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SALT LAKE CITY — The nation is still buzzing with the blockbuster report about a generation of the nation's top cyclists using performance-enhancing drugs to get ahead.
Many have speculated why Lance Armstrong and several of his teammates engaged in the dope scandal. According to those riders' testimony, it's pressure to dope to compete at the top levels. And the athletes also said that there was pressure to keep quiet, sometimes applied directly by Lance Armstrong himself.
The report, from the U.S. anti-doping agency is 1,000 pages. Eleven team members, including two riders with Utah ties, David Zabriskie and Levi Leipheimer, broke the code of silence, testifying against Armstrong, also admitting they doped.
Utahn Max Testa is the chief medical officer for the BMC Cycling Team, and he's worked with cyclists like Lipheimer and George Hincapie.
"Unfortunately, the impression of a lot of people was that phenomena was so widespread that you were just putting yourself at the same starting line as other people," Testa said.
In a sworn affadavit, Zabriskie told investigators he'd asked team leaders, "Was it safe? Would I be able to have children? Would it cause any physical changes?" He says team coach Johan Bruyneel told him, 'Everyone is doing it.'"
Knowing them, I can tell you that these are people, if they did something wrong, they did it under kind of unusual circumstances. Feeling maybe pressure of the environment or whatever. These are good people, good guys.
–Max Testa
Documents show Leipheimer said, "By 1999, I believed to be successful in pro cycling it was necessary to use performance enhancing drugs."
Later, after Leipheimer testifies to a grand jury, he says Armstrong was cold at a dinner both attended and sent a text to his wife, saying "run, don't walk," what she felt was a "threatening" message.
Testa says the pressure in the sport was intense.
"Knowing them, I can tell you that these are people, if they did something wrong, they did it under kind of unusual circumstances," Testa said. "Feeling maybe pressure of the environment or whatever. These are good people, good guys."
Many top Utah riders say they're ready to move on from this. One, who declined to be interview, says he thinks the sport has learned, is cleaning up and moving on.
