Papp in 2006 after the GF Ceriale |
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Joseph Michael Papp |
| Nickname | "JoePa" / "El Leon de Madruga" / "Mr. 58%" / |
| Born | May 25, 1975 Parma, United States |
| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) |
| Weight | 148 lb (67 kg) |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Sprinter |
| Amateur team(s) | |
| US National Team Partizan-Whistle Team Bianchi-Cinghiale La Polar UPMC-ACT Champion Systems |
|
| Professional team(s) | |
| Montgomery-Bell Pittsburgh Power |
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| Infobox last updated on September 5, 2009 |
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Joseph M. Papp (born 25 May 1975) is an American former professional road racing cyclist and U.S. National cycling team member. He holds dual Irish-USA citizenship. From 1994-1996 Papp was a member of the Pittsburgh Power, a professional team in the National Cycle League[1] owned by former Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris, and in 1995 Papp rode as a stagiare with Montgomery-Bell, the team that would evolve into the US Postal Service squad of Lance Armstrong. From 2001-2005, he rode for various incarnations of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center/America's Cycling Team (UPMC-ACT), in addition to Chilean squad La Polar. In 2006 Papp competed for the Italian teams Partizan-Whistle and Team Bianchi-Cinghiale, and Hong Kong-based squad Champion System. He is also a widely-read cycling author, writing extensively about his experiences in the professional peloton, and was a featured diarist for the cycling news website cyclingnews.com.[2] Papp has also written training advice columns, product reviews,[3][4] and route guides for biking in Pittsburgh.[5] His work has appeared online and in print in such publications as VeloNews, Winning Bicycle Racing Illustrated, The Ride Magazine, Bike Culture and Cycling Times.
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Papp began racing in 1989. He competed internationally since 1994 when he first joined the United States National Team. Papp raced across the globe, including in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Chile, Cuba, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Macau, Monaco, Panama, Taiwan, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In 1999, he finished as first American, third overall, at the prestigious Univest GP. He was the 2002 NYC Championship and Superweek Stage Winner. He finished 1st overall at the 2004 Vuelta a Habana del Este and 3rd Overall in the 2002 USCF Criterium Rankings for Elite Men (disqualified from both results due to doping charges). Papp led that same ranking in 2003. Papp He is the only US male to have placed in the top-10 at the UCI Pan American Continental Championships road race, finishing 8th in 1996 and 2004, and 10th in 2005 as a Discretionary Nominee to the United States National Team. As a result of his doping sanction, however, Papp was disqualified from all results he obtained after mid-2001.
Suspension
Papp served a two-year suspension from competitive cycling after returning a urine sample on May 7, 2006, at the International 42nd Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey that was reported by the World Anti-Doping Agency (“WADA”) accredited Turkish Doping Control Center in Ankara, Turkey as positive for metabolites of testosterone or its precursors (6α-OH-androstenedione 6β-OH-androsterone). He was ineligible to compete in sanctioned cycling events from July 31, 2006 through July 31, 2008. According to the terms of his suspension, Papp was "disqualified from all competitive results obtained on and subsequent to July 1, 2001," despite testing positive only in 2006, and after having signed an agreement with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that negated only those results obtained after May 6, 2006. Subsequent to testifying in the Landis Affair, in an interview with Dr. Dawn Richardson which was printed in VeloNews,[6] Papp admitted to an extensive doping regime that included steroids and EPO. He recounted that in his final race of the season for Team Whistle in Italy, what should have been a routine tumble resulting in nothing more than a bruise and road rash instead almost cost him his life. The combination of EPO and blood thinners led to hospitalization with internal bleeding, and he admitted to having an Hct of 58.
Landis Affair
Papp described in detail how synthetic testosterone helped him to recover during multi-day stage races similar to the Tour de France. He was a witness in the USADA arbitration hearing examining Floyd Landis' positive result for testosterone from the 2006 Tour de France. USADA used his testimony to refute earlier claims made by Landis' attorneys that testosterone could not help Landis win the 2006 Tour and that he'd be crazy to use it if he knew he might be tested.[7]
"It's such a false statement that it makes me angry," Papp said. "Why am I here? I'm not getting anything out of being here. I have everything to lose from being here."
Papp rebutted both Landis theories — saying it was easy to stay below the threshold of a positive test with the gel and claiming the gel helped him greatly in recovering between stages. He said it was easy to get away with having allowed amounts of testosterone in his system if he timed it right. After leaving doping control, he could simply go to a private place and discreetly rub the gel into his chest.
During the Landis hearing, Papp acknowledged systematically doping under the guidance of medical professionals in the United States, Europe and Latin America. He admitted to using at various times EPO, HGH, cortisone, insulin, thyroid hormone, anabolic steroids and amphetamines. The testimony, while not fundamental to the arbitration panel's decision to uphold Landis's conviction, contradicted the claims of Landis and his legal team. In an interview published in VeloNews: The Journal of Competitive Cycling.[8] Landis asked interviewer Neal Rogers, "Why did they [USADA] bring in Joe Papp? Who the f--k is that guy?"
Despite such open hostility, Papp and Landis quickly reconciled upon the latter's admission of doping in May 2010, and they actively support each other in the fight against doping in sport.
Leogrande Affair
Papp's exposure to - and knowledge of - doping in cycling was reconfirmed in late-2008 when it was revealed that he provided significant physical evidence, including photos and a hand-written note[9]., in USADA's anti-doping case against Kayle Leogrande. Leogrande was given a two-year suspension, after the panel hearing his case found that Papp's corroborative evidence added weight to the testimony of Suzanne Sonye and Frankie Andreu, while reinforcing Leogrande's own lack of credibility.
Drug Distribution
On February 17, 2010 in United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Papp appeared before the Hon. Gary L. Lancaster, Chief U.S. District Judge, and pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to distribute performance enhancing drugs, specifically HGH and Erythropoietin (EPO).[10] According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary McKeen Houghton, the retail value of transactions brokered by Papp between Shandong Kexing Bioproducts Corp. and over 180 international clients approached $80,000 from September 2006 to September 2007.[11] None of the 187 customers, said to include not just cyclists but swimmers, runners, triathletes, mixed-martial artists and rowers, amongst others, were identified in court, and Houghton, Papp and his attorney, William Ward, declined to comment on terms of the plea agreement, which had been sealed by the court – a measure often taken if a defendant is cooperating with the government in ongoing investigations, but neither Ward nor Houghton would say if that was the case.[12] Papp was sentenced to three years probation on 21 October 2011.[13]
In the aftermath of his suspension from competition, Papp began speaking publicly about the dangers of doping. In August 2007, he addressed a South Florida high school coaches conference, and has been quoted in Scientific American,[14] the Wall Street Journal,[15] the International Herald Tribune, and the New York Times.[16] Papp also appeared as a guest on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" radio program[17] and was featured in the June 2008 issue of Outside Magazine.[18] Papp never retired from cycling, and as such he remains a member of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's Registered Testing Pool (“USADA RTP”). He must submit quarterly Whereabouts Filings to the Agency, should USADA wish to subject him to an out-of-competition ("OOC") doping control. As part of the filings, Papp must guarantee his availability for 60 minutes at a set time in a predetermined location every single day for as long as he remains in the Pool.[19] Papp is also a member of UCI’s Whereabouts Testing Pool, and had no "Missed Tests" declared against him during the period in which he was ineligible to compete.[20]
Papp has a BA in History (summa cum laude) from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1999. Papp was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs and graduate student in Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy (2000–2001). He unwisely considered pursuing a career with the Central Intelligence Agency, and interviewed for a position in the then-Directorate of Operations while still a Coro Fellow, but was found to be completely unfit for service.
Since his suspension for doping, Papp has delivered guest lectures on the topics of supplement use by athletes and gene-doping at Slippery Rock University and Chatham University, and is currently pursuing an MBA there.
Note: After testifying in the Landis Affair in May 2007, Papp was disqualified from all competitive results obtained on and subsequent to July 1, 2001 - despite having signed an Agreement to Resolve with USADA that limited his disqualification to only those "competitive results obtained on and subsequent to May 7, 2006, the day Mr. Papp's sample was collected."
