Interesting to see that WADA have put caffeine on the watch list for 2024 - not prohibited but keeping tabs on them for ‘potential patterns of misuse in sport’.
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Red Bull cancelling sponsorship deals as I type 
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yikes hope no-one tests me between the hours of 8am and 11am
ban incoming
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When it was banned previously youd have needed to down 8 very strong cups of coffee to get close to the limit. Im guessing its to do more with these “Monster” type drinks, some of which have been attributed to deaths in athletes.
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A crap ton of highly suspect Olympic gold medalists floating around, and they start raising an eye at caffeine. FRO.
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Iirc the performance benefit studies have massive doses you can’t feasibly get from drinking coffee. Isn’t it like 25 espressos?
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Coffee makes me shit, if i dont shit i race shit so 1 coffee makes me less shit…
I dont know, ive never done enough caffeine to test it, and the way red bull etc tastes puts me off trying it. Caffeine gels i didnt notice anything special but thats n=1
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A friend and I experimented on our Sports Science degree; yes we might have totally skewed the actual physiological tests we had volunteered for 
Tbh I felt awful overdosing on the stuff; too wired it actually felt bad.
My friend also tried Bicarb to buffer lactate; he took too much and projectile vomited.
Pioneers I tell you 
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I think it’s ~3-6mg/kg for best effect. Think I’ve seen studies going up to 10mg/kg but not that much extra benefit.
One espresso is ~60-80mg I think? Probably very variable on brand/brew, but likely very doable in two large coffees.
The High5 electrolyte tablets are 80mg caffeine out of interest.
Interesting thing about the caffeine research is there’s clearly a large genetic difference in responders and non-responders, with the performance groups not matching what people self-expected
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Better than someone I swam with at least. Ended up taking 100X dose and equivalent of 500 espressos. Months in ICU, but survived. Lucky.
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Maybe the science has moved on, and I can’t remember the studies that evidenced upto 5% performance gain - a couple of coffees doesn’t do that.
But happy to defer to the right honourable gentleman.
Imo it’s similar to the beetroot thing, in that people think eating a couple of beets “will help”. Maybe, maybe not, but ignores the effective dose needed for a significant performance increase.
I agree I think (but haven’t looked today) that 10mg/kg had even better effect, but much higher chance of side effects with only slightly better benefit.
But one confounder especially on the 5% claims would be whether research studies in a lab reflect real world environment, when sympathetic nervous system and motivation is more activated. Along with likely more gut distress on race day to question the value of super high doses
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Agreed.
Like most science, transition to “the real world” and individuals is a whole new level. Mostly the reason I take caffeine in Ironman is that my heart rate gets so low from fatigue during the run leg. But that’s on faith, I cant say that I’ve noticed it’s help from gels, and only feel a boost from one dose of red bull.
Caffeine is one of the most n=1 self study things. Splitting the study results into 3 groups based on different variants of genes for caffeine metabolism rather than just looking at mean values showed one group non-responders had neutral or even worse results
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My experience on both short duration stuff and ultra distance. Caffeine absolutely makes a difference.
But as @Jorgan said. Go get the actual PED cheaters not putting caffeine on the suspect list FFS!
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similar experience here although I’d get a boost from a caffeine gel - I used the SiS ones. felt like someone kicked me up the backside as the effect was that noticeable
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I don’t know whether it’s still a thing, but there was talk of cyclists using “finishing bottles” with crushed tramodol and caffeine tablets in them in the later stages of long races.
The tramodol numbed the pain but tended to make them drowsy, so the caffeine was to stop them falling asleep on their bikes 
Maybe that’s the kind of behaviour that they’re trying to stop?
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Yes, I’d heard of those finishing bottles. Don’t worry about the opioids, focus on coffee 
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Yes still a thing until UCI banned tramadol in 2019, although Quintana tested positive last year.
WADA have added it to their banned list for next year.
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The modern day version of Pot Belge
I was on tramadol when i popped my ACL originally. Wouldnt want to be doing much on that, least of all riding a bike at 30mph handlebar to handlebar
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