Will Doping in Cycling Ever End? Non!

There would be no reason to continue with this blog if people would come to their senses and stop doping! Alas, this will never happen. The first look at cycling sport feeds today does not cover racing but reveals that former Gerlosteiner rider Bernard Kohl has accused his former team manager Stefan Matschiner of providing him with blood doping products, steroids, and rEPO-CERA. Bernard Kohl tested positive for rEPO during the 2008 Tour de France after winning the King of the Mountain jersey. He was doping long before that, but never detected, of course. Every time this happens, another revealing story of dopers who cheat to gain an unfair advantage, it feels like a mule kick in the gut, makes you want to puke.

TBV come back.....racejunkie.

Amen sister! But raising awareness of the folly of the anti-doping crusade is time consuming and frustrating process where repeated efforts will drain you of your sanity. After all the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

A Myth

Floyd Landis is banned from racing as a UCI Professional Team Racer for four years. Not so! Floyd Landis is eligible to race in the 2010 Tour de France if he is employed by a UCI Pro Tour Team. However, since the Tour de France is owned by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) and with the history of ASO banning teams of past winners Marco Pantani and Alberto Contador don't count on any change. The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result! Ivan Basso, well that is another matter, team Liquigas saw to that! Yes! Ivan Basso Italian cycling hero and past doper will win a Tour de France, while Floyd Landis will cool his heals in some trivial United States domestic race. Makes you want to puke! Sorry Floyd but you know better than to trust ASO in anything that makes sense. Floyd you have been branded as a doper by a vindictive group of people who will hate you forever for challenging their system and raising awareness of the problems inherent in the WADA monopoly. You should have done what Ivan Basso did, lay down and grovel, then you would have been given an opportunity to participate again. As it is you are Persona non Grata and you will remain so forever.

But, never an Ivan Basso victory in the Tour, please! As Franz Kafka said..."justice!"

AFLD Gives Lance Armstrong A New Hairdo

AFLD is sending the barber to Lance Armstrong for hair samples. AFLD claims that use of DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) a precursor to male and female gonadotrophins testosterone and estrogen is rampant among French athletes. If this hormone precursor is rampant among French athletes then it is logical to assume that the drug would be prevalent among the professional peloton. Get out the clippers!

Okay. DHEA can escape blood and urine tests according to AFLD but it can be detected in hair samples?

Oh, oh. DHEA is produced synthetically from wild yams and soybeans. Carbon 12 background markers and Carbon 13 markers found in soybean and yams comes instantly to mind. So does delta/delta scores and an acceptable range before a threshold value of synthetic DHEA use is reached. DHEA is an endogenous substance and the synthetic form could only be detected by GC/MS and GC/C/IRMS.

The laboratory that will do the testing for DHEA hair sample of Lance Armstrong is none other than the WADA accredited laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry France. LNDD is best known for the Floyd Landis testosterone/epitestosterone test failures. LNDD is also known to have obtained a questionable Carbon Isotope Ratio single metabolite result, "proof" that Floyd Landis had taken synthetic testosterone. This "proof" was accepted by the Court of Arbitration of Sport even though LNDD was rebuked for sloppy laboratory practice. This single metabolite "proof" cost Floyd Landis a two and a half year suspension, millions of dollars in legal fees, and additional millions in advertising endorsement revenues.

Lance Armstrong is not complaining about the hair test. But when Chatenay-Malabry conducted tests on the 1999 Tour de France urine samples for research and when LNDD claimed to have found traces of rEPO in Lance Armstrong urine samples he was not laughing. No, indeed. When LNDD leaked the code numbers and results of his samples to L'Equipe Lance Armstrong was not amused. No. A very long and protracted lawsuit followed. The Vrijman Report followed.

Lance must enjoy his new buzz cut and if he is guilty of using synthetic DHEA then he should be very worried. Unfortunately, he should be more worried that Pierre Bordry, AFLD, Chatenay-Malabry, and the Comite Francais d' Accreditation (COFRAC) will have an agenda. Get rid of Lance Armstrong even if he is clean. Payback for all the years that Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France without testing positive.

Test Others

By the way since we are on the subject of random testing for performance enhancing drugs among the professional peloton other riders should be considered for the new hairdo. Bradley Wiggins, Ivan Basso, Saint David Millar, Tyler Hamilton, Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, and Floyd Landis. Something bothers me about men who can put out super human efforts on a bicycle.

Some of the above mentioned riders have been implicated in doping, others protest too much. Test them all just to be sure. After all, to paraphrase Pierre Bordry, people are all the same and they all deserve equal treatment.