Dec 12th, 09.

Joe Papp - image provided by BikePure

Case study by Myles McCorry, Bike Pure director

It is said that a cat burglar designs the best security system and for this reason Bike Pure sought the reformed doper Joe Papp to help define solutions for the problem our wonderful sport has with drugs.

On May 7, 2006, at the UCI Tour of Turkey, Papp was found positive for metabolites of testosterone at the post stage winner's test  – it was his fourth win of the tour.

While he awaited definitive proof from his B sample, Papp continued racing through to July. While competing in Tuscany's 100-mile Granfondo Michele Bartoli, he crashed with less than a half-mile to go.

Papp initially thought he'd only endured a few scrapes. But by the time he lay down in his hotel room, his left buttock had swelled grotesquely. Papp cajoled his team soigneur into driving him to the closest hospital, in nearby Pescia. He knew the injury was not innocuous.

Surgeons operated on Papp several days later, removing a mass of EPO-damaged sludge that amounted to roughly a fourth of his blood volume.

Back in the U.S., doctors would later tell him that he was lucky to be alive after the lethal cocktail of EPO and blood thinners his team had provided him.

Joe Papp is now an outspoken, no holds barred opponent of the use of illegal performance enhancing methods and substances in sport. He has witnessed first-hand the damage that can be done to a rider's reputation, their marriage and their career in the wake of a conviction or admission of doping.

Whilst Papp is not unique in that he is one of dozens of professional cyclists sanctioned for doping during the past several years (over 60 in 2009 alone), his is a story worth telling, if only to deter one young athlete from taking the tempting first step down the dark path that ends for too many in expulsion, arrest, or death - a career of cheating.

Papp never reached the top-tier of professional road racing, and he was not a household name when he was collecting UCI points around the globe, but the natural talent was there. Papp's father died when he was 14 and a close uncle bought him a racing bike. Two years later, in 1991, he won junior state road-racing titles, and another three followed. This national progress continued into the senior ranks building his reputation as a lethal sprinter who specialised in shorter or flatter races.  The future was bright.

The first time Papp was aware of drugs in cycling was the Festina scandal in 1998 and he naively thought it just occurred in Europe, not in the US where he raced. Papp progressed his career, racing around the world. The future was still bright. So what happened?

Getting the honest truth from a convicted doper is a rare thing. So we quizzed Papp into the choices that led him to the dark side.

"I took a few years away from full time racing to finish my undergraduate and then to complete a Fellowship at Graduate level. When I came back in 2001 and was riding on form, a guy who I could normally beat, and who had suffered with me in the mountains for as long as I could remember,  I recall him on one climb just riding away from me, so fast, so eye openingly fast, for a sprinter!!!" Papp explained.

"I thought something had changed. Other guys were at a whole new level after only a few years away. When I asked a teammate he laughed at my naivety. But he would later provide the key to open the world of medically-supervised doping after I'd become so frustrated at being beaten by riders who were my equals. I'm not talking about being beaten by Tyler Hamilton or Hincapie, guys who were on another ability level, but rather, these former criterium riders who went to Switzerland and suddenly became time trialists and mountain climbers. I was at the point of quitting cycling."

This was when the seed of temptation was set for Papp. When you go down the dark path of cheating, cheating on yourself, your family, and stealing wins from your compatriots there is little chance of coming back.

"I never once thought of the negatives of my decision to dope. While I did have education on the health risks associated with doping, I foolishly thought the doctor would seek to minimise risk – so the fear of dying in my sleep was no longer a deterrent. I also had never once been challenged to think about what it would mean professionally for me outside of cycling if I doped and was caught cheating."

"Anti-doping education efforts were so basic, and focused almost exclusively on health risks and ethics, that the practical implications of being forever known as a "drugs cheat"  was, perhaps, taken for granted. No one ever said to me, 'do you realise that if you are positive, it's not only going to ruin your cycling career, it will see you black-listed from the State Dept.', where I wanted to work post-sport. I honestly believe that if it was presented to me in those terms, I would have had a very different attitude towards the risks and my ability to mitigate them, and may have avoided doping altogether."

"As it was, on the advice of that same teammate who laughed at my naivety before, I earned an introduction to a reclusive Doping Doctor who would 'take care of me'. We had a talk about what I needed and in less than half an hour I had a prescription for EPO, which I filled at my local pharmacy - that was it. For the rest of 2001, that doctor managed my doping regime which made such a phenomenal difference," he said.

As cyclists we all hear about EPO, and we all wonder how much difference it actually makes. 

"At first it brought me back up to my previous level of competitiveness, but as I took more that's when I moved up a level. It felt amazing. 12-13%, enough of a difference to block out any ethical or health issues. Enough to win," said Papp.

Papp tells of a hard to grasp paradox, that he doped not to earn money, but because he loved cycling so much. He wanted to keep cycling and that meant wins. It is ironic that this love for the sport is exactly what puts the sport and the health of its athletes in jeopardy.

Papp described in detail how synthetic testosterone helped him to recover during multi-day stage races. Papp acknowledged systematically doping under the guidance of medical professionals in the United States, Europe and Latin America.

And on it went from 2001 to his near-death crash in 2006. Papp admitted to using nearly 100 different drugs including EPO, HGH, cortisone, insulin, thyroid hormone, anabolic steroids and amphetamines. He fell into a definitive program of cycling with substances - unaware of the dangers - or at least unwilling to see them.

"When you have a doctor managing your doping program, the risks seem less tangible," he said.

With the positive test at the tour of Turkey and the crash, Papp's career was over. Lessons must be learned and the testing must be improved. Papp has indicated in the past that some doping officials took bribes.  Protocols must be addressed to dismiss this possibility.

Papp admits to the positive result for testosterone being only one of five drugs being taken at that time and even after the horrific crash and the ban, he didn't put his hand up in admission.

For five months he fought the charges, but the combination of the deterioration of his marriage, which he solely puts down to the financial and psychological toll of fighting a guilty doping ban, and his isolation from teammates and managers who were distancing themselves from him, forced Papp to consider a new analysis of the situation.

His Italian team had completely managed and funded his doping regime though a systematic, team-organised doping program. This endemic, illegal drug taking not only lacks honour and respect for fellow cyclists, but destroys the duty of care that a team must exact to protect the physical and mental health of their riders - not exploit them, regardless of the cost.

Back in the United States in early 2007, a wavering Papp met with Travis Tygart, who heads up USADA – the US Anti-Doping Agency. Tygart made soothing noises, telling Papp coming clean promised him relief and redemption. The timing was fortuitous, and at the right moment a broken athlete came clean.

Papp testified for USADA in the Floyd Landis 2006 Tour de France doping arbitration.

It would be putting it kindly to say that what followed Papp's confession in the interim years has been has been a split opinion: 1) whatever he gets he brought it upon himself and deserves it, 2) an alienation from the core of professional cycling for breaking the still in existence code of silence and, 3) praise for the new era of truth.

Bike Pure see Papp's efforts as essential redemption. He has put his hand up and said yes, I did this and here are the life destroying consequences.  We wish all young athletes to be aware of the lifelong opportunity cost of doping which far outweigh the short term gain of drugs.

Papp, somewhat despondently, admits, "I hate to say it, but a fear based education from an early age, if you dope you put the rest of your life in jeopardy, is essential to making doping something that is again unconscionable for the next generation."

On that day when Joe first visited the doctor, starting his car was the decision to cheat, a switch in the brain opens a dark path that once given in to, can never fully be turned off in a sport as hard and intense as cycling.

The decision must never be an option.

So how do we learn from Joe, how will the sport improve?

"The UCI have to have an absolute, robust stance against doping. And not put themselves into positions where they have a conflict of interests or show favouritism to any teams. The testing labs must evolve to be above and beyond question all over the world; this is why I think Bike Pure is a step in the right direction. You have a global platform and you are giving a voice to the grass roots, both the fan and the professional rider who are outraged at riders cheating other riders, and eventually themselves," said Papp.

One of Papp's ideas is for a year zero, a general amnesty and for all riders and staff to come clean without any possibility of remand. Everything exposed and the slate cleaned and the professional sport starts afresh. As Joe says himself,  "What cyclist wants to incriminate himself". It is a novel idea, with all solutions plagued with problems, but it does display his sincerity.

To the riders Papp stole podiums from, they have the right to be bitter and angry but I heard a man trying to make up for the doping. I witnessed a rider recovering from years stuck in a system where cheating and lying are not only the norm but pampered and encouraged.

To recover one's self-belief and one's honour is an individual battle. We can only judge on the harm Papp has done to the sport and his efforts for reparation. We must look to the riders like Papp and act on their experience and knowledge to fix the problem within top-level sport and let cycling recover to be a sport where victory is from hard work and champions can be viewed with pride.

"To dope puts your entire life in jeopardy," concluded Papp.

About Bike Pure
Bike Pure aims to promote clean riders, moving the spotlight away from the dopers by working towards life bans for the cheats.

Have your say by joining BikePure and wearing a wristband or headset spacer, visit their website www.bikepure.org for more information.

Bike Pure is an independent, non profit organisation, committed to redirecting trust to professional cycle sport. Bike Pure is an umbrella group for all concerned parties in cyclesport. A medium to let the fans, riders, teams and cycle trade join together in a united stance for an new era of clean cycling.

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