February 16, 2009
Aussie World gold Master caught out
The psychology of the young and the tempted is one thing, what of the should-know-better Master? Well it’s more complicated than most people will say, isn’t it? It’s not simply cheating, although when rules exist and you break those rules it’s certainly cheating. Is it to get advantage over others, a power game? Or to recover more quickly from injury? (Especially as you age – I wish my left Achilles would stop flaring up, for example!) Perhaps it adds to the excitement, the risk… it is all a game, after all.
Anyway, there’s a discussion here and a local newspaper report on the rider, Andrew Burne, here. Apparently he quit Rugby Union because of repeating injuries… and anabolic steroids are a good, well-proven way back from body-contact injury as well as a useful way to increase muscular strength. It would be interesting to have a longitudinal view of Andrew Burne’s apparent doping – is it cycling-related or a hangover from earlier sports?
There’s a reference to Andrew winning the Fatman’s Wheelrace in 2007, here. He weighed an impressive (for a sprinter, I guess) 112kg at the time.. man mountain indeed!

Comments
September 22, 2011
upDave said:
I was beaten into the 2nd place by this freak at the Aussie titles in 2007. He wasn't very subtle. Acromegaly of the face and jaw, massive hands, no cycling back ground and a very impressive time. Yes, I'm still bitter about it. I was robbed!