Nathan suppresses his appetite for HealthNet

Nathan O'Neill is a fantastic rider, a brilliant TTer who has come back from horrendous injuries and later publicly thanked God for divine help in those moments of utmost crisis. He is also well known for his legitimate tips and tricks for managing his weight. And for an elite rider maximising your power to weight is a vital component in the overall mix. So it's not so surprising that a rider of O'Neill's class will turn to artificial means to suppress appetite, is it? Or is it?

When it breaches clear cut doping rules, it's not so pretty? In fact it looks like Nathan has succumbed to temptation, if this report is true... American Professional Continental squad Health Net-Maxxis has announced the termination of Australian Nathan O'Neill's contract as of October 29, following the star rider's non-negative test for prescription appetite suppressant Phentermine. The World Anti-Doping Agency's code allows riders to use prescribed Phentermine out of competition, but no trace amounts are allowed in a rider's system during competition.

Now did he actually think he was out of competition at the time? Was he contemplating his new team for 2008 and not looking back at what he thought was the past when he choose to pop his pills? I guess only Nathan knows what he was thinking, but I suspect a mix up happening here. It will be interesting to see his statement on the matter.

And his statement is: "I admit that I used the medicine for the prescribed purpose, in an out-of-competition situation," O'Neill said in a statement. "Unfortunately for me, there was a tiny amount that was still present in my body at the time the sample was collected in competition."