Both Paul Kimmage and Shay Elliott spoke openly about drugs in cycling, but it was another Irish legend that blew the whistle first; our first world track champion Harry Reynolds, above.
By Graham Healy
A number of Irish cyclists over the years have revealed stories of doping in the professional peloton, basing their testimony on what they had witnessed going on around them.
Most notably, Paul Kimmage and Shay Elliott both spoke about the use of performance enhancing drugs in cycling.
However, Elliott’s revelations came sixty years after the first Irish cyclist revealed details about the problem of doping.
Back in 1907, Ireland’s first world cycling champion Harry Reynolds expressed concern about the use of drugs in the sport.
In an article entitled ‘Racing Men Doping Themselves’, which appeared in New Zealand newspaper The Otago Witness, Reynolds revealed he had witnessed other cyclists doping.
Advertisement
“The practice is only resorted to in short-distance contests, as the effect dies away very quickly”, he said.
“Some of the preparations taken for this purpose produce astonishing results, and will make a man ride in immensely better form than he ever shows in training.”
Related News
Shay Elliott spoke about doping in cycling; seen here in 1963 Tour de France yellow with world champion Jean Stablinski.
Reynolds went on to outline that he had seen a man after a race “lying in his dressing room practically unconscious.”
The Balbriggan man said that he had never resorted to that practice, but that he could be tempted. He stated that he “would have no objection to trying it were a very big stake in view.”
He did not actually state what drugs were being used. However, other accounts from the time outlined the drugs that were supposed to have been taken in races.
In a report about the New York Six-Day race in 1901, it stated that trainers were supposed to have given their cyclists “either tonic doses of cocaine, strychnine, or some other powerful stimulant.”
Whilst the drugs of choice may have changed over the past century, the problem still exists. Reynolds closing statement proved prophetic, whereby he stated that “needless to say, the effect of such a practice is bound to be serious sooner or later.”
Paul Kimmage's 'Rough Ride' remains the seminal work on doping in cycling, but Harry Reynolds was not afraid to speak his mind to The Otago Witness in New Zealand some 83 years earlier.
Topics
