Bike racing hurts, and many athletes in cycling (and endurance sports at large) use painkillers to take the edge off. The synthetic opioid Tramadol, for instance, is currently allowed at the sport’s professional levels—despite objections that it gives riders an unfair competitive edge and, furthermore, puts them at risk for addiction and various health problems.

The UCI, pro cycling’s governing body, has for years lobbied the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to add Tramadol to its list of banned substances. Rampant off-label use, the argument goes, has been a problem in the peloton, weighting races in favor of riders who abuse the drug in order to win. Tramadol use, critics say, is simply too widespread and dangerous to ignore.

New data from WADA itself seems to bear this out. The agency added Tramadol to its Monitored List, which tracks non-banned substances for potential abuse, in 2012. Last week, WADA released its Monitoring Program report for 2017, which found that cycling does indeed have a painkiller problem.

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Pro riders, according to the data, still use the drug at a grater rate than any other endurance athletes, with 4.4 percent of samples testing positive last year. By comparison, a mere 0.2 percent of triathletes tested positive for the painkiller in the same time period.

Bear in mind that Tramadol use in cycling has declined a bit since 2015, when nearly 6 percent of doping controls tested positive. But the sport remains an obvious standout, and calls for banning the drug will likely continue if the numbers fail to decline further.

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Cyclists also rank higher than other endurance sports for in-competition use of glucocorticoids, steroids that quell inflammation, with 3.8 percent of samples testing positive compared to just shy of 1 percent among triathletes. Both cyclists and triathletes tested about the same, 4.4 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, for out-of-competition glucocorticoid use.

Traditional ball and power sports, meanwhile, tested just as high or higher than cycling for Tramadol use. Basketball led the way with 8 percent positive samples, followed volleyball at 3.7 percent, power lifting and golf at 1.7 percent, and rugby and baseball at 1.4 percent.

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​Selene Yeager
“The Fit Chick”
Selene Yeager is a top-selling professional health and fitness writer who lives what she writes as a NASM certified personal trainer, USA Cycling certified coach, Pn1 certified nutrition coach, pro licensed off road racer, and All-American Ironman triathlete.