This 2008 Tour de France’s riders might have crossed the finished lines several weeks ago, but it looks like the rigors of the race is not yet over. The rigors of Tour de France drug screening, that is.

Retroactive testing for the new generation blood booster CERA, or Continuous Erythopoiesis Receptor Activator, is now being carried out by French laboratories. So far, two riders were caught using the banned compound since the retroactive testing was implemented. It was announced on Monday that Italy’s Leonardo Piepoli and Germany’s Stefan Schumacher both tested positive for CERA.  And race officials are expecting more positive tests in the coming weeks.

“The tests are still underway, they are not all done yet,” French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) head Pierre Bordry told Reuters on Wednesday.

“I imagine there could be one or two more cases,” race director Christian Prudhomme added, in a week when two Tour riders were exposed as drugs cheats.

Italian rider Riccardo Ricco was suspected of taking CERA when the race was still underway in July and was subsequently sent home. Spanish riders Manuel Beltran and Moises Dueňas, tested positive for EPO, and were also sent packing.

Why the late screening?

“People in the street ask me: ‘How did that come out so late?”‘ Prudhomme said. “In July, the process wasn’t legitimate at the time … These tests are of a new type.”

There are two labs which are currently testing the samples from all of the riders who competed in this year’s race.

The Chatenay-Malabry laboratory, which has developed a more effective blood test to find this EPO variant, and a WADA-approved Lausanne facility are testing blood samples. CERA is difficult to detect through urine samples.

“We are testing samples from July 3, 4 and 15,” Bordry said, adding there was no room for error.

“They are all tested by the Chatenay-Malabry lab, which is the official AFLD lab, but also in Lausanne, as a guarantee.”

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Tags: CERA, doping, EPO, French Anti-Doping Agency, Leonardo Piepoli, Manuel Beltran, Moises Duenas, Riccardo Ricco, Stefan Schumacher, Tour de France

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The International Olympic Committee plans to take the same track Tour de France has taken. IOC says blood samples taken at the Beijing Olympics are to be reanalyzed for the EPO (erythropoietin) variant CERA, or Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator.

Oh, we can almost hear Beijing Olympic dopers singing, “Que sera, sera (whatever will be, will be),” as their fates now rest on the hands of the anti-doping officials. From ABS-CBN:

The IOC’s announcement comes 48 hours after reanalyzed samples from the Tour de France using the latest technology unearthed two drug cheats - Germany’s Stefan Schumacher, a double stage winner on this year’s race, and Italian Leonardo Piepoli.

IOC spokesman Emmanuelle Moreau told AFP: “This is part of our normal procedure. We keep the samples for eight years and whenever a new test arrives we carry out new tests.”

The CERA form of EPO was detected for the first time at this year’s Tour in the sample of Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco with a full test developed to combat it by the French laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry.

The laboratory is currently retroactively checking 15 samples from this year’s Tour with two of those producing Schumacher and Piepoli’s positive tests.

It was that double success that “prompted the IOC to retest samples from Beijing,” explained Moreau.

The IOC is now in the process of moving all the Beijing samples to its headquarters in Lausanne before finalizing the conditions and timing of the new tests.

“A joint IOC/WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) commission is going to decide the procedure,” Moreau said.

At the recently concluded Summer Olympics in Beijing, over 1,000 blood samples were taken from participants as part of over 5,000 anti-doping screenings. Testing for CERA is found more effective using blood samples than urine samples.

Over 1,000 blood samples were taken at the Games as part of over 5,000 anti-doping controls. IOC officials bannered the 2008 Beijing Games as one of the ‘cleanest’ in the history of modern Olympics.

Although more than a dozen athletes were tested positive for illegal substances in the months leading up to the Beijing Olympics, only six athletes tested positive for banned compounds when the Beijing Olympics went underway. Spanish cyclist Maria Isobel Moreno was the first athlete to be ejected from the Games when she tested positive for EPO. The other athletes tested positive either for anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.

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The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) issued a two-year ban to Riccardo Ricco on Thursday after the rider admitted that he engaged in doping during this year’s Tour de France.

After winning two stages of the Tour, Ricco has tested positive for CERA, or Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator, which is an advanced variety of blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). Ricco has been riding on the UCI ProTeam Saunier Duval-Scott since 2006, but was ejected from the team due to his doping violations.

The 25-year-old climbing specialist was hoping his admission would entail a reduced ban, but got the maximum penalty due to another offense.

CONI reduced the doping part of the ban by six months from the ma¬¬ximum two years. But they also added six months because Ricco had gone to Carlo Santuccione, a physician who had already been penalized for doping infringements.

“I’m very disappointed and bitter. I expected better understanding,’’ Ricco said. “But I made a mistake and it’s fair that I pay.’’

Ricco’s lawyers indicated they would likely appeal to the Court of Ar¬¬bit¬ra¬tion for Sport (CAS).

“Something is not working in sports justice, because if Ricco had not collaborated he would have received the same ban of two years,’’ Ricco’s lawyer Alessandro Sivelli said. “If he had stayed quiet, Santuccione’s name would never have come out.’’

The ban expires on July 30, 2010, disallowing Ricco from participating in the next two editions of the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.

Roche, the pharmaceutical company which developed CERA, has been involved in a controversy several months ago. It started when WADA president John Fahey had issued a warning to dopers that during its manufacture, Roche implanted a molecule to help anti-doping officials to detect its illicit use. The company has denied Fahey’s claim, saying CERA does not contain said stealth molecule.

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Moises Duenas, Riccardo Ricco, Dmitri Fofonov and Manuel Beltran can be collectively called as the Four Bikemen of Champ-Elysees. However, the four cyclists – unlike their horse-riding counterparts - are not the harbingers of the destruction of cycling. These four riders, who have tested positive for banned compounds in the recently concluded Tour de France, are actually the representatives of the dynamics of the sport.

According to University of Vermont assistant professor Brian Gilley doping and cycling go hand in hand. And you’ve got to believe what this guy is saying since he’s a recreational cyclist and an anthropologist to boot. We just hope that by recreational cyclist he means a rider of bi-pedaled vehicle and not a person who cycles anabolic steroids.

Anyway, Prof. Gilley authoritatively states that the use of performance-enhancing drugs, such as steroids an EPO, has been prevalent in cycling “because the stakes are high and athletes are looking for ways to advance.”

Therefore, cycling fans should not expect squeaky clean pro cycling events not now, and maybe never, as long as there the lure of these twins – fame and fortune.  The sponsors, team owners, and race organizers typically turn a blind eye on athletes who use banned compounds. These athletes, after all, are their sources of bread and butter – and by that we don’t mean your normal breakfast staple.

Here’s the rest of the article by the Burlington Freepress.com

…Gilley has recently begun studying doping in professional road cycling. Thanks to a $10,000 grant from the World Anti-Doping Association, Gilley is examining rider attitudes toward doping with the hope of understanding what role the cycling institution has had in the proliferation of doping.

“You look at the nature of doping not just as acts of moral failure, but you look at how cycling as a culture was working to support doping,” Gilley said.

In all the work that has been produced on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in professional road cycling, there is little critical examination on the motivation behind doping, Gilley said. For the past year, he has been studying elite under-23 cyclists’ openness to doping. He found that of his American participants — he has studied cyclists from France, Italy and Belgium, as well — 20 percent said they would dope if they could be on a ProTour team or win the Tour de France.

In Europe, where road cycling is far more popular and profitable than in the U.S., the pressures to dope are overwhelming, Gilley suggests. While not an apologist for doping, Gilley argues that “in many ways, it makes sense to dope.”

Many of the professional road cyclists on top European teams such as Liquigas, Credit Agricole and Quick Step come from working-class backgrounds, Gilley says. Unlike in the U.S., where professional cyclists typically have college degrees, European pros have limited options beyond cycling and little to fall back on if their careers don’t work out, he said. The pressure to dope comes with the territory.

“Using performance-enhancing drugs has become embedded in pro cycling,” Gilley said. “It’s become an assumed part of the sport.”

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Tour de France 2008 is described as a doping-scarred race and considering that four riders have been found out to be using steroids that description is no surprise. Kazakhstan’s Dmitri Fofonov was tested positive for a banned substance on his final day of the Tour.

The 31-year-old Fofonov’s now belongs to the infamous roster of those who commit the mortal sin (read: performance-enhancing drug use) of professional sports. He was tested positive for the drug heptaminol after the 18th stage on Thursday. A “very high dose” apparently is what gave away Fofonov. His flimsy excuse of taking the drug to fight cramps was not accepted by his team Credit Agricole – he was given the high kick out.

According to the head of France’s anti-doping agency, Fofonov was arrested at team’s hotel and was later held for questioning. We wonder if he asked for his heptaminol when he suffered cramps sitting on some French interrogation room.

From AP:

The doping bust — first reported on the Web site of French sports daily L’Equipe — was the fourth at this Tour. Word of the failed test came with some teams still riding farewell laps on the Champs-Elysees.

…said the rider was asked whether he had a medical exemption for heptaminol, and Fofonov did not provide one. The stimulant is used as a vasodilator that helps relieve bronchial spasms.
“Fofonov said he bought the product on the Internet,” said Roger Legeay, sporting director of Credit Agricole. “He says that it was for cramps, but that he forgot to tell the team doctor.”

Legeay confirmed Fofonov’s dismissal and called his conduct a “grave error.”

In an ABC News news report, Legeay offered basically the same castigatory statements:

“He has failed to respect our basic team rules,” Credit Agricole manager Roger Legeay said.
“No products can be taken by any riders unless they have prior authorisation from the team doctor.

“He has made a mistake, which can happen, but it’s not good news for us or for him.”

Fofonov is the fourth rider from the Tour to have tested positive for a banned substance.
Italian Riccardo Ricco, and Spanish duo Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas all tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) and were thrown out of the race.

The 31-year-old Fofonov, from Almaty, turned professional in 1998. Since 2000 he has competed with only French teams, picking up just three wins: the national time trial title (2000), a stage on the Tour of Catalonia (2002) and a stage on the Dauphine Libere earlier this year.

If there’s anything positive that has come out of this – other than the doping test, of course – is that Fofonov now is one of the most recognizable names in pro cycling (he even merited a space in Wikipedia). Maybe even overshadowing Spaniard rider Carlos Sastre who wore the symbolic yellow jersey at the conclusion of the Tour.

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