Login | September 23, 2025
New era in sports science or more doping?
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: September 22, 2025
It wasn’t that long ago when I wrote a column about how I had sworn off pro cycling (Legal News July 24, 2017: Tour De Farce), due in a large part to the never-ending torrent of doping scandals that continually rocked the cycling world.
It had gotten so bad that literally each and every month we’d hear about yet another pro cyclist admitting to or being caught up in a doping scandal - be it drugs or “motor doping” where cyclists actually rode on bikes outfitted with hidden motors.
I’d felt that the whole situation had gotten so abysmal that it cast a massive black mark on the sport itself, not to mention the fact that it was an affront to all those hard working, drug-free cyclists out there busting their tails trying in vain to compete with a juiced up peloton of liars and cheaters.
Now, years later I have to say that those resentful feelings have begun to fade.
So much so that my self-imposed abstinence from anything related to pro cycling has gradually succumbed to my love for a sport which had captivated me since my childhood.
And I’ve returned just in time to watch the meteoric rise of cycling sensations like Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar.
Yet once again, what with my reemerging interest in pro cycling, I’m getting peppered with questions regarding the doping issue.
And moreover, those same questions are now being asked of me about all the pro runners who are turning in insane performances - runners like Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Cole Hocker, Grant Fisher and Yared Nuguse to name but a few.
“Are these guys legit?” I’m often asked.
Well, were it a decade earlier my pat answer would have been a very dubious, “I don’t think so.”
But today I’m becoming more and more convinced - quite possibly because I’m a science-based guy - that the answer has far less to do with cheating and far more to do with sports science advancements.
So let me explain.
We now live in an age where virtually everything we do, sports-wise, can be tracked and analyzed.
And as I’ve mentioned in previous columns, we now have the ability to train with power meters, heart rate monitors, sweat monitors, sleep monitors and calorimeters.
So all that data, gigs and gigs worth of data, can be analyzed with amazing sports software monitoring programs to optimize an athlete’s performance.
Therefore, in today’s sports world it’s no longer hit or miss with training.
Training can be designed for the precise physiology and the exact metabolism of each individual athlete.
This as opposed to the en mass training of days gone by, where everyone ate and drank the same concoctions, and where everyone performed the same mind-numbing workouts at pro training camps.
Then we have the nutritional component. No longer do cyclists - in addition to other athletes - “train” themselves back to an acceptable competition weight during the spring season.
For example, you don’t see the likes of a Juan Urlich anymore, out on the race course in early April some 25 pounds overweight and looking like the Pillsbury Dough Boy trying to race himself back to an acceptable weight for the July Tour De France.
Athletes today treat nutrition just as religiously as they treat their racing and training.
Indeed, for in the world of sports nutrition we’ve evolved.
Gone are the days of simplistic diets.
Today they’re complex and scientifically-backed.
This evolution is a direct result of our growing knowledge base of how nutrition affects athletic performance, recovery and general health.
Today’s athletes live within very strict nutritional guidelines and they posses personalized nutritional plans that have bee tailored to their individual needs and their specific racing schedules.
And finally there’s the technological side of this.
For example, athletes routinely perform workouts in wind tunnels to test clothing and mechanical equipment for air drag.
And that has spurred advances in materials science thereby aiding athletes in agility, comfort and safety, not to mention the fact that improvements in components, fabrics, footwear and more have been helping athletes shatter records and set new standards in their respective sports.
So as a person who truly believes in the good that science can do for mankind, I’m heartened by the fact that - in my mind anyway - science is largely responsible for my falling back in love with a sport that just a decade ago I’d grown to deplore.