In less than two days I will be lining up with some of the premiere cyclo-cross racers in the world at Cross Vegas during the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas.

It’s safe to say I am completely unprepared. An extremely busy summer at the bike shop kept training time to a minimum, but you know what they say, “duty calls.”

I guess I shouldn’t really complain because just nine months ago I was standing on the front porch of my Boulder, Colorado, town home staring at a letter from the United States Anti-Doping Agency stating I had committed a doping violation.

Me, the guy who first took the letters D-O-P-E-R-S-S-U-C-K and ironed them on an old t-shirt back in 2004, was reading a letter stating I had missed a required appearance at doping control following a Crank Brothers US Gran Prix cyclocross race in Colorado on November 4, 2006 and was facing a possible one-year suspension from racing.

I thought it was a joke, but apparently I had been randomly selected to report to doping control as an alternate and since I did not report to pee in a plastic cup I was, in the eyes of USADA, a doper.

In case you didn’t know, when drug control is in effect at a race, the winner and two randomly selected riders, called randoms, are to report to the doping control headquarters following a race for testing. From my experience, if you are one of the chosen randoms there is usually a chaperone waiting at the finish line to escort you to doping control. According to the rules, USADA or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) or whoever is collecting your pee, does not have to provide a chaperone, but generally they do.

Apparently USADA also selects an alternate who is supposed to report to doping control and can be subjected to testing if one of the randoms fails to show. Upon reading my letter, I was an alternate who did not report to doping control and this is considered a positive test.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Confused and frustrated with all the legal mumbo-jumbo in the letter, I immediately called every USADA number on the letter. No answers. I dove into the lengthy rulebook and other literature that accompanied my violation letter. All I can say is the rules are very, very confusing.

Immediately, I started doing my own impersonation of Magnum, PI (sans the Hawaiian shirt and cheesy mustache). I called the race promoter, found out who led the doping control at the race and learned who the two randoms were. I already knew Ryan Trebron had won the race and had reported to doping control. I personally knew both random riders so I dropped each of them an email.

“Did you report to doping control at the Foothills Cup race back on November 4th?”

Both answered yes. So, if the winner and the two randoms showed up for doping control, why was the alternate in violation of a doping violation? I hired a lawyer. He worked feverishly to scour documents and rulebooks and websites and was basically able to prove that I was not in violation of any doping offense. We submitted our case and eventually I was cleared.

When I first discovered I might receive a one-year suspension, I laughed and wasn’t too concerned. I knew I was innocent and figured things would all clear up and I would be fine. I was also thinking about hanging up the tubulars and thought, “who cares, I’m done racing anyway.”

But as the days went by waiting for my lawyer to complete his research, I got bitter. Why was I, a completely clean rider, being subjected to such frustration, not to mention financial outlay? Why? I’ll tell you why. Because there are real dopers out there that are ruining the sport for the clean riders. These cheats are the reason there are organizations with acronyms like WADA and USADA. And, because there are cheaters out there, innocent riders, like me and others I know, have the potential to get suspended for a year because he or she didn’t know they had to show up to doping control. People often ask me what I think about the state of doping in cycling and I generally say, at the highest level of most anything, whether it’s sport, business, academics or politics, when money is involved, there will always be cheaters. Past examples are endless.

Okay, time to get off the soapbox. Let ‘cross season begin!

---

Brandon Dwight lives in Boulder, Colorado, and is part owner of BoulderCycle Sport. He is also the founder of Doperssuck.com.Sponsors include: Time Bicycles, SRAM, Zipp, Crank Brothers, Clif Bar,Challenge, Squadra, Sock Guy, and if his Time needed an external headset,Chris King.