Former World Duathlon Champion and current RideClean team member Paul Thomas is proof you can race against the best and not have to resort to extreme measures. A recent picture from the 2010 Tour of the Gila shows Paul and friends in the bunch.

In the light of recent UCI "blood passport" controls, the Giro organizers are claiming stricter controls for the running of the 93rd edition of this Grand Tour.

From a recent article on Cyclingnews.com... the relevance is that the quote below regarding Frei indicates there are still athletes that claim to be able to beat the testing with simple procedures -- similar to years past when velodrome specialists would take cocaine before competition.... secure in knowing that the test for cocaine actually looked for metabolites that would not show in the body until hours after the tests were administered.

From Cyclingnews.com....

BMC Racing Team rider Thomas Frei recently tested positive for EPO and claimed that he would have beaten the test for his microdosing had he drunk enough water after taking the injection.(UCI President Pat) McQuaid however implies that a rider in his situation would only get away with it for so long.

This quote from a Scientific American magazine article about applying "game theory" in order to understand and clarify the mentality of athletes who choose to dope cuts right to the heart of the matter. It is one of the reasons that RideClean exists - to support athletes that are clean so that those reasons lose meaning. The full quote is:

"Game theory highlights why it is rational for professional cyclists to dope: the drugs are extremely effective as well as difficult or impossible to detect; the payoffs for success are high; and as more riders use them, a “clean” rider may become so noncompetitive that he or she risks being cut from the team."

See the full article by Michael Shermer about the Doping Dilemma on their web page here:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-doping-dilemma

There are several late season victories to report:

State Team Time Trial Champs 1st place Pro 1-2 and new course record
Picacho Peak Time Trial 1st Pro 1-2 new course record
State Ind. Time Trial Champs 1st and 3rd Pro 1-2, 1st 40+
Kit Peak Time Trial 1st Pro 1-2
State Hill Climb Champs 1st Pro 1-2 (David Glick in picture), 1st 40+
Tour de Scottsdale 1st Pro 1-2