IRONMAN Winner Tests Positive for Banned Substance

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Good morning everyone,

After what’s been a pretty hot summer here in Boulder, we finally had the temperature turned down. A full day of rain and colder temps was a nice reprieve from the heat and a reminder that fall isn’t too far away.

Although it wasn’t actually that cold, I still needed some pretty serious winter gear to get me through my bike ride. Which is a little embarrassing given the conditions I used to ride in back home in Canada.

Not really sure what I’m going to do when it really gets cold! 🥶

In today’s edition:

• 💉 A breakdown of triathlon’s latest doping scandal,

• 🧇 How starting your day with this carb will make you faster,

• 📈 And how this cycling executive navigates industry chaos!

Thanks for being here.

-Matt Sharpe, newsletter editor

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ONE BIG THING

IRONMAN Winner Tests Positive for Banned Substance

Athlete Claims Cross Contamination to Blame

What is it: As first reported by ProTriNews, professional triathlete and recent IRONMAN Texas winner, Tomás Rodríguez Hernández (MEX), has tested positive for a banned substance.

According to the International Testing Agency (ITA), a sample collected at IRONMAN Texas produced an Adverse Analytical Finding for clomiphene.

• Both A and B samples tested positive for the banned substance, and so Hernández has been provisionally suspended from competition.

Unclean clomiphene: Clomiphene is a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) commonly used in female fertility prescription medications. In women, clomiphene stimulates the release of specific hormones responsible for ovulation.

In men, clomiphene can elevate testosterone levels by stimulating the body to produce it at a rate that would be unachievable without the drug.

• The World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) has banned the use of clomiphene in and out of competition.

Tomás talks: In a statement on Instagram, Hernández suggested that clomiphene levels in his blood were, “extremely low and not consistent with intentional use of the substance to enhance performance.”

• Further in his statement, he suggests that inadvertent consumption of contaminated eggs and chicken was to blame for the positive test.

Tainted tribe: Hernández follows other athletes who have blamed tainted meat for a positive drug test.

• In 2010, Tour de France winner Alberto Contador blamed tainted beef after testing positive for clenbuterol.

• And in 2021, American Track and Field star Shelby Houlihan infamously blamed a pork burrito for the presence of nandrolone - an anabolic steroid - in her body.

Next steps: Hernández’s case will soon be heard by an international hearing panel. In the meantime, he will not be able to compete in any professional races.

Tempo’s take: After a surprise win at IRONMAN Texas, where Hernández had a never-before-seen bike performance, many wondered if he was the real deal.

Turns out, he wasn’t.

• Similar to Houlihan, the levels of clomiphene in his body would be nearly impossible to achieve by simply eating contaminated food.

It’s a win for the sport that a drug cheat was caught. But it would be naïve to think this is case closed on doping in triathlon. There are more athletes out there cheating, the great hope is that they will be caught.

Pro triathlete Cody Beals has laid out some first-rate anti-doping policy improvements.

• Lifetime bans for convicted dopers would be a great start.

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FAVORITES

🧇 Best carb: They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and that’s especially so for triathletes! But if you’re looking to start your day even better, you might want to try this carb! [My Sports Science]

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🚵 Cycling workouts: Has your cycling training got a little stale? Looking for some workout inspiration? This video has three different bike workouts that can all help make you faster. “Microbursts” intrigued us the most! [GTN]

😤 Breathe better: Your diaphragm helps you breathe, but can it also help you run faster? This article looks at a breathing technique that may help you carry more oxygen, and ultimately train and race quicker! [New York Times]

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INTERVIEW

After Chaos in the Cycling Industry, This Executive is Ready for a Rebound

We sat down with Shimano’s Road Sports Marketing Specialist, Meredith Miller, and learned how she navigated the cycling’s Covid chaos, her thoughts on separate IRONMAN World Championships for men and women, and her opinion on the state of the cycling industry. 

How did you go from being a pro cyclist to working in sports marketing with Shimano?

Going way, way, way back to 1996, I had just graduated from UW-Madison where I played college soccer. At that time, there wasn’t a women’s pro soccer league in the US, so I was looking for the “next thing”. I had been an athlete since I was six and knew I needed something else to fuel my competitive spirit and athletic mind. I had seen some friends racing bikes and was sort of fascinated with it. And, without knowing a single thing about bike racing, I picked up my first road bike to start racing. It wasn’t “let’s just ride bikes first to see how it goes”. It was all about jumping headfirst into racing.  

• I raced on the road for 10 years in the US and Europe, eventually picked up cyclocross, and raced both road and cross for about six years. In 2011, I even jumped into the US Mountain Bike National Championships. 

2016 is when I retired from professional bike racing. My last race was the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Zolder, Belgium, in January 2016.

In 2017, Rapha opened up a clubhouse here in Boulder and I was hired as the community events organizer. I was planning a lot of events at the clubhouse with guests such as local pros Alex Howes and Lachlan Morton along with characters from local businesses like Bobby Stuckey from Frasca. And I was leading a lot of weekly rides from the Clubhouse that included local Front Range cyclists as well as visitors from around the globe. We had a lot of rides going strong for a solid three years before Covid hit. It truly was community building at its best!

• And then in late 2020, I saw a posting for a sports marketing position at Shimano and applied for that. And, as they say, the rest is history. 

What's been the biggest challenge for you in this role so far?

A few things come to mind. The big one was that I started during the pandemic. Learning a new job from a remote location while doing it all over Zoom calls was incredibly challenging. 

I wasn’t able to go into the office, sit next to my coworkers and be like “what does this part number mean?” Haha these order forms are quite complicated and just starting out it was a process to know the specific part number without actually having the description next to it. 

• I also had never really done a lot of work on my own bikes, so I had to learn how everything from the bottom brackets, to brake pads, chains, etc. worked together!

And more specific to sports marketing was the creation of a program that covers road, gravel, cyclocross, and triathlon. It’s a big program, so an ongoing, and important challenge has been staying in touch with and developing relationships with all of our athletes.

What’s your favorite Shimano product at the moment?

One of the things that I think people are less informed about is the Shimano E-Tube app which allows users to customize the different buttons and troubleshoot issues across multiple bikes. From within the app, you can customize the buttons to perform different functions (ie, I switch my front derailleur buttons to do the opposite from the default settings.), optimize your shifting speed, connect the Di2 to your head unit to check things like battery life, etc. 

• If you’re a tech guru or data geek, you can really get into the weeds with all the things the e-tube app has to offer. 

Continue reading the interview and learn:

• Her most memorable triathlon experience

• What she thinks about separate IRONMAN World Championship race days for the men and women.

• Why the cycling industry, after struggling for so long, is ready for a rebound!

REEL TIME

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