Check out this article in Velo-News, with some confessions and opinions of fallen juicer Bernhard Kohl. Many people might remember Frankenstein climbing his way to the podium in last year’s Tour de France, and winning the Polka Dot climber’s jersey. Nowadays, it seems, the red dots on the jersey stand for the number of times the riders have pricked themselves with hypodermic needles. Kohl reveals details of his transfusions, and gives his opinion that pretty much everyone in the top ten is doing something. On what he was was using, Kohl goes on to say:

“…the blood transfusions were the only “safe” way to cheat during the race without risk of getting caught. Other doping products were used in the weeks and months before the Tour to avoid detection.

“Nothing else, there were too many random controls. Never a testosterone patch,” he said. “Apart from the caffeine, pseudo-ephedrine, painkillers, EPO, human growth hormones, insulin, I took all that before, not during (the Tour).”

Interesting that Kohl describes transfusions as “safe,” to hell with his health, the safety refers to getting caught. In cycling, riding clean to some riders means getting away clean, and nothing more. I guess as we are a few weeks away from the Tour, the distraction of whether or not Lance and Contador will have an inter-team clash will deflect some of the suspicions of which riders are putting extra juice in their morning smoothies. Kohl is an example of someone who went from hero to zero in less than a year, and he’s almost forgotten already. What a beautiful but dirty and cruel sport bike racing is.