War On Wheels
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday August 18, 1998
In a debilitating atmosphere of allegations and anger, the Australian cycling team is trying to focus. GEOFF KITNEY reports from Beuttgen, Germany.
THE setting could hardly be more idyllic- the rich green and golden German coun- tryside outside and the flashing green and gold of Australian sporting excellence inside. It is an environment which could be just days away from producing a new chapter in Australian sports fame.
But there is a tension and a chill in the air inside the Beuttgen indoor velodrome which hits you when you walk in from the welcoming warmth of this friendly rural scene. The atmosphere speaks of more than a team of elite athletes nervously counting down the final days to a world championships.
Conflict is in the air. Even after a truce and a collective effort to refocus on the main task - re-establishing Australia's reputation as an outstanding power in world track cycling at the world championships in France in 10 days' time - you can sense that not all is well.
At the centre of this picture stands Charlie Walsh, coach extraordinaire.
He is at the side of the track, stopwatch in hand, miniature computer printer in a pouch on his hip. As rider after rider hurtles past him, straining and sucking, he moves a few paces one way, a few the other, watch clicking and printer whirring.
Then, into the picture comes Lucy Tyler-Sharman. The atmosphere almost crackles with suspense. While her husband Graeme steadies her, Walsh counts backwards from five and on zero Tyler-Sharman hits the track as though she hates it, a violent explosion of power and determination.
For about 3 minutes the only sound is the rushing noise of rubber on wood, punctuated by her breathing as she puffs and blows like a steam engine. The 20 or so people present watch transfixed.
It is just a trial, a last big hit-out before the world titles in Bordeaux, but Tyler-Sharman travels at near world-record pace. As she strains for one final rush at the line and then slumps onto the handlebars, Walsh looks at his watch and makes some notes. They do not speak.
Walsh later praises the ride: "I think she's in the top two in the world and she's done all the ground work to be a very good chance in Bordeaux."
Walsh refuses to comment on their relationship but does say that he does not believe what has happened between them will seriously affect Tyler-Sharman's hopes of winning world championship gold.
But what of the others? What will be the effect on the rest of the team of the highly public falling out between the coach and one of the squad's leading female riders? How will the team, which includes a bigger than usual proportion of promising youngsters, cope with the distraction of a senior team member calling for the sacking of the team coach, walking out of the squad with two other riders and returning as new, anonymous allegations are made about drug taking, sexual harassment and disloyalty?
Shane Kelly, triple world champion with his sights set on a history-making fourth successive title at Bordeaux, is, at 26, the unofficial team leader. At a meeting of the squad a few days ago called to discuss the crisis over Walsh's coaching methods, and attended by Tyler-Sharman and her husband, Kelly said anyone who was not totally committed to the team's success should "f - - - off now".
No-one left the meeting. K ELLY said after the final track endurance trials on Friday that he believed the team had weathered the storm and was focusing on Bordeaux.
"I think in some ways this has made us more determined," he said. "I think we are in better shape than we were before the worlds in Perth last year."
Perth last year is a big part of the story of the upheaval in the team. Perth was a dismal failure for Australian cycling. Great expectations were not met and criticism was intense. Those gunning for Walsh found a ready source of new ammunition.
While excuses at the time seemed trite, team officials insist the problem was illness. A viral infection swept through the squad on the eve of the championships, significantly affecting performance levels.
But because Perth was such a disappointment, and Bordeaux the next chance to atone for it, the pressure on the squad has been intense.
Walsh, a ferocious taskmaster, has been driving the team harder than ever - and not just the riders. He also demanded that the support staff examine ways of avoiding the health problems that debilitated the team in Perth. What he wanted was something to help overcome a problem which plagues high-performance athletes as they come off their training peaks and begin tapering - dramatically reduced resistence to infection. What they came up with was colostrum.
Using research done in Russia and Finland, the Northfield chemical laboratories in Adelaide began testing the effects on athletes of dosages of colostrum extracted from cows' milk, in particular the secretions from the udder just before milk begins to flow which are high in immunoglobulins and proteins, ideal for building resistance to infection.
This drug is not considered performance enhancing, even though it also contains a growth hormone called IGF-1 which, in concentrated form, is banned.
Members of the Australian team have been using the colostrum extract since early this year and officials believe it has improved resistance to infection.
"Our general impression in Mexico earlier this year, and in Europe, is that there has been less illness," team doctor Peter Barnes said at Beuttgen.
Barnes ordered a supply of the drug to be delivered to the team camp in Beuttgen and it is this material which appears to be the subject of anonymous allegations that Walsh bought and distributed a large quantity of drugs containing IGF-1 at a cost of $16,000.
"We purchased the drug through the program. I ordered it, not Charlie," Barnes said.
Asked about the allegations against Walsh, Barnes said: "Well, there is a long queue trying to get at Charlie."
Although team management insists that the colostrum-based substance is perfectly safe and legal for athletes to use, there has been some disquiet in the team about it, particularly following the drugs scandal in this year's Tour de France.
Some team members were concerned that the use of the drug had coincided with an increased level of drug-testing for riders.
Tyler-Sharman, said to be a health fanatic, was particularly concerned. According to other team members, she believed the amounts of blood she was being required to give were endangering her health and her performance.
Team sources say that the trigger for her blow-up with Walsh was when she refused to take a blood test about a month ago. Walsh indicated that riders who did not agree to testing would jeopardise their places in the team.
But Tyler-Sharman's dramatic break with Walsh must go deeper than concern about the frequency of blood-testing, and members of the Australian squad concede that there are quite fundamental structural and methodological questions about cycling which have to be dealt with. And they agree a lot of these questions come back to Walsh and his methods.
Walsh and his internal critics have agreed to a truce to put aside their differences and allow the team to concentrate on the world championships. The problems will be addressed as part of a comprehensive review of cycling to begin next month.
Riders interviewed in Beuttgen all said they had been only slightly distracted by the controversy over Walsh's leadership and were optimistic about their prospects for Bordeaux. Tyler-Sharman, who rejoined the squad in Beuttgen last week after being allowed to train in the United States following the falling out with Walsh, also appears to have set aside her concerns to focus on Bordeaux.
At Friday's training session, she was the first to arrive and the last to leave, remaining behind to practise her explosive starts. She declined to be interviewed, saying only through a team official that she wanted to concentrate totally on her preparation for the world titles.
You had the feeling, though, that a lot hinges on how well she does; in fact, how well the team does. Success in Bordeaux would be a better medicine for the Australian cycling team than any amount of colostrum.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald
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