Floyd Landis benefited from the sex hormone testosterone in the tour win after the first tests. It promotes muscle building, stimulates blood formation and strengthens the feeling of power and aggressiveness. The fulminant solo ride of the American in stage 17 would be easy to explain.
The resurrection of the US racing driver Floyd Landis on stage 17 of this year’s Tour de France surprised all observers. During the mountain stage the day before, he had dropped dramatically – the overall victory seemed lost. The increased testosterone levels that doping testers have now proven in the A sample could well explain Landis’ triumph on stage 17.
Doping samples: Smart scammers can hardly be convicted
Doping samples: Smart scammers can hardly be convicted REUTERS
The sex hormone is ideal for accelerating the regeneration of tired muscles. Kurt Moosburger, sports and nutritionist and specialist in internal medicine from Tyrol, believes that testosterone is therefore almost essential in modern cycling.
“You can complete a difficult Alpine stage without doping,” he said in an interview with the DPA news agency. But then the muscles were burned out. “Depending on the state of your training, you need one to three days to regenerate.”
According to Moosburger, testosterone and the growth hormone HGH can accelerate regeneration: “Both are endogenous and therefore natural substances. They help to build muscle as well as to regenerate the muscles.”
Skillful testosterone doping hardly detectable
Fritz Sörgel from the Nuremberg Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research confirms the regenerative effect in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE: “Testosterone is used precisely for this purpose in medicine, for example in HIV or tumor patients.”
According to Moosburger, testosterone can be administered in such a way that it can hardly be detected. “You stick a commercially available testosterone patch, such as that used for hormone replacement therapy in men, on the scrotum and leave it there for about six hours.” The low dose is not enough to produce a positive urine test, but the body actually feels faster recovery.
Sörgel suspects that Landis miscalculated in his presumed testosterone administration and was therefore noticed during the doping test.
However, hormone administration is not just about faster regeneration: testosterone also promotes muscle growth, stimulates blood formation and strengthens the feeling of power and aggressiveness. Because of these performance-enhancing effects, the hormone is classified as an anabolic steroid, the administration is considered doping.
Sörgel believes that the psychological effects of testosterone are crucial for competition: “‘I have unleashed afterward’ – athletes report this repeatedly after taking prohibited steroids.”
Friedrich Jockenhövel, a chief physician at the Evangelische Krankenhaus Herne, believes that tour participants would generally benefit from a hormone intake. “It is a well-known phenomenon that the testosterone production of the testicles decreases with continuous exercise,” he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. For drivers without hormone addition, the level drops during a stage and overall during the tour. “When an athlete is treated, his testosterone level is more balanced and certainly higher than that of other drivers,” said Jockenhövel.
Testosterone injection for three weeks
Jockenhövel is well versed in testosterone in top sports. He has several competitive athletes as patients who regularly receive testosterone after chemotherapy. “In 80 percent of those treated with chemotherapy, the testicles are so damaged afterward that hormones have to be given permanently,” said the specialist.
The hormone could best be given as an intramuscular injection into the buttocks. “One shot is enough for three weeks or more recently for up to three months,” said Jockenhövel. The hormone is stored in the muscles and released continuously. “The athlete would have a testosterone tank in his butt.” The doctor explains that the dose can be set in such a way that the level is constantly in the upper third of the normal range. Other drivers would only have such high values sporadically.
Lance Armstrong, who won the tour seven times, would have been a candidate for medically-based testosterone. The American had to have his right testicle completely removed in 1996 after cancer. After that, he suffered from a hormone deficiency. “Since 1996 I have chronically too little testosterone and I can’t do anything about it,” he said in the “Playboy” interview.
Armstrong, however, denied having made up for the lack of hormones by taking testosterone. A year ago, he claimed that he could only start spraying testosterone after his professional career had ended.
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