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.