Dmitriy Gaag of Kazakhstan – dopers suck!.
This was recently released by the ITU:
ITU has imposed a two-year ban on Dmitriy Gaag (KAZ) after committing an anti-doping rule violation in an out-of-competition doping control test in Des Moines, United States on June 20, 2008…Gaag’s anti-doping rule violation was a result of an adverse analytical finding of recombinant erythropoietin (EPO), a substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List.
So, on the one hand it sucks to think that people I race against are doping (although Gaag is not a huge surprise). It’s hard to say how common or uncommon this is in triathlon and I think it is best to just not think about it.
However, since Gaag was suspended on June 20th, all of his results from June 20th on have been revoked. This means I stand to move up to 15th place at the Tiszaujvaros World Cup from July, which should make me a quick $250 as 15th is the last person to get a paycheck!