VeloNews | Drug maker cooperated with WADA

The World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday Italian rider Riccardo Riccò tested positive at the Tour de France after a secret molecule was planted in the blood booster EPO during its manufacture.

Riccò, 24, upset the big names of the sport to win two stages of this year’s Tour before he was kicked off after testing positive for EPO (erythropoietin).

Revealing the now high-tech nature of the fight against drugs in sport, WADA chief John Fahey said his organization worked with drugs giant Roche on the newest version of EPO (erythropoietin).

He said Roche had included a molecule in the third generation of EPO, called Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator (CERA) that acted as a marker in drug tests.

“In the development of that particular substance, close cooperation occurred between WADA and the pharmaceutical company Roche Pharmaceuticals so that there was a molecule placed in the substance well in advance that was always going to be able to be detected once a test was taken,” Fahey told public radio in his native Australia.

Until this year’s Tour, CERA, which is released into the body more slowly than its predecessors, had been thought to be undetectable by drug testers.

Followers of sport have been calling for markers to be placed into certain performance-enhancing drugs for years, and it appears as though it’s finally happening.

In the United States, it would be nearly impossible to insert a marker into a drug after the fact, as it would have to go through the entire testing and approval process from the FDA all over again, which is why Epogen^® and Aranesp^® (Amgen’s EPO drugs) have taken so long to become detectable; they weren’t designed with the markers already built in, so the drug-testers had to devise another way.

But Mircera^® (the brand-name for CERA) was developed with the marker already built in; a fact that surely would have been disclosed to the approvers, and obviously to WADA, but not widely spread, especially to the athletes. And what better way to catch the cheaters than to not tell them HOW you’re going to catch them.

This is the right way to catch drug cheats; not witch hunts.

Yeah, Floyd Landis likely doped. He still got screwed by a system which admits no wrong … and the system still has a lot of other problems. Now that Dick Pound is no longer pounding his dick at WADA, their organizational issues should get better. It’s too bad he’s now a part of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but one step at a time … and we’ll clean up both the sport and the governing bodies.

Ah, l’Alpe d’Huez … books have been written about this mountain.

I cannot think of a more beautiful stage of any Tour de France than those that finish atop l’Alpe.

From Fausto Coppi’s win on the maiden stage in 1952, to Greg LeMond’s battle with Bernard Hinault in 1986, to Andy Hampsten’s solo excursion in 1992, to Pantani’s devastating attacks in 1995 and 1997, to “The Look” Lance Armstrong gave to Jan Ullrich in 2001, before attacking to win the stage and take the yellow jersey.

In all but 5 of the Tours de France during which a stage has concluded on l’Alpe d’Huez, the person who wore the maillot jaune at the end of the stage went on to take the final yellow jersey in Paris as the winner of that year’s race.

It’s no wonder that this mountain has the reputation as the most difficult climb in the Tour.

Sure, there are longer climbs and steeper climbs, but no mountaintop finish carries as much prestige as the Alpe … and there have been no unworthy winners of the stage.

In this year’s Tour, the only active rider to have won atop the Alpe d’Huez is Frank Schleck, who won the stage in 2006, during Floyd Landis’s ill-fated Tour de France win. Frank is wearing the yellow jersey today.

Will he still be wearing it at day’s end? Will he be able to get away, and win the stage again (and the Tour, for the first time)?

Oh, I wish I didn’t have to work today. I can’t wait to watch the DVR coverage this evening when I get home.

… what’s with all the fascination about pro cyclists’ personal lives?

Recent search strings leading people to my blog:

• Tyler Hamilton divorce
• Tyler Hamilton IRS
• Lance Armstrong divorce
• Will Frischkorn divorce
• Greg Lemond divorce
• Richard Sachs gay
• Michael Balls Floyd Landis
• Floyd Landis gay
• Tyler Hamilton gay

These are all Google search strings that have shown up recently in my SiteMeter stats, and you’ve got to dig pretty far in to Google results to hit my site from some of these …

VeloNews | 2008 Tour de Georgia

Rock Racing gets in

Domestic team Rock Racing was not originally invited and had threatened take race organizer Medalist Sports to court over a disputed verbal invitation, but was given Saunier Duval’s team slot Tuesday. With that settlement, Rock has signed on as a founding sponsor of the Tour de Georgia — the event’s highest sponsorship level.

“My commitment to cycling is long-term and I am proud to support this world-class race which has featured such winners as Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis,” Rock team owner Michael Ball said. “As a tribute to the state of Georgia and to the rich tradition of this race, we plan something special for the final stage, so stay tuned.”

Hmm … sponsorship? Or bribery (on Rock Racing’s part) / extortion (on Medalist Sports’ part)? The timing of this sponsorship announcement is awfully suspect … making it seem as though the sponsorship is part of the agreement to let Rock race … a nice little quid pro quo.

The exchange of money does not make either the team OR the organizers look good.

Brief article at CanadianCyclist.com yesterday, pointed out by a Portland-based pal:

Anti-doping Tests Flawed According to Study

The current issue of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism contains a study by a Swedish team that concludes current standard anti-doping tests for steriods will not catch many athletes that used the banned substances, and will provide false positives for as many as 14% of those tested.

Anti-doping tests look for synthetic testosterone by measuring the ratio of testsoterone to epitestosterone in urine. If the ratio exceeds four to one (4:1) then it is considered an indication of doping (extra testosterone has been administered through steriod use). It was this particular test that led to Floyd Landis being stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title, when his ratio was found to be as high as 11:1.

The study, conducted at the Karolinska Institute, showed that people vary genetically in their ability to secrete the testosterone enyzme, and therefore may not show excess ratios, despite having used steriods. Over two-thirds of people from an East Asian background showed the gene variant which would allow them to pass an anti-doping test despite using steriods.

Further, the study found a gene that can lower the level of epitestosterone in urine, leading to higher ratios and false positive results. The study says that these mistakes can be cleared by further testing.

WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) is reviewing the results of this study, and may have to revise or augment current testing procedures.

Now … I’m not an endocrinologist, so much of what was in the published article (linked below) is beyond me, but what I got from it is that depending on this particular genetic marker, up to 40% of people without the two main alleles for this particular gene NEVER tested above the 4:1 testosterone/epitestosterone level, and the highest level reached was only 5.3:1 in the two weeks following a testosterone injection.

On the other hand, subjects with both alleles for this gene had baseline T/E ratios above the 4:1 limit, and could generate false-positives in up to 9% of test subjects in standard doping tests.

So what does this mean?

Well, in Floyd Landis’ case, if he has both genetic markers, then it’s very possible that his initial ratio of 11:1 was a true false positive. But then there’s the results of the CIR test, which did show that some of the testosterone in his system was exogenous. However, there are still enough questions about the methods of the Châtenay-Malabry lab to cast doubt on the results of that particular test.

On the other hand, riders without the particular genetic markers, could microdose with exogenous testosterone and never get caught because their T/E ratios never exceed the limits.

It is extremely important is that WADA/USADA/IOC/UCI/etc look more closely at the protocols and a) unify/standardize them across the various labs, and b) seek the truth (and justice), rather than the automatic presumption of guilt and subsequent legal battles which cast a bad light on the sport as a whole … even if this means genetic testing as part of the so-called medical passport program.

Further reading:

1. Doping by mutant athletes undetected
2. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (March 11, 2008 issue)

Make your own judgments.

2008 Teams Announced | Amgen Tour of California

I cannot believe that the organizers have invited (Crack) Rock Racing to participate in the Amgen Tour of California …

This is a team that has hired alleged (and in at least one rider’s case, convicted) dopers like Santiago Botero, Oscar Sevilla, and Tyler Hamilton. This is a team that is actively consorting with a rider that is currently banned from the sport for a doping violation (in Floyd Landis). This is a team that is losing sponsors (HED for sure, and others are rumored) because of these associations.

Ah, but this is also a team that signed on as a “founding sponsor” of the Amgen Tour of California itself … I guess when you buy your way into a race, it wouldn’t really be cool to exclude the team.

But with all the ridicule that Amgen, makers of the most widely abused performance-enhancing drug, has taken for sponsoring a race, why not add a team that seemingly turns a blind eye to doping to the mix as well.

And people wonder why this sport is going to hell in a handbasket.

I know Sager has got at least one compadre on the squad, and there are a lot of other good riders on the team; but Michael Ball reminds me of John Wordin (and the whole Mercury/Viatel fiasco) … and I’ll feel sorry for the rank-and-file riders when the team implodes mid-season.

And I really hope I’m wrong, for their sake.

Ball signs Sevilla, invites Landis to camp
Rubber has yet to hit the road in ‘08, but second-year continental road team Rock Racing continues to generate considerable attention, this time because of reports that owner Michael Ball has been courting Floyd Landis to fill an unspecified team advisory position.

Word of the deposed 2006 Tour de France champion’s involvement with the team came in the wake of director sportif Frankie Andreu’s departure based on “differences” in philosophy with Ball.

Less than two weeks after Ball signed a scandal-tinged Tyler Hamilton, Landis’s email address was included on an internal team message relaying details of an upcoming January 18-31 training camp in Malibu, California.

But beyond visiting the camp, Landis risks having his two-year doping suspension extended if he violates section 10.9 of the World Anti-Doping Code, which prohibits him from participating in “any capacity,” be it in competition or other activities “authorized or organized by any signatory or signatory’s member organization.”

Never one to avoid controversy, Ball has also signed former Kelme and T-Mobile standout Oscar Sevilla, a rider who, along with Rock Racing recruit Santiago Botero, was implicated in Spain’s Operación Puerto doping investigation.

No wonder Frankie decided to leave the team … one rider I can maybe see using the “let’s give Tyler another chance, he’s an American rider, blah blah blah” rationale, and granted, Frankie isn’t entirely snow-white himself, having admitted to using EPO during Armstrong’s 1999 Tour de France win … but throw in Botero and Sevilla to the mix, and it sounds like Michael Ball is really just going for maximum shock value before the team implodes and he pulls the plug mid-season, putting a lot of good, hard-working riders out of work, just to pimp his overpriced clothing line with a bad-boy image.

Who pays $240 for a pair of jeans?

Hey, Michael Ball-sack … we want sponsors, but we don’t need your kind … kindly fuck right off, okay?