Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco has made an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for reducing a suspension of two years.

The penalty was handed down by Italian authorities to Ricco and he was banned from the sport by the Anti-doping Tribunal of the National Olympic Committee of Italy (CONI) on October 2 after testing positive for CERA, a third generation version of banned substance EPO.

From Espnstar.com:

The 25-year-old, after initially denying the allegations, eventually pleaded guilty and named the doctor who had given him the substance, as well as another rider, in an effort to get a reduced punishment.

A decision on Ricco’s appeal will likely be reached within four months.

A statement released today by CAS read: “The CONI Anti-doping Tribunal has imposed a suspension of two years on Ricco after a positive doping test with EPO, performed during the Tour de France 2008.

“The athlete requests the reduction of the suspension on the basis of his collaboration with the authorities in this matter.

“The directions with respect to the arbitration procedure will be issued later on by the Tribunal in accordance with the Code of Sports-related Arbitration.

“As a general rule, CAS delivers its decisions within four months from the filing of the appeal.”

Ricco won two stages on the Tour – the second with a spectacular finish on one of the toughest mountain climbs.

The former Saunier Duval rider will only be able to race again after July 30, 2010 if the appeal fails.

Tags: CERA, doping test, EPO, Riccardo Ricco, Tour de France

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A triple stage winner in the Giro d’Italia, Emanuele Sella, has tested positive for CERA, the latest form of the blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO).

This is the same drug that was found in a sample provided by his fellow climber Riccardo Ricco during the Tour de France.

From Guardian.co.uk:

Sella said yesterday: “I know nothing about this story. No one has said anything to me. None of it is true.” But the news was confirmed by the Italian cycling federation, which had announced three other positive tests last week, including that of the women’s world road race champion, Marta Bastianelli, for a stimulant found in slimming medicines.

Sella was tested on July 23, out of competition and unannounced, a week after Ricco’s positive test which was the first for a substance previously considered undetectable. Sella had been targeted after his three mountain stage wins in the Giro, where the diminutive Italian finished sixth overall and also won the king of the mountains title.

Among his three victories were back-to-back wins in stages 14 and 15. Such a spectacular performance in the mountains was seen as suspicious, the more so because his CSF-Navigare team had had a rider test positive earlier in the season.

The news was confirmed by the Italian cycling federation.

Tags: CERA, Emanuele Sella, EPO, erythropoietin, Marta Bastianelli, Tour de France

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According to Associated Press, Rashid Ramzi has been stripped of his 1,500m Olympic gold medal for doping.

Ramzi was one of the five athletes who tested positive in April for advanced version of the blood-booster EPO, cera, during the 2008 Beijing Games.

From Guardian.co.uk:

Two officials with knowledge of the decision have claimed that Rashid Ramzi has been stripped of his 1,500m Olympic gold medal for doping, according to Associated Press.

Ramzi was one of five athletes from the 2008 Beijing Games who tested positive in April for Cera, an advanced version of the blood-booster EPO, in new tests using retroactive blood samples.

Asbel Kiprop of Kenya stands to be upgraded from silver to gold. Nicholas Willis of New Zealand could go from bronze to silver, and Mehdi Baala of France would receive the bronze.

The Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin was also stripped of his silver medal for a positive Cera test.

Tags: CERA, Davide Rebellin, doping, EPO, Rashid Ramzi

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Riccardo Ricco, the Italian rider who was ejected from the Tour de France two years ago and handed over a 20-month ban from the sport after testing positive for CERA, the third-generation form of the human growth hormone EPO, has returned to cycling.

His return was condemned by Mark Cavendish who said, ‘It’s like a parasite coming back into the sport’; Ricco may line up against Cavendish in Milan-San Remo race.

From Guardian.co.uk:

The 26-year-old Ricco, a specialist climber, won mountain stages of the 2008 Tour at Super-Besse and the Col’Aspin. Four days after the latter it was revealed that he had given a positive result from a dope test taken after the fourth stage, when he had tried to evade testers. He was expelled from the race and his Saunier-Duval team left with him, firing the Italian from the squad the following day. The original two-year ban, handed down by the Italian Olympic committee, was reduced by four months on appeal to the Court for Arbitration for Sport on the grounds of his co-operation.

Now he plans to return with a small Italian team, Ceramica Flaminia. His ban ends on 10 March and he could find himself facing Cavendish 10 days later in the Milan-San Remo one-day classic, which the British rider won last year, and in the Giro d’Italia a few weeks later.

Cavendish said he is upset with the lack of regret for everybody and everything people like Ricco have damaged.

Tags: CERA, EPO, human growth hormone, Mark Cavendish, Riccardo Ricco, Tour de France

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Even if the Olympics happened few months ago, news are coming out again because of the controversies that some Olympians are facing now. In the re-test conducted for CERA, few Olympics medalists were found positive on taking endurance-enhancing hormone or steroids.

Some Olympics medalist who were found positive for CERA, the new version of endurance-enhancing hormone are Italian Davide Rebellin – who won a silver medal in cycling, Rashid Ramzi – who won Bahrain’s first gold medal, Greece’s Fani Halkia, Ukraine’s heptathlon silver medalist Lyudmila Blonska, Belarussians Vadim Devyatovsky and Ivan Tikhan, who had finished second and third in the men’s hammer.

From Fan IQ:

I know the 2008 Summer Olympics happened eight months ago, but you’ll pleased to know that there are athletes - gold medal winners even – who are still failing drug tests from the Games.

Thanks to Steroid Nation, which should probably change its name to Steroid Universe, we’ve got news today that Rashid Ramzi – who won Bahrain’s first gold medal ever in the men’s 1500m – has tested positive for blood doping.

Ah, but there’s more! Italian Davide Rebellin – who won a silver medal in cycling – also tested positive too. And just to top it all off, so did German cyclist Stefan Schumaker. So why did it take so long to catch them? Retests to check for the newest form of blood doping of course:

The athletes who were found positive with this performance-enhancing hormone like Rashid Ramzi, Davide Rebellin and German cyclist Stefan Schumaker will return their medals and shall face legal sanctions.

There will be more athletes that might be proven positive with steroids or any type of performance-enhancing drugs if the re-test will be done to participants. The re-test results only prove that even Olympics is not free from steroid users, and cheaters.

Tags: CERA, olympics, performance-enhancer hormone, Ramzi, Rebellin, steroid

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This year is Olympic year so it’s more interesting than the previous years as far as doping is concerned.

Remember the canny seven Russian track and field athletes who resorted to urine swapping to pass drug tests?

The International Association of the Athletics Federation officials became suspicious when said women athletes were always present for unannounced random tests. The Russians were also very punctual, arriving at testing places even before the IAAF officials got there.

“There were no ‘no shows’,” one official told Reuters. “The Russians were always there.”

So the officials started storing the athletes’ samples. Further investigation revealed that the latest urine samples provided by the athletes did not match the DNA of the stored samples. The Russians were later suspended. The athletes include Tatyana Tomashova, the two-time world 1,500 meters champion; and Yelena Soboleva, the world indoor 1,500 meters champion.

And who wouldn’t remember the Greek athletes who figured prominently in this year’s doping list because of quite a handful of failed dope tests.

In March, eleven of the 14 members of the Greek weightlifting team tested positive for the steroid methyltrienolone in out-of-competition testing in Athens. Then there was champion hurdler Fani Halkia, sprinter Dimitris Regas, and Anastasios Gousis who got banned for testing positive also for methyltrienolone. All Greek athletes were suspended for doping.

In Tour de France four riders, including the third finisher Bernhard Kohl, were suspended for testing positive for CERA, the new generation variant of the blood-boosting drug EPO

There was Marion Jones’ sprint in and out of jail for her use of performance-enhancing drugs and her involvement in a check fraud case. Jones began her six-month jail term March and was released September 5.

The NFL’s diuretic case also was in the news which involved several athletes who blamed the StarCaps weight-loss pill for their failed dope tests. Pat Williams and Kevin Williams of the Vikings were among the players who tested positive for the masking agent bumetanide.

The Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds anabolic steroids cases also dominated the sports scene in 2008 and are expected to remain in the headlines in 2009. The much-awaited Barry Bonds trial will commence March next year

Tags: Barry Bonds, Bernhard Kohl, Bumetanide, CERA, Fani Halkia, Greek athletes, International Association of Athletics Federation, Kevin Williams, Marion Jones, methyltrienolone, most controversial doping cases, NFL, Pat Williams, Roger Clemens, Russian athletes, steroids, Tour de France, Yelena Soboleva

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To the 2008 Beijing Olympics athletes, to be stripped of medals is a bad, bad way to start 2009. Our advice to them? Take in all in stride. Look at the four riders in this year’s Tour de France who tested for CERA long after the cameras flashed and the medals awarded. Their collective sigh was: C’est la vie!

The International Olympic Committee announced on Tuesday about 500 samples will undergo retroactive testing in January. Of that number are about 400 blood tests to be retested for third-generation drug CERA, while 100 are urine samples which will be tested for insulin. A WADA lab in Cologne, Germany will handle the retesting of the urine samples. According to AP report, the lab has come up with a reliable test for insulin which, like anabolic steroids, is considered a performance-enhancing drug.

IOC’s statement said the tests “will primarily target endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics.” The test results are expected to be in by the end of March.

It was in October when IOC has announced its plan to carry out retroactive testing subsequent to AFLD’s (French anti-doping agency) statement that it will retest samples from the 2008 Tour de France riders. AFLD has developed a more effective method to test blood samples for new generation performance boosters like CERA. The new testing method caught four riders.

Tags: AFLD, anabolic agent, anabolic steroids, Beijing Olympics, CERA, doping, French Anti-Doping Agency, insulin, IOC, performance-enhancing drug, Tour de France

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Don Catlin and his son Oliver are now at the helm of two U.S.-based cycling teams anti-doping programs, according to ESPN.

Pro cycling teams Columbia and Garmin-Slipstream jointly announced on Monday that they had inked a contract with the Anti-Doping Sciences Institute in Los Angeles. ADSI is run by the Catlins.

Both teams’ testing programs were formerly conducted by the Agency for Cycling Ethics which went into the red. The ADSI program will continue where ACE had left off, interpreting samples already in the database.

Garmin and Columbia also received a proposal from Danish anti-doping researcher Rasmus Damsgaard, but they eventually opted for Catlin. Columbia owner Bob Stapleton said Catlin’s program “was the more forward-looking and would add to the body of knowledge in the sport”.

More on this from the ESPN report:

Athletes on both teams will continue to be tested roughly once every two weeks in addition to the tests conducted by other entities including the UCI, cycling’s international governing body. Most of the riders on Columbia and Garmin have been in similar programs for the last two seasons and thus have baseline blood and hormonal profiles already constructed.

In the recent past, independent testing has focused on what is called longitudinal testing, or detecting deviations from an athlete’s normal biomarkers that might indicate use of banned substances or blood doping. The ADSI program will continue to collect blood samples to build profiles, but also will expand urine testing in order to focus on detection of new-generation blood boosters similar to erythropotein, or EPO.

One of those “EPO bio-similar,” CERA, infiltrated the peloton quickly this year. A test was developed almost as quickly, reducing the usual lag time between introduction of a new doping product and its detection. Garmin team director Jonathan Vaughters said his hope is that techniques developed in Catlin’s program will continue to erode the advantage cheaters have over testers — although he doesn’t expect his riders to provide Catlin with any material.

CERA had figured in the doping cases of four riders in this year’s Tour de France, including third-placer Bernhard Kohl. The Austrian cyclist also donned the polka dot jersey for this year’s best climber. Kohl was suspended for two years because of the doping infringement.

ADSI will also continue to test for “traditional” performance enhancers, i.e. testosterone, anabolic steroids, cortisone, and masking agents.

Tags: anabolic steroids, Bob Stapleton, CERA, Columbia cycling team, cycling, Don Catlin, EPO, Garmin Slipstream, Jonathan Vaughters, Oliver Catlin, WADA

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One Times Online article labeled International Olympic president Jacques Rogge as a “deluded individual” when Rogge expressed his displeasure of Usain Bolt’s celebration of his victory at Beijing. Usain earned Rogge’s rebuke when the Jamaican sprinter failed to shake hands with his co-competitors after his impressive win at the 100 meters.

However, Rogge’s recent interview with the BBC’s Inside Sport, as related by AFP, portrayed a very pragmatic man. The IOC president said those who aspire for a 100 percent drug-free Olympics were out of touch with reality. He added cheating will always be part of human nature.

“I think one has to be realistic,” Rogge said.

“Drug-free sport in general is Utopia. It will be naive to believe that no-one will take drugs.

“There are about 400 million people practicing sport on this globe, there are not 400 million saints on earth.

“Cheating is embedded in human nature and doping is to sport what criminality is to society.

“You will always need cops and judges and prisons and jails and rules and regulations.”

IOC is planning to catch more users of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancers as it’s currently implementing re-testing of the samples taken at the Beijing Olympics. The IOC head “expects further positive doping cases to emerge from these” up to 2016 Games.

Rogge said all the samples they obtained from Beijing – more than 5,000 screenings, including nearly 1,000 blood samples – will be available for retroactive testing. The blood samples will be screened for new generation performance-enhancing drugs CERA and insulin. And if new testing techniques will emerge between now and 2016, the same samples will go through re-testing.

“We are keeping the samples for eight years and we are going to re-test them,” said Rogge.

“And ultimately the judgment on the Beijing Games will be given in eight years’ time, because each time a new scientific test is coming up we are going to re-test.”

Rogge assumed the IOC position on July 2001, replacing Juan Antonio Samaranch. Rogge has his share of criticisms and the most recent of these were his disapproval of Bolt’s behavior (mentioned above) and his statement regarding Greek athletes. He allegedly stated that “Greece won the gold medal in doping” because of a spate of failed dope tests of Greek athletes.

Tags: anabolic steroids, BBC, Beijing Olympics, CERA, doping in sport, Greek athletes, insulin, International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, performance boosters, steroids, Usain Bolt

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This year’s Tour de France best climber Bernhard Kohl receives a two-year suspension from the Austrian anti-doping agency (NADA).

Kohl, who also finished third overall in this year’s race, had tested positive for the blood booster CERA, the latest version of exogenous erythropoietin aka EPO.

The 26-year-old rider met with NADA on Nov. 24 and his suspension was announced after the closed door meeting. Contrary to earlier speculation that he will fully cooperate with authorities and reveal his drug source, Kohl did not reveal his drug source.

“Bernhard is willing to cooperate and he will tell about how he got the substance and how and where he used it,” Kohl’s manager Stefan Matschiner stated prior to the meeting with NADA.

The chairman of NADA’s disciplinary committee, Gernot Schaar, said Kohl did not divulge any details on how he got the CERA, a new variant of erythropoietin aka EPO.

“He did not name any names of the men behind his doping use,” Schaar said. “That means there could be no doubt about the penalty.”

Kohl’s could have gotten a lesser penalty had he fully cooperated with authorities.

“I’ve made my statement and I’ve been honest,” Kohl said. “If it’s appreciated (by NADA), it will be a good sign for the sport.”

Kohl was disappointed that he still got the maximum penalty despite coming out clean with his admission.

“It’s a shame that I got the same penalty as someone who denies everything. This is the wrong way. I definitely made clear how I got it and what my reasons behind it were.”

Matschiner, who did not attend the meeting, also expressed his disappointment with the verdict.

“I really hoped his cooperative attitude would have lowered the penalty,” Matschiner was quoted as saying in an interview with Austrian media after the announcement of the ban.

Tags: Austrian anti-doping agency, Bernhard Kohl, CERA, doping, EPO, Stefan Matschiner, Tour de France

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