The brand names of the legal products being used by pros looking for an edge are starting to creep out more and more.
Following claims by Katusha rider Luca Paolini that he had been addicted to sleeping pills for more than a decade and had taken cocaine to offset fatigue, his team’s doctor has pointed to similar problems throughout the pro peloton.
Massimo Besnati has claimed sleeping pill addiction is a bigger problem than more traditional performance enhancing drugs, with riders taking them because they find it harder to get to sleep when they are exhausted on stage races.
And he said many riders, especially the younger ones, are combining the medications with alcohol, with some also taking a tobacco stimulant drug called ‘snus’.
"I'd be Pinocchio if I said doping has been defeated but now the use of sleeping medication is worse and a more widely used,” the experience Besnati told Gazzetta dello Sport, the same Italian newspaper Paolini gave a revealing interview to in recent days.
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“It affects the person rather than the athletes,” Besnati said of sleeping pill abuse in pro cycling. “What makes things worse is using it with alcohol: it has an explosive effect. It's terrible.”
"Riders take it because of the stress, for the progressive fatigue of stage races.
“Now that there are no longer pharmaceutical recovery products riders, who refuse to use natural herbs, struggle to recover.
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“When you're too tired, you struggle to get to sleep. Look at the last week, they're all skin and bones," he said in reference to three-week long Grand Tours.
He described as “widespread” the use by younger riders of sleeping pills with alcohol.
“They drink a lot. While we're talking about it, I'll add another thing: 'Snus' – putting tobacco in your mouth.
“It has an exciting effect that shouldn't be overlooked. If you look carefully you can see riders with red, swollen gums."
Besnati said he knew of Paolini’s claimed Minias sleeping pill addiction, adding while he stopped prescribing it for him it did not stop the 38-year-old – who tested positive for cocaine at the Tour de France – getting his hands on the substance.
This resulted in the rider needing to drink five or six cups of coffee before breakfast to help offset the effects of the medication.
Paolini has claimed the cocaine he tested positive for on the Tour in July was consumed while he was alone at a training camp.
He also claimed his use of that drug was part of the cycle of sleeping pills and fatigue he had been trapped in since his brother died in 2004.
Besnati said the Minias sleeping pills Paolini claims he was taking were so strong they required a detox programme to come off. While the Stilnox sleeping medication was a “heavier” product, it was less addictive.
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