The UCI focuses on Tapentadol, "It is ten times more potent than Tramadol"

Opioids to combat the pain derived from increasingly intense training and competitions continue to be present in the peloton with the problem that this entails. After managing to put a stop to the use of Tramadol, attention is now focused on Tapentadol, the new trendy substance whose effects are even more potent than those of Tramadol.

The abuse of opioid analgesics remains a problem in the peloton

Both the UCI and the Movement for Credible Cycling have been monitoring the use of Tapentadol, an opioid analgesic whose effects are much more intense than those of the famous Tramadol, since the beginning of the year, as revealed by the Swiss newspaper Les Temps.

Tapentadol is a powerful analgesic, located at the highest level of this type of substances by the WHO, on par with substances like Fentanyl or Methadone, and of which the UCI has strong suspicions that it is being used in the peloton, as indicated by the fact that, at the end of 2023, it requested that WADA include Tapentadol in the monitoring program of the highest anti-doping body, a preliminary step before declaring a ban.

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A few weeks ago, on May 29, the UCI issued a statement warning representatives of cyclists, teams, and organizers during a meeting of the Professional Cycling Council about the risks of using a substance that would be being used as a substitute for the banned Tramadol and that has an effect ten times stronger than this. In addition to mitigating the pain derived from intense training and competitions, these analgesics would increase the fatigue threshold.

Let's remember that Tramadol was unilaterally banned in cycling competitions by the UCI due to its effects being blamed for the increase in falls in competition and the risk of addiction that the use of powerful opioid analgesics entails, something that Tapentadol, obviously, would not be exempt from either.

The MPCC was the first to react, asking the UCI for an immediate ban on this medication, which in the field of medicine is usually used as an analgesic for patients with bone cancer. The president of the MPCC, Roger Legeay, indicated that they have asked the UCI to send a letter to team doctors advising against its use and hopes that this time the process will be faster "It took us twelve years to achieve the ban on Tramadol."