"Man who stand on toilet high on pot"
--ancient Chinese proverb

2002 Grand Prix Cycliste De Beauce

UCI 2.3

7 Days

8 Stages

650 miles – 1030 kilometers

72 finishers

Without going into too much detail, the Grand Prix De Beauce based in St. Georges Quebec is one of the most underrated and hardest races in all of North America. I can sum up the racing by saying that I managed to come away from it with 3 personal records. This is impressive considering that I race over 80 times per year!

New max speed: 65mph (103k)

New max Heart Rate: 205

New max miles for a week: 650 (1030k)

After our soigneur Stephanie and I picked up our teammates Clark Sheehan and Greg Henderson from the airport in Boston, Mass., we were on the road to Canada. We were having a good time stopping at some of the more eclectic tee-shirt shops that Maine has to offer and keeping our eyes peeled for moose (Clark spotted the only one of the trip). My allergies started acting up due mainly to the super lush vegetation that I do not encounter in Colorado’s dry climate, so, I popped an allergy tablet that I got from my mother while visiting with her the week prior and I was good to go.

Greg then asked me what kind of pills they were; I casually threw him the box and he read the ingredients out loud. His eyes got as large as saucers when he read that there was Pseudo Ephedrine in them….. "Mate, there is 120mg of Pseudoephedrine in those pills!"…My jaw hit the floor; that is a banned substance in cycling and since it was a UCI race there was going to be testing. "Oh crap, what should I do??"

I immediately called my mum and accused her of being a drug dealer and then I called my team manager to ask for advice; neither was much help. I was sweating bullets and the guys in the van were not making the situation any better. Clark & Greg were talking about how I was going to get fired from the team and that I would also get banned from the USCF, UCI and labeled as a doper for the rest of my life. If I did get tested who would ever believe that it was truly a mistake and completely unintentional?

I could already read the headlines and picture the evil looks and finger points I would be getting from the rest of the peloton. Don’t forget that this all was taking place within a span of about 3 minutes. What could I do?…Then it hit me like a ton of bricks…

I looked at Steph who was driving and said, "PULL OVER!" Yep, right there on the side of the road, in the middle of Maine, I was hunched over next to the team van sticking my whole arm down my throat. It was one of the gnarliest things I have ever done! Everyone in the van was somewhere in between hysteria and disgust and not being much help except by offering me assorted objects in the van to help me purge my system of the over-the-counter drugs.

Needless to say, three days later atop of Mt. Megantic, where we finished one of the stages, I was called for drug testing. It was Murphy’s Law in all of its glory! Thankfully I was able to march to dope control with my head held high knowing that I would survive without being labeled a druggie.

Thanks for reading!

Chuck
Team 7Up