Danish Heroes V - Bjarne Riis

1899, northern France, a countryside restaurant near Cherbourg: After a carousal the sportswriters Henri Desgrange and Géo Lefèvre mounted their high wheel bicycles and awoke 24 hours later with a bad hangover and a total blackout in the vicinity of Marseille. Thus it is said the Tour de France was born.

There certainly is a grain of truth in the story: Ever since the start in 1903 "Le Tour" has proofed to be an amazing human laboratory as well as a stage for charming tricksters.
The only Scandinavian ever winning the Tour de France in a daring medical self experiment (using EPO, cortisone and a cocktail of growth hormones) was Bjarne Riis, the so-called "Eagle from Herning", in 1996. He confessed tearfully in 2007 - and since the statute of limitation for doping fraud is 8 years, he still is listed amongst the official winners and currently contributing with his invaluable experiences as team manager of the Danish team "Saxo Bank".

Bjarne Riis. Portrait Drawing: Pencil, ink on A3 110g drawing paper.

Riis is in good company anyway. During the early days of the Tour the riders were consuming vast quantities of alcohol and inhaling ether, they were using strychnine, chloroform, cocaine to fight the pain. Others tried to win sober: In 1904 the whole leading quartet was disqualified due to usage of unfair means, riders were taking cars and trains in order to outdistance their opponents, nails were spread on the roads and even physical assaults occurred.

Later the chemical industry took over with amphetamines, steroids, cortisone, growth hormones, testosterone and EPO - initiating the era of blood doping. Because of EPO a haematocrit limit of 50 per cent in the riders blood was set - among riders Bjarne Riis was known as "Mr. 60 per cent".

Obviously the Tour de France exists not in spite of doping, but because. A possible solution would be considering doping an athletic discipline itself rather than fraud. Common ground for both, professional sports and doping, is in the end the athlete putting his body at stake. As long as media and audience are taking superhuman performances during the "Tour de France" or in 100 meter sprint for granted, unnatural means and experiments should be appreciated as well. The All New All Different X-Men, or: No dope, no hope.