. Certainly not @mikelevy (that is a Pinkbike joke in case you are unfamiliar with him). Even if you do have a good diet, I can imagine situations when one is traveling, while trying to engage in vigorous athletic pursuits, where it might not be possible to always have ready access to the most nutritious food. In that case, a protein supplement for after-workout recovery keeps you from having to chase down a restaurant where you can get a steak and then wait 30min while they cook it, or a multi-vitamin might be a good way to compensate for the crappy iceberg lettuce and unripe tomato salad that they serve you with the steak. Where the situation gets grayer is with the host of supplements that aren't basic nutrients but are derived from something you might eat, like say, turmeric extract, or green coffee bean extract. They certainly aren't "needed" for basic health but, taken at higher dosages than food would normally contain, they might have a desirable effect, and they are not banned by WADA (nor could they really be, as everyone who eats Indian food or tries a super light roast coffee might test positive).
Heal up, 99.9% are pulling for you.
First of all, thanks for chiming in.
I was baffled to read that you enduro guys were taking "supplements" in the first place. I don't want to denigrate the sport but we are talking enduro, not super extreme endurance event such as a 3 weeks stage race or ultracycling event. Surely you can spend 3 days on the bike and avoid suffering any anemia or dehydratation though a good diet and enough clear water intake ?
What is your take on that particular subject ? Will you continue taking supplements ? If yes what are the reasons ? health ? sponsorship ? performance? Do you think it is worth the hassle ?
Disclaimer: I am a former elite racer on the road so I used to spend hours trying to grasp in the wada forbidden drug lists (all was on paper at the time) if that simple generic medecine the doctor gave me was allowed or not.
So many questions still left unanswered!
If the water bottle fits you must convict
that being said, it that was the case it would probably have been told right away, not now so that some believe in that and he has the image of innocent
www.pinkbike.com/news/interview-ryno-power-ryan-mccarthy-says-their-supplements-not-responsible-for-rude-graves-failed-drug-test.html
www.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/PIT-BITS-Enduro-World-Series-Corral-Chile,9941/Jared-Graves-Kit,103198/sspomer,2
Athletes previously under suspension or ban have successfully fought the charges based on a defence where they did not knowingly take the substance found in their body and they went through reasonable steps to not ingest banned substances. The fact that he willingly left the season and simply accepted this suspension is very telling.
Your clueless. He was tested after all 3 of his season wins as well and he was clean the other 2 races. He was popped during the French race and he sat out knowing regardless of how or why he tested positive it would incur a minimum ban from the last retroactive to the last race he competed in which was Finale which he also won.
And to say that he a cheat and a proven cheat would be speculation by you or anyone else since he’s been subjected to testing all these past years and never had a positive considering all his victories which incur mandatory testing. Sadly enough the one race where he did suffer and need water from a fellow racer he tested positive from the shared bottle which isn’t far fetched if you use your brain and realize how it happened. Again he’s won in excess of 10 EWS races in his career which all incurred mandatory drug testing
Looking forward to his return and when he wins 2-3 races this season and passes all the drug tests as a clean athlete just like he had always been prior to the Jared Graves water bottle incident. And this isn’t even remotely comparable to almost every other cycling doping case that’s been handed down which is why the minimum 8 month ban was given by one of the most hardline agency’s in the world AFLD
And it was also one of the reasons the ews joined forces with the uci
When you say there is a "immense precedent for athletes not being convicted of doping if they can demonstrate that they innocently ingested a banned substance", what cases are you talking about? Are they in cycling, or other sports, that generally take a more lenient attitude to doping altogether? None are jumping to my mind. On the other hand, I can think of cases of cyclists who got doping positives and spent many thousands of dollars sending their supplements out for lab testing, only to still end up with a 2yr ban, despite a substantial likelihood that it was supplement contamination, again due to "Strict Liability". Look up Tom Zirbel. I think you have an unrealistic idea of how easy it is to prove supplement contamination.
Regarding the substances in question, if you have been following this case, you will have seen there is photographic evidence that Richie's friend, and former EWS champ, Jared Graves, was taking a "preworkout" supplement containing these substances a few years ago. Jared is very into weight training, and several people have also attested to the popularity of stimulant laden "preworkout" mixes in his home country of Australia. If you have ever looked at the ingredients list of one of those mixes, you will see they are "kitchen sink" type supplements with a long list of ingredients, with the manufacturer typically hoping if they throw everything they have in there, hopefully some of it works, or at least gives the user a sensation that makes them think its working. End users are not typically reviewing each ingredient and questioning if it offers value for their specific use case, they instead are viewing the product as more of a collective, and if the package says that it "Amps up your workout" or "Turns your workout up to 11" or whatever, that is how they'll evaluate it. Those products are often marketed to people looking to get ripped/shredded, so it isn't surprising they'd add a weight loss supplement to the mix.
Lastly, Richie may have been able to establish that he didn't intend to ingest the supplement, and that might be why he only got a 8mo ban, not a 2yr one. As I see it, there are 2 possibilities:
1. He took a sip of Jared's bottle, not knowing what was in the supplement mix
2. He mixed his own bottle, using the same mix we know Jared uses
On top of either of those scenarios, there is the question of if he knew the nature of the mix. In scenario 1, he would have had no access to the ingredients list, whereas in scenario 2, he would have, and due diligence would suggest he should have cross referenced it with the banned list. It would only be if he cross referenced it, saw it was banned, and still took it that I'd consider him a cheater, otherwise he just ranges from unfortunate to negligent or lazy, not a deliberate cheat.
I quite frankly don’t really care what Jared is doing for supplements. As an athlete, you know the rules. You know that you are entirely responsible for what you willingly put into your body. If you want to take shitty supplements that aren’t tested properly that is your prerogative and if you get caught for doping you ought to face the the consequences. Professional athletes aren’t regular end users. Closely monitoring what you put into your body is something that you accept when you become a professional athlete and become bound by anti-doping rules.
If Rude wants to be believed, perhaps he should release the adverse analysis report so we can see for ourselves whether it was actually “trace amounts”. That’d certainly settle this very quickly.
Athletes can bitch and moan about having to follow WADA rules all they want but at the end of the day it is the athlete, not anyone else, who decided they want to be a professional athlete and will be subject to WADA rules. If you don’t want to follow WADA rules or you find them too arduous to follow, it is a rather simple solution: stop competing.
At the end of the day, if the riders can't get proper information from the people administrating the tests or on the labels, what should they do?
there is no negativity in here.we are a bunch of dudes asking not to underestimate our IQ.
thank god he didn't try to get the poison from a dopped guy that got bitten buy a snake...
As in the X-Files: I want to believe.
1. But you have to understand that after Lance (and a zillion others) we are a bit fed up with this shit.
2. It would have been easier if first the bottle owner would fess up and said: “I am guilty” (a word you almost never hear in any siping case) and then Richie came up with above story.
3. EWS always being hardliners against doping and now not so much.
Understand that people maybe aren’t nailing RR to the cross but the fact that the pipe dream (no pun intended) of the ‘spirit of enduro’ is down the drain. RR is the lightning rod in this.
What happened to serving your sentence and then get a chance to be back in society? I thought that was how we built our societies? Innocent until proven guilty and once you have served your sentence you get to start over. How is this different?
Don’t start calling me stupid too mate.
Read what I say. Did someone fess up and utter the words: I am guilty.
I didn’t hear it.
Maybe JG is still in his own legal battle, and maybe therefore can’t come forward yet. But it just doesn’t help here.
We are just fed up with this whole ‘not accountable’ thing. In sports, politics, industries.
(Sorry)
Funny thing is, I didn't even respond in any way in the comments at all before Dave came along. I only try to explain why I think people are reacting as they do.
I do understand there are many shades of grey, so try not to judge RR or JG for their action (although it is difficult not to judge, I admit) , only try to explain why they are now 'singled out' by the PB masses
People on here love to see someone fall, however knowing one of the substances he likely took (Alphamine) and how readily available it is in Australia to athletes, and considering a) it was only added to the WADA list recently, and b) it has multiple formulas some of which contain the banned substance and some don't, is it really that hard to imagine that he got caught out borrowing an Australian athletes drink?
Richie was always built like a tank, and the he's one of the nicest athletes I've met, so I don't think he'd risk using a banned substance to gain an absolutely minor advantage.
The most likely thing to me is both Graves and Rude are equally "guilty", and their supplements program has got them into this mess. Whether they fully realised what they were taking is the grey area. Can seem them being naive/negligent, rather than evil dopers. Then Graves ... who unfortunately has other things that are way more important to worry about and no chance of racing anyway ... takes the fall by himself so Rude can use this bottle story and get back to racing
Totally agree: I'm gonna add a couple facts
1. There is a picture of Graves on VitalMTB organizing his supplements where he has amongst them a can which apparently has the traced element, but it is not on it's label.
2. This product does not sponsor him nor Richie, their actual sponsor in Ryno which gave a great interview explaining and defending themselves. @BigAlfonz
3. Dude, an EWS race covers huge distances (100km in Corral!) and there are many many restrictions for recieving supplies, there is NOT 10 guys running behind them with backbacks full of shit. @amonas I've several time seen pro's help dehydrated/mispaced competitors at races get to the next stage/ refuel point.
4. There are EWS highlight videos showing Graves being given water by Jerome, Maes fixing Hill's wheel, Keene giving Graves parts, etc. To think this kind of things does not regularly occur is just plain lack of information...
5. Graves has no f*cking reason to cheat. The dude's been tested a zillion times in every discipline there is, he won in EVERY discipline he competed, to think that he'd really need/want that at this stage is ridiculous. Even if he wanted too, he knew that by doing that he was risking much more than just an ews ban, his entire career was on the scale. The idea that this was not a mistake is just utter misunderstanding.
6. To think that we mortals of MTB know better that Dave, Jared, RR, or any of their teams and sponsors who are dedicated to this is just plain stupid.
And yes, just think that the world health organization recomends driking water to have less than 600 molecules per million to be safe. A good detection method can detect 2-3 particles per million easily. at the university I go to the chemistry labs have detected water with 1 part per million, and similar measuring methods are used in forensics (bodies). Measuring trace amounts of a substance in fluids is not difficult or too expensive with today's tech. I remeber amongst some interviews' and reports somewhere the concentration measured was given. Richie was also tested right after the race, so that first piss had the biggest concentration of trace possible.
Seems like lots of people here have written him off as a cheater and thats it.
We will see the same BS once he is back on the podium.
I don‘t think he took anything on purpose very well knowing being tested frequently.
Hang in there Richie!
This whole story is so comical, it should have its own mini series.
In life, it pays to remember that “IF IT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK, SOUNDS LIKE A DUCK, THEN IT PROBABLY IS A DUCK”.
Its nothing to do with serving your time, its the reputational damage to the sport. Life time bans are the only solution.
Oh and there is no difference between this and Lance. Dopping is dopping however you do it.
1. What was the amount of supplement in his sample. That should give a good indication if it was a accidental in gestation or an ongoing one. I'm sure they can tell the difference between long term use or accidental.
2. How many times was RUDE tested and provided negative results.
It doesn't make sense that he didn't have his B sample tested, which I find curious for someone who thought they were racing clean, he just accepted the positive reading and sat out for 8 months. It's a easy story to come up with the "mates water bottle" excuse, much like the tainted meat excuse, unless the other rider exposed himself and identifies what supplement he used and that supplement matches the sample reading then I'll always suspect that he had an unfair advantage.
Looks like yer boys got caught.
So you can either believe the process was followed and due diligence was done, or you can put on a tinfoil hat and believe there's some big coverup and conspiracy of the French doping agencyy to clear an American racer who potentially broke their rules on their soil... hmmmmmmm
No big deal, I’ve recently switched from slamming coffees to weed tokes and audiobooks for climbs at my local. Definitely cheating, as long as it wears off by the descent.
I have no dog in the hunt, and I’ve long since given up the ideal of a level playing field on any sports endeavor beyond toddler soccer (baby players, not balls). But realize no reasonable person believes you, even if you’ve convinced yourself it’s all on the up-and-up. Bike racers get and hold an edge with drugs. Full stop.
Anyway, I still send my best healing vibes to Jared. Racing is so small in front of human life!
Also, Richie Rude is a proven doper, why are you welcoming him back with open arms? As far as I’m concerned (as well as many other competing athletes are concerned) you should have no right to come back once it’s proven you’re a doping athlete. It’s disgusting and seriously detracts from the sport knowing there are people who have a history of doping still competing.
The story does not add up in the slightest.
But in the end everyone can believe what they want to believe for their own reasons.
These flaws point to the fact that Jared Graves should be considered both a cheater and a villain. Obviously a cheater for having PEDs in his water bottle. A villain for knowingly allowing Richie to drink from his bottle with a strong very high probability that he would get tested and fail. Allowing his friend and training partner to unknowingly take a risk that could ruin his entire career would mean that Graves is up there with the lowest of the low scum bag athletes that have ever existed. He's an Olympian and none of this would be a mystery to him.
However, I believe that Jared is a good guy and wouldn't do that to a friend; Especially when he could have just said "I don't have any water, ask someone else."
Basic logic is why people are skeptical of Richie's statement and bothered by the ruling.
It's pretty obvious that he cheated and used a classic legal move to avoid being crushed by the EWS
What kind of **** of a “friend” would give a mate a banned substance to take mid-race?
Furthermore, an adverse finding will be triggered over even trace amounts however lab results are both quantitative and qualitative. Rude’s claim would be far more believable if he actually said how much of the banned substances were found in his testing. If his claim is that he accidentally ingested it you would see no more than a few billionths of a gram at most. Yet here we are with nothing more specific than “trace amounts”.
And you’re absolutely right, athletes are human and humans make mistakes. That’s why courts and quasi-judicial bodies exist to arbitrate doping penalties. In my opinion there is only two options when it comes to adverse findings: you are either responsible for it (either you wilfully doped or failed to act in a way that was not negligent to prevent the ingestion of banned substances) or you are not responsible for it (unknowingly ingested the substance but took all the reasonable steps to prevent the ingestion of banned substances. The only penalty for being found to be responsible for your adverse finding should be an immediate lifetime ban. Of course you are free to appeal it but after so many sports being rocked by doping scandals we need to do more than silly little one or two year suspensions.
Seems like Jared probably got hooked on the stuff when he was winning his first ews titles (No testing), got his Yeti teammate on the program, and they both kept doing it despite the testing. Based upon Jared's last pinkbike interview he said these supplements weren't serious cheating, and you gotta love how both these guys have framed this as a wake up call for other racers to be educated when they were just obviously cheating. As if they are taking one for the team or something. The fact that they have both been so disingenuous has made me lose all respect and I hope other enduro racers give them shit for it by jokingly asking for sips from their water bottles before the last stage of the race. I feel bad for Jared's cancer but the skeptical part of me gets the feeling he was relying on sympathy from it for this cheating controversy to pass over quietly.
The instagram post and excuse that Rude made is an affront to both participants and fans of the sport.
I'm not a plus member though like Trumpore so take whatever I say with a grain of salt.
Who wouldn't cheat? @Mntneer:
Pat yourself on the back, I bet you're perfect. You definitely know better than the anti-doping team. Who cares about the actual facts of the case when your opinions involved right?
Me? I'd rather leave it to those who actually did the investigation and know the facts. The perceived benefit and therefore punishment was minor, and from the few times I've met Richie he has been incredibly kind, so I'll take him for his word.
Graves would have offered Richie some sips for 2 reasons. 1. "The spirit of Enduro". 2. Because they are buddies and have trained together since they were on the Yeti team together. As to why he offered him his high-test stimulant drink vs. water/gatorade, I'd imagine Graves only had 1 bottle on him, with whatever his preffered beverage was. Even if he had 2, Richie might have wanted the one with stims and carbs. The only question is, did Graves know the ingredients were banned and, if so, did Richie know if they were banned. I don't expect that we'll ever know the truth of that.
@jaredgraves, @davetrumpore: There was a VERY simple way to cut all this BS, just tell the whole truth, a statement that one can actually believe. Whose bottle was it, why the supplement was there, did Richie know it was there (this one we get, but no one believes it), what was the amount of substance detected ...
But we do not know, so here we are, thousands of posts. But maybe this is too hard, maybe there are only lawyers, contracts and official statements.
As if road cycling wasn't a good example of what a rider can do to get a case dropped, even when it is VERY suspicious.
Personnally, I think that even juiced, the road riders (and MTB) are amazing (you still have to be a monster, train soooo hard and race smart). But that's another debate.
But man, this Richie is juiced, it's not a question of haters or whatever.
Once again, stay strong man.
I'd love to see you back as strong as ever.
Some WADA labs, including ones in France, are testing down to Parts Per Billion and nanograms now. That doesn't take a hell of a lot to trip a positive. The threshold for a positive is in no way related to the minimum effective dose for performance enhancement. That is to say, yes, a few sips of something could trip a positive, while doing little or nothing to enhance your performance.
It’s never travel size either....
I'm not sure I really believe RR (as someone said earlier everyone cheating says the same thing...). I could accept his ban better if he put his hands up to it (Askrigg this might not be the truth).
I also question why, if the other rider was his friend, why a friend would give them a drink of something that may end their career...? Doesn't sound too friendly to me...
Gotta say it's not really surprising that he doped, but this is just window dressing for a dead issue.
...drugs do Randy.
''With the interests of keeping enduro mountain biking clean from the start and to avoid the spirit and reputation of enduro mountain bike racing from being brought into disrepute, any cyclist, regardless of cycling discipline, who has previously been found guilty by any court or regulatory body of any use of or involvement with banned, performance enhancing drugs will not be entitled to compete or take part in any Enduro World Series event.''
Doesn't appear in the 2019 rule book tho; it's been given a hefty dose of ambiguity....how unsurprising.
He’s talking as if he was exonerated
I’m confised
C'mon PB get onto it.
It may make him unpopular within the paddock, but I'd love someone to come out and give their thoughts.
" ah yes sorry mr Armstrong used someone else's bottle as well"
Gwin blaming his mechanic .. Gwin's mechanic mounting an old set of cranks on a brand new bike ... rude used someone's bottle ...
They all think we are f%#ing stupid readers and believe everything.. of course we do .. we buy the shit they wear and use FULL PRICE . That is stupid ..
Point 1: Oxilofrine caused a massive scandal in 2013 in Track and Field. It is a well known banned stimulant and there is a ton of info out there to help athletes avoid positives. The top 100m sprinters in the world were caught (Asafa Powell former World Record Holder, Sherone Simpson) which means it works as a DAY OF EVENT performance enhancer (stimulates nervous system generally, heightened concentration, quicker reaction times). 100m athletes look for any advantage they can get! Jared above said the label on his product said “synephrine HCL”. Oxilofrine is brand name for methylsynephrine. If you simply type “WADA Synephrine” into google the FIRST GOOGLE HIT is the WADA banned stimulant list stating “Oxilofrine (Methylsynephrine)” is banned. Shouldn’t Jared have been concerned the “Synephrine HCL” was oxilofrine? The Oxilofrine is the DAY OF EVENT stimulant that would offer the most performance enhancing effects and that should have been a red flag to stop using the BPM Labs ‘The One’ supplement right there for Jared. There is no need to “type these ingredients into the WADA search” as Jared says it is pretty obvious from the first google hit that the supplement is sketchy.
www.wada-ama.org/en/content/what-is-prohibited/prohibited-in-competition
Point 2: Jared has been taking supplements for years. Higenamine is a chemical compound found in Nandica Domestica (a plant). As far back as 2016, the Australian Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) who Jared would be most familiar with, issued this warning that supplements may label higenamine as Nandica Domestica. As Jared has likely been tested by ASADA lots of times over his career (2008 BMX Olympics) this press release may even have been emailed to him by ASADA (maybe.....just saying). Most national anti-doping agencies (USADA, AFLD) have issued similar warnings on higenamine. As a DAY OF EVENT performance enhancer, I am not as concerned with the higenamine as I am with the oxi. Hig’s biggest benefit is as an asthma drug helping to open up the airways. Asthma drugs help otherwise why would so many endurance athletes be diagnosed with asthma (hint: so they can be prescribed salbutamol…it helps). Typing “Nandica Domestica WADA” into google results in this ONE OF THE TOP GOOGLE HITS, but not the top one like above. The ASADA original press release was in 2016:
www.asada.gov.au/news/athlete-warning-higenamine-supplements
Every athlete who has ever been caught with one of these stimulants blames supplements. It is the go to defense. We heard “trace amounts” from Richie, but the drugs leave the system quickly so a “trace amount” is irrelevant. What is important to understand is that as DAY OF EVENT drugs, higenamine and oxilofrine would have offered a performance advantage for Enduro when you are exhausted dropping into the last stage (open airways, stimulated nervous system, increased awareness).
EDIT: maybe they're his friend's since he 'forgot his kit' or something.
Jared?
reminds me of that „little Britain“ sketch with the politician that got caught at a gay party speaking to the press: “and then I accidentally fell into him”
The half-life of the ingested substances, that is how quickly the substance remains detectable in the body, is very brief, allowing an athlete to consume at the beginning and during a race and still piss clean when it's over, that is another reason these substances would be used.
WTF... water bottle.......
This whole thing was a "shock" to me. All in all, it was "accidental" ingestion
Amateur Tip #2: That's why I only drink Brawndo
He opts to not compete, then after 8 months it is decided he serves an 8 month ban and can without saying, let people read that he drank from Graves bottle (who due to his illness will be out the game for much longer) then just steps right back into racing.
If you're innocent and can race you race.
But either way, he's a great rider, so ride your bike.
I would rather see the statements made by the doping agency. I would really like to see the other rider named as well. Shame for the other rider, yes, but the case isn't closed at this point without an official statement on that.
Also I want to know what the "Dietary supplement" was. Because it's obviously being used in the sport, and people should know to avoid it. Especially if it is "over the counter"
Plenty of privateers could fall foul of this so it would be seen as more giving back to the sport to fill in these glaring blanks.
I've use it to sweat more at the gym, I wouldn't say I've ever considered using it for mtb racing as I personally wouldn't see the benefit of it. Other pre-workouts I have used before racing as they give you energy, some goes with a coffee or a red bull.
What I can read from this case is: it was an offence so they couldn't not punish them, but also so minor in level and apparent benefit they couldn't warrant doing much more than an 8 month ban.
This whole thing is really BS. Now if they were taking Cardarine...I could see that.
If you're interested, I have a bridge to sell you.
What is Oxilofrine?
The other drug Jared and Richie tested positive for, Oxilofrine, is a stimulant and amphetamine. It is commonly used to treat low blood pressure in people who do not respond to conventional treatment.
Beta2 Agonists relax the muscles that control the airways, allowing an athlete’s lungs to take in more oxygen and boost performance. Higenamine is also used as a fat burner in dietary supplements.
This reflects on EWS though. 1) they need more testing, that way they can establish a pattern of clean tests or dirty tests for when trace amounts of something we can buy at the store and offer no edge does come up in a test. 2) if the sport is at the point where a few sips of water can get you suspended for almost a year or potentially ruin a career then these guys need more access to water during an event. They should never be in the situation where they have to drink from any bottle except their own. Now riders are going to remember this and if they run out of water they just won't drink water and that can end up a lot worse than a failed test.
I’m sure a lot of supplements at your local GNC store are illegal with the a**holes at UCI. Be awesome to see no rules and let them juice it up and then go beast mode on the trail
Needs one of these I think
Sure if the positive drug test came back seconds after providing a sample you could potentially determine the source of what you ingested but with the time lag between when a sample is provided and a positive test it returned it's going to be pretty much impossible to trace back the source with any certainty.
Picture the phone call: "Uhhhh, hey man, it's Richie... Uh, yeah remember when you gave me a bit of water a few months ago at that race? Yeah... Any chance you still have the bottle and never washed it?... You do? ... Still unwashed? ... Perfect! Can you send it to WADA for testing? They think you might be doping and I ingested some.... Cool! Thanks bro!"
Given that this water was from another racer how come we haven't heard of any other positive tests? Unless it was Jared Graves' water this is ludicrous.
So figure caffeine is banned, I drink a drop an thats the way I cheat? Man if l want to cheat, I'd drink at least a full cup... Dont understand why so difficult
Graves used a supplement with banned drugs in it, maybe he knew it had banned substances in it maybe he didn’t. Rude runs out of water and asks Graves for some of his. If Graves knew he had banned substances in the bottle what exactly is he going to say to Rude “sorry mate better not, I’m doping with it” or just yeah sure here you go thinking few swigs, it’ll be fine. Got that one wrong, got caught and brought his mate down with him. Then came clean to UCI, so they give a minimal sanction to Rude.
Richie Rudd or Curtis Keene?
Still, I'm stoked he is back and I hope he gets to the top again.
If someone wants to take drugs that are quickly excreted from the body and makes their heart beat really fast then that's fine with me. If my kids have to play the game of poisoning themselves for a shot at glory, then that's not OK with me.
These pseudo ephedrine's have killed many people! So the guy didn't get to race his bike down hills over the winter. So what?@dualsuspensiondave:
“I drank from a competitor’s tainted bottle” isn’t just a terrible excuse, it’s a cowardly one as well. How about coming clean rather than throwing another rider under the doping bus, Richie “Lance” Rude?
Hahahaha, yeah, sure. It's like the Contador case again "oh guys I'm sorry, it was the steak"
What a bullshit story
Do you think someone who accidentally shoots someone should be punished that same as someone who commits premeditated murder?
F%#yeah .. you and me both ...
Probably the trainer’s daily or something
WHY?
Anyone can build a website but it takes a real bitch to suck the wal mart dick.
" I'm mike and I think these guys might be on to something, a 6k hardtail is just what big pharma ordered.
These aren't the lies your looking for, move along.
Kate's a cheat and she knows it, but she has no ethical backbone and neither do their sponsors who just want to see their bike on the podium. Unbelievable how political correctness has stunted people's intellectual ability to be critical of such obvious cheating.