Cyclists: Keep A Paper Trail

My cycling buddy and me were discussing the Floyd Landis case the other day when he asked, "so who is next?" After a startled exchange of glances we both came to the same conclusion: Leipheimer.

I have never been much of a fan of Levi Leipheimer. He always seems to get dropped on one H.C. climb during the Tour de France. The 2007 Tour was no exception. After Stage 15, Leipheimer was fourth on General Classification. If Leipheimer was to move up in General Classification he would have to put out an extraordinary effort during brutal Stage 16, Orthez to Col D' Aubisque. Orthez to Col D' Aubisque contained one category 3, two category 1, and two H.C. (beyond category) climbs with a mountain top finish. Unfortunately, even though Leipheimer and his Discovery Channel teammate Alberto Contador attacked throughout the climb with explosive out of the saddle efforts, Michael Rasmussen, wearing the golden fleece, dropped both Contador and Leipheimer near the summit of the Col D' Aubisque. Calmly riding tempo while waving off a television motorcycle Rasmussen soloed home to win the stage. Leipheimer finished Stage 16 :26 behind Rasmussen. Leipheimer also remained fourth on General Classification at 5:59. One more year of almost making the podium.

Then disaster struck. After winning the stage in pure Marco Pantani style, alone, Michael Rasmussen looked a sure winner of the Tour. Next day accusations surfaced that Rasmussen had missed mandatory out-of-competition drug tests prior to the Tour, and that he had lied about his whereabouts to the UCI. Rasmussen claimed to be with family in Mexico while in reality he was training in Italy. Rasmussen was fired by his Rabobank team the day after he won Stage 16. The Tour suddenly had no clear cut winner. Contador, Cadel Evans at 1:53, and Leipheimer at 2:47. In the most improbable way Leipheimer looked like a sure podium finisher after all.

The 2007 Tour de France final General Classification was a pure shock to me. (1) Alberto Contador (2) Cadel Evans at :25 (3) Levi Leipheimer at :31. The closest podium finish in Tour history. I suddenly realized that Levi Leipheimer could win the Tour de France after all.

After the smoke cleared, Operation Puerto and rouge doctor Eufemiano Fuentes raised it's ugly head. Spanish Guardia Civil raided Dr. Fuentes offices. Spanish Guardia Civil found stored blood bags, vials of Epogen (EPO) other prohibited substances and coded records of athletes who had business dealings with Fuentes. DNA typing identified 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich as owner of bags of the stored blood. Giro d' Italia winner Ivan Basso was also identified as a patient of Fuentes who had his blood manipulated with performance enhancers. Also implicated was 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador. Although the Spanish Cycling Federation cleared Contador of all wrong doing there is still a possibility of appeal by the UCI, WADA, or both to the Court of Arbitration of Sport. Speculation is rife that Contador will not be allowed to start the 2008 Tour de France if he is still under Operation Puerto suspicion. Suddenly, the prospect of Levi Leipheimer winning the 2008 Tour de France looms larger than ever.

Why should the prospect of Levi Leipheimer winning the 2008 Tour de France be of concern to cycling fans? The UCI, WADA, and several Pro Tour cycling teams have advocated a biological passport, a record of biological markers such as hematocrit values for riders that would be stored on a massive Internet accessible data base. The data would be assembled by five WADA accredited labs and testing records from Pro Tour teams would be added to the WADA data for a more comprehensive profile of riders' physiological composition. I applaud the efforts of Pro Tour Teams CSC, Astana, Slipstream, and High Road to combat doping and I hope they are successful in their endeavours. However, I would be more assured of the commitment of WADA if they would be more transparent and tell us which WADA accredited labs, beyond reproach, they intend to employ to do the testing for the biological passport.

May I make a suggestion to WADA? Do not use the WADA accredited lab at Chatenay-Malabry. As we saw from the Floyd Landis fiasco the computers at Chatenay-Malabry are not secure and prone to access by hackers. The criminal who hacked the Chatenay-Malabry lab was never identified by the French police. The documents leaked to the press although never authenticated suggested a cover-up of persistent incompetence. A vicious rumor as to the source of the leak as Floyd Landis or one of his entourage spread by l'Equipe was never verified. The story disappeared from the radar shortly afterwards.

A warning to WADA and Pro Tour cycling teams. Biological passport information of riders, including DNA profiles would be an inviting target for hackers to manipulate the results of a Grand Tour such as the Giro d' Italia or the Tour de France by some malcontent who is not satisfied by the results of the race. Your security encryption should be subjected on a regular basis to simulated attacks to prevent tampering with biological passport blood or urine profile data, or to copy allele sequences of rider DNA.

To WADA accredited labs and Pro Tour cycling teams, keep flawless records free of sloppy forensic erasures and maintain a clear and convincing chain-of-custody of these records. Keep these biological passport records under lock and key and away from unauthorized personnel. Your creditability and some future rider's professional career may depend upon it. Points of contention between biological passports and forensic tests during Grand Tours may have to be resolved by paper records, not imputed electronic data storage. Your credibility and the future of cycling as a sport is in your hands. Be responsible. Considering the history of Chatenay-Malabry, Levi Leipheimer's possible 2008 Tour de France victory may have to be fairly contested using paper records.

A word of advice to Pro Tour teams: Refrain from submitting profile records with illegal erasures, "white out" of rider identification numbers, or lab document packages that contain numerous coding errors. WADA accredited labs may submit this sort of nonsense to arbitration hearings and win cases against athletes. But an athlete can not submit supportive evidence full of mistakes or without a rock solid chain-of-custody. WADA, USADA, other Anti-Doping Organizations or International Federations would argue that the data would be inadmissible as evidence. An Arbitration Panel would absolutely agree. In the case of an athlete, no presumption of innocence exists in arbitration, unlike WADA accredited labs that can do no wrong. You have been warned.

I must assert that no amount of longitudinal data, at the cost of millions of dollars, can actually refute incompetent lab work. One false positive will sink you as sure as the Titanic. This is a fact of life for which there is no defense.

Jon

Baseball Should Heed Lessons From Cycling

In the Congressional Hearings on the Mitchell Report of doping in baseball the inevitable conflict between Major League Baseball (MLB), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) was bound to take center stage. One problem that has surfaced is the need for independent testing of prohibited substances outside of the influence of Major League Baseball (MLB) where possible conflicts of interest may be manifest. The only question is were and by whom? WADA has suggested that MLB become a WADA signatory, accept the WADA prohibited substances list, accept WADA Code and WADA accredited laboratory testing. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, and Baseball Union representative Donald Fehr has been resistant to such an idea, for good reason.

WADA has elected a new president, John Fahey, a man who replaced Dick Pound. Mr. Fahey has been of unknown philosophy but it was a popular hope among anti-doping fanatics that Mr. Fahey would profess more fairness in public statements than his predecessor Dick Pound. Pound succeeded in infuriating athletes, Anti-Doping Organizations, (ADO) and International Federations, (IF). For example, Pound accused the Union Cycliste International (UCI) and UCI President Hein Verbuggen of not taking enough initiative to combat doping in cycling. A bitter war ensued between the UCI and WADA as a result of these statements over control and enforcement of anti-doping efforts in cycling. The apex of the battle was reached when frozen urine samples of 1998-99 Tour de France were unfrozen and retroactively tested for scientific research purposes by Laboratorie National de Depistage (LNDD) in 2004. The research by LNDD was focused on the stability of EPO in urine over time and to determine the presence of EPO in rider samples before a urine test for EPO had been developed. Unfortunately, codes from aliquots were leaked to l'Equipe, a French newspaper owned by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). The aliquot codes supposedly matched samples provided by Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. In response to the leaked information and subsequent headlines by l'Equipe of EPO use by Armstrong during the 1999 Tour, Hein Verbuggen, President of the UCI, commissioned an investigation into the lab practices of LNDD by independent Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman. Vrijman wrote a scathing report of LNDD, pointing out errors in data collection, sample storage, lack of chain-of-custody, lack of security, and possible sabotage of samples by disgruntled laboratory personnel or others who had a manifest interest in harming Lance Armstrong or other riders. Vrijman recommended that the UCI take no action against any rider who was declared EPO positive by retroactive testing by LNDD of urine samples provided during the 1998-99 Tour de France. The reaction by Dick Pound and WADA to the Vrijman report was swift and clear. "The Vrijman Report is so lacking in professionalism and objectivity that it borders on farcical," declared an outraged Pound. Contrary to Pound, Lance Armstrong released the following statement: "The [Vrijman] report confirms my innocence, but it also finds that Mr. Pound along with the French lab [LNDD] and the French Ministry have ignored the rules and broken the law. They have also refused to cooperate with the investigation in an effort to conceal the full scope of their wrongdoing. I am now retired, but for the sake of all athletes still competing who deserve a level playing field and a fair system of drug testing, the time has come to take action against these kinds of attacks before they destroy the credibility of WADA and in turn, the international anti-doping system."

To quote MLB Executive Vice President Rob Manfred. "Perhaps Mr. Fahey should become more familiar with the operation of the WADA laboratories before attempting to criticize MLB."

Baseball take note: frozen stored samples and retroactive testing may have a deterrent effect on current human growth hormone (hGH) abuse, since at present a blood serum test for hGH is still in the developmental phase. But retroactive testing also has a potential for abuse by renegade WADA accredited labs. Ask Lance Armstrong.

WADA Criticizes MLB and Union For Continued Evasion of Anti-Doping Reform

WADA released a statement expressing disappointment that MLB wants to keep testing of prohibited substances "in house." WADA did suggest that a more fair and impartial system would be evident if hGH and other drug testing were outsourced to "independent" agencies such as WADA to avoid potential conflicts of interest. WADA also accused MLB of not taking a strong enough stand in the war against doping because MLB does not agree with a WADA assertion that stored blood serum research has progressed enough to ensure reliability and safety in future retroactive testing. MLB obviously does not want or need another Vrijman fiasco, or another ongoing conflict as an IF that is also a WADA signatory, such as the battle that ensued between WADA and the UCI.

WADA seems eager to wage a new war with baseball with a new round of misleading statements about the anti-doping commitment of MLB. To quote Rob Manfred: "These continuing, unprovoked inaccurate publicity stunts by WADA have created an unwillingness to become more involved with WADA and it's affiliates. We were hopeful that false public statements by WADA would end with it's recent change in leadership and we are deeply disappointed that Mr. Fahey is showing the same counterproductive tendencies as his predecessor."

MLB also does not need bogus results reported on players due to degraded samples as has happened in the Floyd Landis testosterone/epitestosterone ratio.

The exact nature of freezing and thawing of samples is still unknown and the effect on processing of samples may result in a large quantity of post-facto false positives due to unknown variables caused by sample degradation. Dr. Gary I. Wadler, professor of medicine at New York University, and WADA committee member comments concerning the state of possible degradation of plasma and serum in hGH when the samples are frozen and thawed for testing purposes. "They are working to determine if the samples will hold up." MLB expert in prohibited substance testing, Dr. Gary Green, was even more pessimistic: "Although some have proposed the storing of serum samples, there are several practical and technological hurdles that would have to be overcome before this approach could be widely implemented."

There is ample concern of MLB to avoid any interaction with WADA. WADA is an organization sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). WADA was started in response to the BALCO scandal with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, WADA has morphed into an arrogant beast that results shop confirmation tests to satisfy the interests of WADA accredited labs. Ask Iban Mayo. WADA accredited labs lack qualified, trained personnel. WADA accredited labs destroy evidence. Ask Floyd Landis. WADA accredited labs should be avoided at all costs if you want to protect your players reputations now and in the future.

John Fahey summed up the problem quite well: "If you are not prepared to put forth testing that gives credibility to your sport, with time, the fans will start to disappear. I believe that baseball will see this." Yes, ask cycling fans. Our riders are tested by WADA accredited labs and we can't believe what we are seeing. WADA lab results are increasingly contested in the Court of Arbitration of Sport by cyclists and other athletes. Certainly all of the fault does not rest with the athlete? Some cycling fans have defected, disgusted. Baseball don't let WADA accredited labs destroy your fan base.

To Commssioner Bud Selig and the Congressional Oversight Committee, find an alternative to WADA.

Jon

Are Cyclists Dupes?

Rock Racing owner Michael Ball is creating shock waves in the cycling world, he is signing former cyclists with alleged doping pasts. His latest idea is to possibly hire former Tour de France winner Floyd Landis as a technical advisor for Rock Racing after former director sportif Frankie Andreu resigned. Andreu is complaining that he had no control over personnel decisions of Rock Racing. Andreu complained that Ball is hiring former dopers and misfits, tarnishing cycling's respectable image. Outlaws are not wanted here.

Funny all this outrage over a man who designs and sells clothing that appeal to people who have a counter culture view of the world and who probably appreciate tattooed riders who kick ass. After all Rock Racing is all about style man, you know it is cool to wear outrageous apparel that shocks the establishment squares.

Right on! The establishment is US Cycling and USADA, the evil empire. US Cycling wants to rid the world of people who languish under a cloud of suspicion, especially Floyd Landis. Landis unlike Frankie Andreu is persona non grata in cycling. Floyd Landis had his name removed from the history books of the Tour de France by Christian Prudhomme and Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) after an extremely bizarre ceremony of breaking mirrors. This all happened before the commencement of the AAA arbitration hearing. The revisionists were racing to punish the poster boy of doping Floyd Landis in classic Stalinist style. Those of us who were convinced that Amaury Sport Organisation's rush to judgement was not justified by the evidence supporting the Adverse Analytical Finding were called suckers and dupes by the blood lusting sport pundits. Those of us with finer sensibilities and a sense of decency were assured that the circus we were witnessing was necessary to deter further use of PED's by drawing attention to devious cheaters who refuse to publicly acknowledge their crimes. When the AAA Panel ruled against Landis in a 2-1 decision the pundits came alive again demanding an immediate confession of doping by Landis to clear the air; not a hopeless appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport. Meantime Michael Ball owner of Rock Racing creates a seismic shock wave by allegedly offering Floyd Landis a contract as technical advisor while the CAS case is still pending. This news was met with strenuous objections by US Cycling who insists that Landis will never be granted a license and will be refused permission to participate in any capacity in any US Cycling sanctioned race. US Cycling is acting like a petty tyrant. After all US Cycling should consider the Floyd Landis Court of Arbitration of Sport appeal before making extreme statements. The outcome of the March 2008 CAS appeal will be final. US Cycling may rue the day. After all, the CAS arbitrators may agree that LNDD is incapable of measuring anything with precision, and there are violations of WADA International Standards of Laboratories to consider.

Unfortunately, I did depart on a tangent. I was more interested in comparison and contrast of attitudes towards known dopers and suspected dopers, say Frankie Andreu who admitted doping with EPO to build endurance before the 1999 Tour de France, and Floyd Landis who allegedly used synthetic testosterone before Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour. Frankie Andreu is supposed to be some sort of inspiring ethical man. Andreu merely doped with EPO; a prohibited substance which increases red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen and increase volume oxygen maximum (VO2 MAX) which increases aerobic capacity of the mitochondria to provide energy to the muscle cell. Andreu has maintained that he doped in order to protect his General Classification rider Lance Armstrong and he has stated that at the time he felt the doping was justified. Later, of course, Andreu insists that he had a sudden change of heart and that he recognized that what he did was wrong and that he felt bad about cheating his competition. To make peace with his soul, Andreu, after remorseful reflection did confess his crimes. Andreu was immediately forgiven and accepted as an exemplary director sportif by United States Postal Service, Toyota-United, and Rock Racing. In contrast, Floyd Landis is accused of synthetic testosterone use for one stage; a prohibited substance with debatable acute performance enhancing benefits. As a consequence of this alleged violation Landis must now be banned for life from professional cycling. Andreu sets a good example to follow while Landis is a pariah.

Still confused? The issue once again is centered around making amends for crimes committed against your fellow cyclists and your attitude toward resolving the issue by confession and making remorseful apologies to the establishment. A case study is Marion Jones and the reaction of the sporting media and how this should apply to Floyd Landis and his persistent denials. Sports pundits will insist that any accused athlete is guilty and cyclists who doubt are fools. Pundits will also insist that accusers are correct, without ulterior motive, and should be believed. However, in the Marion Jones case perhaps confession is not enough, perhaps we have raised the bar, perhaps confession in the Frankie Andreu vein is not enough to wash away sins of the past, the steroid era requires scorn heaped upon scorn, not forgiveness. There does seem to be a limit of how far the deceived sport fanatic will go before a remorseful confession is not enough to absolve sin. Send these people to prison. The pundits are in agreement, Floyd Landis will confess in time and not be forgiven and we cyclists will have our eyes opened as to the truth.

These pundits are assuring we cyclist doubters that we are naive to suppose that Floyd Landis is not a liar in the vein of Marion Jones who after years of denial tearfully recanted her lies with truthful admissions. Jones admitted her litany of crimes, she doped using the clear, she competed in the Olympics juiced, she accepted medals under false pretenses, she lied to Federal investigators, she committed perjury, she insisted her accusers were the liars with self-righteous indignation. Jones even sued Victor Conte of BALCO fame for slander and libel. A beautifully orchestrated hoax to be sure.

Well people have told me for over a year that I am a fool because I believe in honesty and integrity in deposed Tour de France winner Floyd Landis. Some have insisted that in time Floyd Landis will pull a Marion Jones and tearfully admit his doping past in full detail. Maybe so, maybe not. In the current sports culture any person accused of using PED's and who denies the accusations are automatically considered liars. Accusers are only exposing truth. Well in some people I do not feel that accusers have honesty and integrity and they do display an awful double standard of dubious personal motivations.

I mention one case: Betsy Andreu and the alleged bedside confession of Lance Armstrong. One wonders if Betsy Andreu will ever tearfully confess that she lied under oath and falsely accused Lance Armstrong of doping. My bet is that the "iron lady" of cycling will never feel any remorse for her wrong doing. Of course, Betsy Andreu may have done nothing wrong, she may have been mistaken in her recollections. This may be possible, however the sporting pundits may be right, there is no honesty in anyone connected with doping cases; accused or accuser. All things considered maybe we can all do without the Andreu couple in cycling. We can certainly do without dopers. But in all cases it is never to late to make amends.

Jon