Frank Bouyer has been banned from racing due to taking a controlled substance that is treating a disorder he has been diagnosed with.

This is one of those cases that is actually a bit sad, in that this man has a disorder, yet can’t compete because the drug required to treat it is considered an illegal performance-enhancing drug by the International Cycling Union.

The 33-year-old Frenchman has narcolepsy, a disorder marked by recurring and unpredictable episodes of sleep during normal waking hours and disturbed sleep at night. He was diagnosed with the genetic disease, which is believed to afflict one person in 200,000, late in 2003 and since then his life has been, as he says without irony, a nightmare.

If he takes the drug modafinil it apparently improves his life, and keeps him safe.

“One time, I found myself in the courtyard of a farm, woken up by a barking dog without knowing how I got there,” he has said. This has not happened in a race, where the result could be a mass crash.

Also, according to Wikipedia there are no known studies that prove that modafinil has a positive impact on an athlete’s performance, but anecdotal evidence supports that it does help.

One one hand Bouyer has a potential life-threatening disorder, and on the other hand by taking the drug that helps him; it allows him to perform better than others without the drug. These are pretty tough issues that the ICU and the courts will have to figure out.

Read more about Frank Bouyer.