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Purple smoothie (CC licensed by Cascadian Farm via Flickr).jpg"Wife spiked my smoothie" claimed 60-year-old time trial rider banned for doping
A 60-year-old man who tested positive for three banned substances after a time trial in Staffordshire in May claimed that his smoothie had been ‘spiked’ by his wife with a batch of supplements in the lead-up to the race. The Panel did not accept this explanation and he has been banned for four years.
Stephen Costello, a member of Abbotsford Park Road Cycling Club, completed the Stone Wheelers 25-mile time trial in 59m21s, finishing in 95th place.
Afterwards, he tested positive for 1.3-dimethylbutylamine, ostarine and both the sulfone and sulfoxide oxidation/metabolic products of GW1516.
"It was a friend's bike ..." – here's 5 more of cycling's top excuses
In an emailed response to the charge, Costello included a witness statement from his wife and said that he had consumed a drink, or drinks, prepared by her into which, without his knowledge, she had added a number of supplements – GW Stamina, Ostacize, T9 Diet Aid and L-Carnitine.
He said he had “moaned” to his wife about his weight over a long period, but when they had discussed the use of weight loss supplements in the past, he had been clear that he did not think they worked and were a waste of money.
Costello’s wife works in Liverpool and always gets up before him, making herself a smoothie and she had started to leave him some too. He said as far as he was aware, it contained vegetables, fruit and ice.
However, unbeknown to him, she had supposedly been adding supplements too. Costello said he had never seen them as she kept them in her sports bag and took them with her to work every day. At the weekends, the bag was in her bedroom cupboard.
The claim was that Mrs Costello had decided to add the supplements to her husband’s smoothie, without informing him, roughly a week or so before he was tested.
According to the Final Decision: “She thought she was helping him, as he was complaining about his weight and how it was holding him back on hill climbs. She thought that if his weight reduced, she could say “I told you so” regarding the use of supplements.”
UK Anti-Doping stated that Costello ought to have been, “alive to the possibility, if he did not know in fact, that [his wife] was adding supplements to her own smoothies,” and so “drinking the remnant of a smoothie which his wife had prepared for her own consumption amounted to a manifest disregard of the significant risk that such conduct might result in an [anti-doping rule violation].”
The anti-doping body also suggested that the tribunal be wary of accepting the evidence of someone (Mrs Costello) who was admitting that she was a liar and had deceived her husband.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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18 comments
Johnny - are you sure? There is absolutely definitely only one possible way for a banned substance to be in a human?
Bluebug, the point I'm making with the placing is that it's not as significant a cheat which also suggests the pointlessness of it. He's not done anyone out of prize money, the opportunity to join a squad etc. Yep, I agree with random testing but it would also make sense to test every winner.
25 mile TT - he does under an hour and comes 95th! - I reckon they're all doped up to the eyeballs (unless it was a downhill course with a tailwind)
i thought time trials were required to finish within a realtively small distance of the start, so no tail winds without headwinds.
indeed - the logical conclusion is that this was a pretty high profile TT, which may explain why he got pulled for testing
I'm just wondering why they tested someone who came in 95th ! The anti doping agency concerned must have money to burn.
Somewhere Lance Armstrong is kicking himself, wondering why he didn't think of blaming his various wives and girlfriends.
So I thought this was patently absurd but was shocked to find out just how easily available GW1516 is online. As in, genuinely, utterly shocked. I guess we haven't really moved the needle much since the days of strychnine and brandy.
In any case, he should be grateful that he was caught.
Judgement on here is rife. Totally possible that his missus had no idea that she was doing wrong, that there's even such limits in senior sport or cycling in general. I am relatively new to this as a sport, hadn't a clue that I might have to declare my insulin, inhalers or that the potassium supplements (as I have a deficiency) might get me banned; the other half wouldn't have a clue. As said, he's not even as bad as the Italian guy with the hidden motor even if he did know, his result is crap anyway, he's not taking prize money or anything is he?!
Really? The only thing totally possible here is that he's taken all sorts to get quicker and tried to get off with a pathetic unbelievable excuse. The excuse is worthy of more vitriol than the doping.
I've had a mixture of nasal steriods, pain killers etc in the past, and only because amateurs were being randomly tested and banned in cycling and other sports, did I bother going through all the sports I participate in at some competition level to check I wasn't doping.
It's not the point. Someone who is in their younger who came 95th in theory could end up coming in the top 10 in a few years hence why they randomly test people to stop the culture of drug cheating.
Take a moment to find out how was unable to satisfactorily answer any of the pointed questions he was asked when he was called in front of the disciplinary panel, you would soon see how pathetic his attempted smokescreen was.
I'd like to see the receipts. Are these over the counter/internet weight loss products that she paid for, particularly with feminine targeted promotion. It could actually be true, though he is totally responsible for what goes into his body. A glittering career cut short, what a lost to the sport.
What a nob!
His wife preparing his drinks, total BS, you got caught you muppet!
That's more than credible and finish 95th it's hardly like he was cheating anyone...
There is a bit missing from this compared to the CyclingWeekly version. The drugs in his system aren't actually in the supplements so apparently they were also contaminated.
M'lud. I accept that I tested positive but would like to defend my self by saying I didn't know I was taking something totally unrelated to the case!
I'd love to know who dobbed him in and why (I'm guessing miraculous improvement recently and an interest in doping on the club ride). Can't see anti doping turning up without a tip off.
well, he's 60 with an ftp of around 300 watts, and he's able to put that power down effectively for an hour in TT position - I think that in itself might raise a few eyebrows.
I’m always impressed by the creativity of excuses in cases like this. So credible too!