British Junior National 10-mile TT champion admits EPO use

IMO he should be banned and 'asked ' to work with the UCi etc,speaking to young riders about how he either allowed himself to be led or led himself. Would he have carried on if he hadn't been caught or might we be reading about another Tiernan Locke in a few years time? He's obviously got some talent for sports and he'll find another outlet but the world of competitive cycling should be closed to him. Maybe it's harsh but no-one made him do it or if they did,  name them.

When I look back on the many stupid, selfish, dangerous decisions I made when I was that age I can't help but hope people will let him start again.
Clearly cheating is not OK but he's barely more than a child.

Regardless, all those methods of 'cheating' are irrelevant on a cycling forum thread dedicated to an 18 year-old taking EPO, but those methods, if caught, would also result in pretty harsh penalties for the 'cheater'. Nobody's suggesting throwing away the key; there are a few, it seems (myself included), that think if a kid is taking EPO in this climate he should have the book thrown at him and should be lucky to race again.

The 'everyone's doing it' excuse is why the TDF has a chunk of winners missing from its records, why Froome had piss thrown on him this year, why the Armstrong circus is a bigger draw than actual cycling, why Pantani's dead. It can't be an excuse anymore. Neither is 'all 18 year-olds are dickheads'. Yeah, we all were. So what?

And this lad's 'honest' explanation... It just doesn't ring true for me. Could be that he's been getting away with it for ages, beating and putting other non-EPO'd up kids off a career as The Next Big Thing. What about their chances of £1M contracts and page 3 girls?

Could be that he's covering up a whole network, or at least others who've put him up to it.

Or it could be exactly as he's telling it - but having numpties speculating on t'internet about him is an unfortunate by-product of his own doing.

I echo bradleyjbensons comments exactly

See here's the funny thing, It's were 'cycling' has become the victim of its own success in the UK in recent years.

1990 the same kid, with the same talent is destined to try his hand abroad if he can find the money, come back and race semi pro domestically along side his proper job and do the sport he loves, he loves if because he has to, there is little money, no fame and a lot of suffering - so nothing to gain apart from the love

roll on 2015, the lad has a few wins under his belt, but need to get noticed, he might make it and join a pro continue squad and make £15k a year, but if he hits the big time will earn £1M+ a year and be banging page three models, he's a rockstar, superstar.... Footballer!!! 

Doping at this level has been established on the continent; Italy, France, Belgium spain etc for a long time where the pathways to professional contracts have been long established, doping goes un tested, but wins in the hard races mean a career.

I have no doubt that the same kid in any sport would have taken a chance if he believed if would tip the balance to make it to the big time, and I'm sure it's happening all around the globe as we speak, whilst there will be those that remain strong and resist. So whilst I'm not sure of the phrase to best describe what I feel for this kid I.e. Sympathy, apathy, disgust etc I can certainly understand why he's done i

a side note though with regards to the US cat 2, I think it's a different scenario really, though I will say when I am in my 50's, retired and wanting to ride my way though the Alps, Rockies, Dolomites etc - I will have no qualms in looking for a male HRT to make me feel young again, as if it's improving my life why should I not - not only at I believe it will become more common place for people to do the same.

How does an 18 year old kid (or possibly younger) know how to get an advanced, under the counter PED like EPO?  This is not a lone wolf story and the apology letter would have far more credence if it blew the gaff on the network ('cos there had to be one) that groomed and supplied him leading him to his fall.

Shocking story and deeply depressing.  I've been out on the road with some of these Catford CC guys and they are populated by young-gun, take no prisoner types so this is no surprise.  Great competitive edge but you have to know where the line is and this is a worry that they (and no doubt others) don't.

One piece of advice I would give all these young guys is to sit down and write the apology letter for destroying their potential careers, reputation, friendships and lives BEFORE they set out on their journey and each time they bitterly lose or are given the 'offer of a lifetime' they need to pull it out and think again.

Is it so easy for an 18 year old to get?  I can't imagine he was yet making appreciable money from cycling.  Did he get it legally and for free on the nation health?  Was he getting advice on how to microdose like a pro?

That American amatuer cat3/cat2 middle aged rider Matthew Beaudin  was spending $1000 a month on EPO.  

I remember being 16. I was a f**king idiot.

Did I do dumb things that got me into trouble? yes.

Did I get busted for them? Of course I did. As explained, I was an idiot.

Did I get a second chance? Yes I did.

Am I in any position to condemn another 16 year old idiot? No I'm not.

There are some hard comments on here. 

davel wrote:

bradleyjnelson wrote:

the person who informed him, who helped him and encouraged this is the one who should have the lifetime ban and be hung out to dry. Not the youngster who in reality, was probably chasing a dream and acting on the 'advice' of someone else. 

I think painting the shadowy figures lurking in the background as the real villains, and the riders as stooges or pawns, is as simplistic as blaming solely the rider. If the scourge is to be removed everyone involved needs to be treated with zero tolerance.

I agree completely. He was caught by a teammate's dad, when he took the drugs on a trip with his teammate's family to France. That's quite bold. From where I'm sitting it sounds to me like this kid was the true bad apple in this particular barrel.  

Sure, there is a cultural context to PEDs in sport, and these are issues that cycling in particular needs to keep working at. But that doesn't excuse this. If you want to rationalize your particular worldview that given your all kids are inherently good and are corrupted by the evils of society, well that's your prerogative, everyone is entitled to their beliefs. Or maybe your experiences (you seem to have looked into the darker corners of the sport) point you to believe there is actually a budding Ferrari abusing Chelsea and Kensington kids into EPO. If you've seen anything of the sort I hope you've shared it; if not I'm sure you'll actually find a lot of support and a lot less criticism than you fear. But looking at the facts as presented here, nothing suggests that. Even given cycling's checkered history I can't recall an instance of club-sponsored doping at this level (East Germany, maybe?).

What the facts do suggest is that one kid saw a unethical path to his goals and decided to take it, consequences be damned. He seems to have gotten his due. I can only hope it helps him find a way to straighten himself out.

I'm disapointed with the views of the majority on this comment thread. 

As a start, I 100% the seriousness of what Gabriel Evans has done in taking performance enhancing drugs and should 100% have a ban for doing so, as UKAD have enforced. Just to put my stance on that, I dont think it should be reduced for 'helping' out others, not by 2 years anyway. If you do the crime, you very much have to do the crime. 

BUT, As I earlier mentioned, I feel the way that people have spoken about the individual in question is disapointing. I have raced both domestically and abroad, across various disciplines and I'm sure I'm just repeating what everyone already knows - our sport is not clean. 

I am not a million years older than Gabriel and I'd like to paint a picture for you, as I also feel that it was not solely his doing in this story. 

You're 17 years old and have a string of good results under your belt. You have potential to go places in the sport and are working with a coach, riding for a well established and well respected team and have ambitions of making it as a professional - have made the sacrifices to the other aspects of life that a normal 17 or 18 year old would do... trust me, you can not live the life of a normal teenager if you are trying to make it in our sport.

The story continues... Either your coach, your parents, your team manager or perhaps the team manager of another team, a slightly bigger, more prestigeous team contacts you and offers you a ride for the coming year. You commit more hours, train longer, train harder and dedicate everything to the situation only to be told that you're not quite where they'd hoped and  if you are going to make it on the team and at the top level, you need 'help'. 

Now, you're a 17 year old, you've dreamed of making it in cycling and you've given up huge amounts to get to have that opportunity and then someone who is seemingly in a position of knowledge and power gives you an ultimatum on your dreams. Now, I'm not saying what Gabriel has done should be excused. But what I am saying is, if this is how the story panned out, it takes a very strong willed youngster to take that situation and walk away when it's what you've been working for, for so long. When someone tells you that you're not good enough and that the only way you'll ever be good enough is to dope, it may seem for many that theres an obvious answer to this - but I dont care how moralistic everyone on this thread appears to be, that is not an easy call for any youngster to make. If you don't believe that this happens and teams and coaches don't do this - you are very wrong. 

Gabriel should be banned, he is banned, he will serve his ban and then spend the rest of his cycing career with a black mark against his name whether thats in racing or in the community. He has his punishment. That is where it should stop. 

The work should be put in place to find the route cause to why this has happened. I do not believe he made this choice alone and the person who informed him, who helped him and encouraged this is the one who should have the lifetime ban and be hung out to dry. Not the youngster who in reality, was probably chasing a dream and acting on the 'advice' of someone else. 

I have no sympathy for him at all. He cheated and he knew what he was doing was wrong. Its as simple as that.

A sad tale but i'd be surprised if there wasn't more to it than the statement put out. I sincerely doubt that of his own sole initiative he decided to "tool up" on epogen and no one else was involved. Whoever it was, they are the root cause of a young man making a bad decision. It's all well and good his club and all others kicking him out and pulling down the shutters but I'd want to be 100% sure that he really was a lone wolf so to speak. Somewhere along the line, culturally things have gone badly wrong and there will be no change until those who facilitate, turn a blind eye or impicitly endorse doping are well away from sport.
That said, the teammate's Father deserves huge credit for turning him in.

It somehow seems a little worse to me that a young man would consider and take EPO over a more seasoned rider.

A very sad episode when a talented teenager feels compelled to dope.Yes, he is responsible for injecting epo, but where does his motivation come from to do so?

I used to live over the road from him. At least now I don't feel so bad about being routinely humiliated on Strava by my 16 year old drug taking neighbour.

Without wanting to suggest this young man isn’t fully responsible for his own poor choices, I can’t shrug off the idea that someone considerably older and nominally wiser is currently sloping off stage left, whistling innocently while the kick-a-man-down queue forms behind him. Unless, at 18 years of age, Evans is already a practiced hand in the workplace art of written damage limitation masquerading as I-fessed-up-the-moment-you-cold-busted-me contrition, then the fulsome admissions of “his” statement must surely be the product of the same cynical mind that helped him rationalise the decision to opt to cheat in the first place. Then rationalise the decision to acquire the means of cheating. And then rationalise the decision to go through with the act of cheating. Or, in other words, there’s no way this lad wrote his post without significant adult help, same as there’s no way he arrived at the point of needing to do so without the same kind of assistance.

Undoubtedly, he did a considered and calculatedly bad thing for entirely bad motives and needs to face up to all the bad things coming his way in return, but if he’s really smart he’ll out whichever disingenuous trust-abuser it was who facilitated and enabled him into this mess in the first place, because right now that person is leaving him hung out to dry like so much grubby laundry. God forbid it should be a relative …

Like KiwiMike, I’ve no (real or imagined) vested interest in commenting on this story for the good of cycle sport or whatever other supposedly-worthy vehicle I can quickly hitch my opinionated wagon to, but it’s the age of the protagonist in this instance that makes me bothered enough to write in public. My eldest son is 18, and like me at the same age (ahem) he’s a bright and kind lad who’s a continual inch away from becoming a venal conniving twat the moment someone in a position of blind-eyed influence suggests it’s fine to be a venal conniving twat to get what you want. For sure, Gabriel Evans made a huge huge mistake and has earned the opprobrium being visited upon him as a result, but you know he didn’t earn it alone, and anyone thinking about giving him short shrift should give equal consideration to whoever it was that anonymously ushered him down the path of transgression in the first place, because they’d have been happy enough to bask openly in reflected glory if he’d got away with it. See that stone in your hand … where best to throw it, eh?

Either way, it’ a crying shame. Why on the very Earth is a boy taking dope, just to best the other boys? What a sorry state …

Here he is talking about his winter miles

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9YMcG86pnFg

He is an adult, who cycles competitively and has done for long enough to know the rules. He hunts out illegal performance enhancing drugs to give himself something he felt he was lacking in himself, because he wanted to and he could. He uses these drugs, he gets caught, he cries.

To me it is irrelevant how long he may have used them for, or how contrite he says he is now. He has proved he has the mindset that he can do things that aren't allowed, because he wants to, and it's quicker and easier than doing it the right way.

Of course he should be allowed to cycle again, it's good for him if he stays off the drugs.

He will no doubt have sympathy with any car driver that knocks him off, because he is holding the car up and the driver is late for an important appointment.

He will understand why the "doctor" who treats him makes him worse, because the "doctor" cheated and got someone else to do the exams, because they didn't want to do the necessary hard work themselves. He will also understand why his accountant wasn't actually as honest as he looked and ran off with his money, because stealing it is always easier than making it yourself.

He will of course understand all this because he will recognise that, just like himself, some people think they don't need to follow rules that are there for the good of everyone. He may feel these aren't all directly comparable, but that's just a matter of degree, they are all morally wrong, they may not all be illegal.

Hopefully he will also understand why I feel he should never be allowed to compete in sport again. Of course he can participate, he should be allowed to enjoy everything there is good in sport, apart from one particular detail. He shouldn't be allowed to be recognised in any results.

I am sorry for him, he has spoiled things for himself by his own choices. His value to sport now though is as an example of how you can throw everything away by making selfish and immoral choices.

2 things

He used 'going forward'

He used banned drugs

Throw both ukada and business bullshit books at him...big heavy books

So a week after his initial purchase of EPO he gets caught with one of the few vials of it he's ever owned? Maybe, and maybe cycling fans are too cynical these days...

...or maybe that is actually as unlikely as it sounds.

Either way, it presents a sad image of how far PED use has filtered.

I agree with Welsh Boy....., but I cannot help but notice how honest the apology letter seems.  It just highlighted to me how every other professional athlete's public apology appears like window dressing.

I have hope for this young man - that he might learn from his sins......, unlike the majority of others.

Unlike Mike, I blame the rider.  I have no sympathy with any rider who choses to buy drugs and inject them into their body.  That is not an accident, that is a concious decision to cheat and defraud other riders of what is rightfully theirs.  The only answer is a lift time ban from the sport.  I have some sympathy with people who get caught out for things like buying an over the counter asthma medicine in a foreign country which has a slightly different prescription from the one they use back home, that could be a mistake but sticking a needle into your bloodstream can never be anything but a considered decision by an individual regardless of the pressure put on them by parents, coaches or sponsors.

Look, I've never raced seriously all my life.

I've never had to consider the ramifications of not pinning the number 13 upside-down.

I watched Le Tour for years, but never, ever, stood on Dutch Corner.

And as for London Dynamo, I heard of them. Today.

Time-trialling is a foreign planet to me, as I don't live there.

Wnhat I'm trying to say is that I have an opinion.

And the UCI had better come down hard on themselves like a ton of brickbats because someone else is going to. I blame them. The UCI. And the parents.

Sponsors demand I buy their stuff, so I don't feel anything but utter apathy for this young man.

That's my opinion, and anyone who disagrees is likely to not agree with the many who side with me.

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