When analyzing the performance-physiological characteristics of the winners of this year’s ÖRM (Ötztaler Cycling Marathon), one cannot help but critically question these performances given the strange dimensions revealed. Particularly in the context of the well-known mentality of the ambitious popular sports scene (so-called “everyman”) regarding the application of various ergogenic and synthetic substance cocktails to manipulate individual human physiological capacities, which has been documented in numerous studies. Relevant studies on related running events [1] or the adequate clientele in the numerous fitness studios [2] prove the high willingness to manipulate without regard to harmful health consequences. This behavior in itself has schizophrenic traits, since the practice of popular sports should primarily serve to promote health. So it is not surprising that in the rare spot checks in the Everyman cycling marathon scene, also known as Gran Fondo events in Italian-speaking countries, candidates with positive doping results are regularly noticed. And this is particularly true to the Rhinesh motto “as more old, as more crazy”. The fearsome profile of the ÖRM, also known as the Everyman World Championship, also offers a sufficient basis for the use of “supporting resources”, the distance (depending on the route between 227-238km) and the topographical character (over four Alpine passes with 5500m altitude, [3] ) command a lot of respect even from experienced cyclists. For most ordinary mortals, the ÖRM represents a limitless challenge in every respect, in which the focus is usually on arriving and surviving.
A small selection of case studies is intended to show below that the working hypothesis formulated at the beginning is by no means an undifferentiated general suspicion but rather a verifiable criticism. For example, there is Ersilio Fantini, who on June 2nd, 2008, at the Gran Fondo Alta Valle del Tevere, received a two-year ban until September 5th, 2010 because of EPO doping. However, the delinquent learned nothing from this. In 2020 and 2024, now aged 57, he tested positive for the third time and was finally taken out of circulation [4]. And the Radamazons are not a bit better, as the example of Tania Campelli on May 24, 2009 at the Gran Fondo Nove Colli shows. She also received a two-year ban until August 12, 2011 because of the improper use of amphetamine. In 2023, at the age of 44, she tested positive again [5]. The fact that these are by no means isolated cases can be proven with numerous statistics and specialist articles [6]. From motor doping to the well-known high-tech pharmaceuticals from the professional sports sector, the entire arsenal of manipulation is used, mind you by every athlete, mostly of advanced age, at leisure events. A recently published film documentary by the BR shows that the trend towards the use of unfair substances to improve performance in hobby competitions has now really manifested itself [7]. The example of an amateur cycling race in Spain, in which 130 participants suddenly leave the race early because it was announced during the competition that doping controls would take place in the finish area, also has something of an unintentional humor about the situation [8].
To make matters worse, the ÖRM doping history offers further grounds for justified criticism of the performance of the top-ranked athletes. In 2002, the first EPO doper was convicted in Germany, Holger Sievers [9], and in 1996 he was the winner of the ÖRM [10]. Curiously, of all people, this person with a criminal record runs a cycling academy with its own Gran Fondo team [11]! The ÖRM series winner from 2006, 2007 and 2009, Negrini, was caught at the Gran Fondo Sportful in Feltre in 2009 and was neutralized from then on [12]. The ÖRM women’s series winner (2009-2012) Edith Vanden Brande also delivers a positive doping test [13]. In 2014 the series continued with second place Emanuel Nösig [14], and in 2015 the double winner Roberto Cunico added to the dubious positive gallery [15]. Boris Odendahl has processed the crazy performance of 48-year-old Bernd Hornetz as ÖRM winner in 2016 in an excellently analytical article (“Mutants in the Ötztal”), to which there is nothing to add [16].
