08-12-2013, 12:21 PM
(08-11-2013, 03:24 PM)Jester Wrote:(08-11-2013, 12:13 PM)eppie Wrote: Not really. A doping substance is usually put on the black list after it has been used a while. As long as you find more inventive ways of doping you stay ahead of the pack, while probably staying within the 'biking law'.
But it is cheating.
Probably it is even more cheat'iyi to use the substance before it is banned (and technically it is legal) than after it is banned (when you know they test for it).
It is cheating according to whom? There are hundreds of ways of improving performance. Some of them are against the rules. Most of them aren't. As far as I'm concerned, cyclists compete within the existing rules, and cheating means breaking those rules.* There is no grand cosmic definition for "cheating" outside of them.
-Jester
Afterthought: Which is not to say that those rules can't be fuzzy, or arbitrary, or that any given thing "is" or "is not" cheating under a given set of rules. Just that, cheating is not something which has a definition except under a code of rules, whatever that code may be.
If you can reasonably expect a substance to be banned once it is known (or is known to have a great effect on stamina, muscle growth or whatever) it is cheating even though it is not against the rules of the moment.
Maybe not legally but for sure when keeping the unwritten rules of the sport in mind.
Take the shark suits used by some swimmers a few years ago. When the first swimmers raced with those they had an unfair advantage over the ones who didn't. Indeed some time later they were banned.
If you find sports a contest between men or women to show their ability to do something better than another under a given set of circumstances (which I do) having two people swim against each other, one with a shark skin suit and the other one not is not a fair race. And even though you can't fine or punish the guys that started with the shark suits, it is still an unfair race. Probably you can't call it cheating because contrary to doping you can see it.
But we are of course discussing two different things. You talk about cheating only based upon a rulebook, and me cheating when keeping the spirit of the game in mind.
I for example find F1 racing something that should not be called a sport. Spend more money, make a faster car, win more races. But of course it IS according to the rules.