How Doping Stopped Other Racers

http://www.theouterline.com/perspectives-on-doping-in-pro-cycling-3-will-frischkorn/
http://www.theouterline.com/perspectives-on-doping-in-pro-cycling-2-inga-thompson-5/

Another great set of interviews or commentary from/about people who did not do well in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Will Frischkorn is an interesting story; we ran across each other when I was promoting races around Cincinnati. Of course the name is unique but also he was very young and racing with the big dogs in whatever races I held. I think something like 14-16 and racing SM 1-2, crazy stuff! I was not surprised when I saw he went pro.

The interesting thing about his stance in the article is the disconnect from economics. He was free to make choices because this was not his “ticket out”, I gather he had a pleasant childhood and very supportive parents. He took it as far as he could with his natural talents and then stopped. It seemed odd at the time that just as he got really big time he stopped but I suppose, with eyes wide open, he knew that was as far as it was going to go.

Then the story of Inga Thompson is related too; she did what she could and then stopped too. I don’t think the economics were quite as disconnected for her but you still don’t get a lot of money for being the best woman racer in the world. It was never about the money anyway. Her story is more about the corruption beyond the drugs. If you allow that, what else will you allow? Well, quite a bit apparently. My exposure to the USCF while helping run registration at senior nationals makes the stories from Inga very plausible. Then if you dig a little more you can find articles outlining a lot of corruption going back decades with the national team. Even an interview with George Mount indicated what was going on.

So with this history and the interview with Verbruggen, you can see what a mess the management of cycling was in and is still in!


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