Jepchirchir Doping Ban and the Marathon's Credibility Crisis / Andreas Almgren’s New York City Marathon Debut / Is the 2027 Tour de France Route Anti-Pogačar?

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Show notes

This week, Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir is provisionally suspended for EPO, and we ask what Kenya’s doping problem means for trust in marathon running, before previewing Andreas Almgren’s New York debut:

• (00:00:56) Peres Jepchirchir, perhaps the most decorated marathon athlete ever caught doping, tested positive for EPO out of competition in July, a month before winning Sydney. We discuss EPO and the biological passport, why Kenyan doping looks so rudimentary, and her agent's reaction
• (00:09:47) Should Kenya lose the 2029 World Championships, or be banned outright? Ross explains why punishing the federation flips the incentive and will just cause the problem to be ignored and hidden. Gareth finds that India and Italy have more violations in WADA’s figures, and we look at a 2027 WADA Code rule that triggers automatic investigation of support personnel
• (00:33:49) The 2027 Tour de France route, with two time trials and the mountains pushed late, is being called “anti-Pogačar”. Ross does the per-kilometer arithmetic on Remco Evenepoel's TT gains, and reckons it only delays the inevitable
• (00:45:07) Andreas Almgren makes his marathon debut in New York. Why pace calculators can’t account for a course with only 22 times under the top 1000 threshold, why heat training may suit him better than altitude, and whether he can end a run of 54 straight Major wins by African-born runners
• (00:59:32) And finally, the most extraordinary marathon career in history, Yuki Kawauchi’s 118 marathons (with a PB in his 97th). Plus, a drone stops an Arsenal match, and can anybody really pedal across the English Channel at 400 watts?

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