Hi everyone, I’m working on a story for Escape about the rising use of peptides and what that looks like in the cycling world at the moment. I’d love to talk to folks who have tried peptides either for recovery, for weight-loss, or for other reasons, so if that’s you and you’d be willing to share your perspective, or you know someone that I should reach out to, please send me a DM or email: matt.deneef@escapecollective.com. I’m happy to keep people anonymous if that’s a concern. Thanks in advance!
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Matt, this isn’t aimed at you but at the general lack of appreciation of how broad a field this is. When anyone says “peptide” my first question is “which one?”
“Peptide” is generally regarded as referring to oligopeptides with a chain length of 50 or less. Taking only those with a chain length of exactly 50 composed of AAs normally found in humans, there are 21^50 different molecules which equates to a bit over 10^66.
To give you an idea of just how big this number is, if you made one microgram of each different peptide the collection would weigh more than 10^57 kg, about 10,000 times the mass of the observable universe.
FWIW you only need to add a few percent to account for those of lesser chain length, due to the way exponentials work.
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It’s a good distinction Mark, but what Matt is looking into is the peptide craze that is being marketed on social media, not yet gone through human trials, and what people are experimenting with that may or may not be performance enhancing. Ones that come to mind (not that I’ve tried any!):
MOTS-c
BPC-157 & TB-500
Ipamorelin
Retatrutide
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I listened to a Real Science of Sport podcast on this topic.
Would never knowingly touch them and I’d be surprised if you’d get many on here who would.
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I would assume “peptides” includes more mainstream options like Ozempic (active ingredient semaglutide). I haven’t touched it myself, but wouldn’t be surprised if at least some other members have (indeed, at least one member anonymously admitted as such in this article: Does cycling have an Ozempic problem? )
I also wouldn’t be surprised if the mainstream popularity of Ozempic has made other peptide treatments feel more socially acceptable.
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It’s and interesting topic depending on who you talk to. I have an acquaintance who speaks very openly about taking peptides for all sorts of different alleged reasons. He goes to the gym, plays recreational team sports, etc. It wouldn’t cross his mind that this is doping/cheating whatever you want to call it, in the way a cyclist would .
I agree, I don’t imagine we’ll get many or any responses to Matt’s call-out because this topic is so taboo in cycling (whether it’s competitive or not). But I guarantee they’re being used.
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Perhaps I was overly dismissive there, I wouldn’t rule out a well tested drug should I need it. But the things being tried with the failed experimental drugs for example cannot be sensible.
What Mark said. There are peptides and there are peptides. Referring to things with the palatable umbrella term leads to exactly what Wade refers to with people who would never take ‘drugs’ doing exactly that because it’s ‘just a peptide’.
This is worth a listen.
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Matt,
I know your question is to people who have used them. I haven’t but feel a need to comment.
There are so many things peddled by influencers and unregulated companies on the internet. Separating good from bad is increasingly difficult. I can see the appeal at the elite level where rider use can be carefully targeted and monitored by trainers and doctors who have a clinical understanding of the products. For the amateur who may be operating only from influencer advice it seems risky and just jumping on a fad.
Thanks Bryan! Yep - that’s definitely and angle I’ll be exploring. Searching for “peptides” on TikTok was an eye-opening experience.
Thanks Mark. Yeah, as Wade says we’ll be much narrower than just “peptides” in the story itself, and will define that there. It just felt useful in my message above to be broader to begin with, to see what people were happy to talk about 
Thanks!
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You might be very surprised.
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I don’t take myself, but for my friends that have taken BCP-157, the results have been very very good
Cool. That peptide is not approved for human use. The data on how it works in humans is sparse, at best. Now, I come from physics, but that whole scientific method thing works the same…or at least should…in physiology and medicine. That means an anecdotal, n=1 result is as robust as rice paper soaked in saliva.
Now that we have influencers/health gurus and the internet, we don’t science any more. Yeah, that’s harsh, but it’s depressing seeing the world grow more stupid by the day.
Here’s hoping your friend doesn’t suffer any of the nasty consequences that so many others experience when they decide to take something for some reason that has zero scientific/medical support.
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Concerningly, the normalisation of experimental drugs via podcasts and YouTube is real. I hear it in the local gym, I hear it at post-ride coffee chats, I even hear it at the beach in the morning amongst the run-club crowd who now takes over the place.
“Have you tried…”, “I haven’t been on such and such since the last event and am definitely getting them again”, “you need to boost your T” and so on.
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People always seem to look for the secret sauce improvement that will transform them into a elite. Will this bike make me faster? Wheels, bars, chain, helmet… take this supplement, sleep in a hyperbaric chamber, inversion boots, be vegetarian, vegan, eat only raw red meat… the list is endless.
As long as people believe there is a secret sauce others will cook it up and sell it. Some with decent intentions but too many just to make a buck. Strange to me how many will take the risk and put stuff into their bodies with little to no knowledge of what’s actually in it, who made it and how to actually use it.
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I recently went to a chemistry at the pub event with the Australian National University (ANU). One of the speakers talked about her work creating pure synthetic peptides and then analysing them against black market peptides. As you might expect, the black market peptides were all much lower strength, or worse they were not the actual peptide purchased and potentially harmful.
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Thanks Craig! Interesting stuff. Do you happen to remember who the speaker was? Thanks!
Interesting! Thanks for sharing, Chris!
Hi Matt - The speaker was Abby Kidston - she’s also a keen runner so has an interest in performance.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-kidston-28a02923b/