Cipo on Tyler, Botero et al - and 2nd chances

SuperMario Cipollini is back in the pro peleton at almost 41 years of age and has this sober assessment of rule-breakers and consequences:
Any sort of lead-out train like the days of old will be limited because Team Rock Racing only started with five riders. The team was not able to start with Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla or Santiago Botero due to their links with cycling's Operación Puerto. "I had said to [Team Owner Michael] Ball there months ago that cycling has taken a new direction," Cipollini continued on the exiled riders. "Now, he has the proof. He is a young go-getter that would like to turn the world upside down. ... You are not able to put yourself against the UCI [International Cycling Union] and the rules. I can say that I agree with the fact that those who make a mistake deserve a second chance, but the reality is this."

Astana spend 460,000 Euros on anti-doping - still get dumped by ASO

Bye-bye Le Tour for Astana. Unless ASO does an almighty backflip there will be no invitation this year to Le Tour de France for the Astana team and their star riders. Riders who last year secured both 1st and 3rd, may I add. With stakes so high on either side - ASO desperately wants a drug-free Tour and Astana just want to race on the biggest stage - it may be that this ban gets contested all the way to July.

CN reports: The Astana team was given a resounding vote of no confidence on Wednesday when the Tour de France organiser, Amaury Sport Organisation, announced that the team would not be invited to any of the ASO's events. This means its star, Alberto Contador, will not be able to defend his titles in either the Tour or the upcoming Paris-Nice.

Just my opinion, but who can blame ASO? Whilst Bruyneel may claim - quite rightly - that this is a new Astana with the right attitude and tough anti-doping rules and testing in place, this is also a team that in 2007 fostered the up and down roller-coaster ride that was Vinokourov (blood doper). And Kashechkin (blood doper). And Kessler (testosterone abuser). And a team that has managed to bring into the fold the remains - both key riders and managers - of a fairly tight-knit, successful and at times questionable Discovery team. I say 'questionable' advisedly, however there are enough books and websites written on the subjects of Armstrong, Landis and Basso for you to gather some answers - or simply more questions - for yourself.

When you reflect on Astana's hasty creation from the charred remains of the bloodied corpse of Liberty Seguros - and its dreadfully tarnished image since - you have to wonder if ASO can afford to risk Le Tour's reputation once more. Obviously not, at this stage anyway.

Hondo's redemption

Danilo Hondo has redeemed himself in the Tour de Langkawi:
After signaling his intentions with a solo breakaway earlier in the day's stage, sprinter Danilo Hondo (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli) claimed his first victory in two seasons. The Malaysian stage race is the German's first event since returning from a doping suspension after testing positive for carphedon at the 2005 Vuelta a Murcia.

Want to know more about drugs, blood and sports performance?

Just search the Internet. Here's something interesting: Various other factors can affect the rate of erythropoiesis by influencing erythropoietin production. Thyroid hormones, thyroid-stimulating hormone, adrenal cortical steroids, adrenocorticotrophic hormone, and human growth hormone (HGH) all promote erythropoietin formation and so enhance red blood cell formation (erythropoiesis). In thyroid deficiency and anterior pituitary deficiency, anaemia may occur due to reduced erythropoiesis. Polycythaemia (excess red blood cell production) is often a feature of Cushing's syndrome. However, very high doses of steroid hormones seem to inhibit erythropoiesis. Androgens (male hormones) stimulate and oestrogens (female hormones) depress the erythropoietic response. In addition to the effects of menstrual blood loss, this effect may explain why women tend to have a lower haemoglobin concentration and red cell count than men. Plasma levels of erythropoietin are raised in hypoxic conditions (low oxygen levels). This produces erythrocytosis (increase in the number of circulating erythrocytes) and the condition is known as secondary polycythaemia.

What's it all mean? Well...

1. erythropoiesis is essentially the production of red blood cells, and the more you have of those babies the better your oxygen transport capacity
2. erythropoietin or EPO is the substance that triggers production of red blood cells - the more EPO you have the more red blood cells are triggered to mature in the bone marrow
3. EPO production is normally in your kidneys but lately pharmaceutical companies have built factories to make it as well, for medicinal reasons only, of course
   
4. Thyroid hormones, thyroid-stimulating hormone, adrenal cortical steroids (like glucocorticosteroids or Prednisone) , adrenocorticotrophic hormone, and human growth hormone (HGH) all promote erythropoietin formation, which again means more red blood cells in your blood; however before you all rush off to secure illegal supplies of banned substances let's note that the side-effects of these substances on otherwise healthy people will vary from catastrophic to dangerous, and in fact...
   
5. Very high doses of steroid hormones (whatever that means - 50-60mg/day, perhaps of a cortico-steroid?) "seem" to inhibit erythropoiesis, which is to say lower your red cell production and release - and is thus not very good for your bike riding, is it?
   
6. Androgens (ie male hormones, popularly known as the body-building 'steroids' but not to be confused with the stress-response-related and ultimately body-destroying cortico-steroids) stimulate red blood cell production. Great if you are guy, eh? You get big muscles and more red cells just for being born with significant external genitalia! Yippee!
   
7. And the female hormones - the oestrogens - depress the erythropoietic response and lower your red blood count. Not so good for the girls, especially when your balance of hormones changes during the menstrual cycle - which could mean fewer blood cells just when you need 'em
8. Plasma levels of erythropoietin are also raised in hypoxic conditions, which is to say your red blood cell counts go up when you reduce oxygen availability. Naturally this occurs at higher altitudes (like on top of mountains), so you get more aerobic transport capacity in thinner air (which makes sense) but some athletes have been known to simulate this with specially-designed tents that reduce the oxygen content as you sleep; so after a few weeks of acclimatization you wake up with an markedly increased aerobic ability. Some say this is cheating and have outlawed it; others think it's OK and a lot cheaper than travelling to a high-altitude environment and staying there for a month or more...
   
9. And of course blood doping is simply injecting yourself with pre-removed blood, either from yourself or others. It's obviously all a bit risky and involves a cascade of un-natural responses as your body tries to deal with a suddenly elevated volume of blood, but for a little while you have more red cells and more aerobic transport capacity. If you don't die first of course.
   

Now it doesn't make me a doctor of medicine but hopefully it makes more sense now, doesn't it?

Lifetime ban for Alfred, serial offender

You have to admire Stephen Alfred's persistence, if nothing else: At the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Alfred tested positive for norandrosterone. He also tested positive for exogenous testosterone or its precursors and for an elevated testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E) ratio in an out-of-competition test conducted on May 28, 2006. Most recently, he tested positive for hCG on June 10 at the Pan American Cycling Championships in Brazil. The latter two offenses were counted as one by the World Anti-Doping Code.

Rabo riders knew Chicken fibbed, and more

Rasmussen meets the journalist who revealed "the lie that sank the ship" and a teammate admits the Rabo riders knew that "Chicken" wasn't in Mexico when he said he was. Just to remind you, Chicken was leading the biggest bike race in the world when his team pulled him from the race for his little white lie. On the basis that it "probably" covered up a bigger lie, of course, and one that remains unproven and contested by Rasmussen. Oh for some truth and substance, eh?

On the same program where Van Heeswijk made his claims, Rasmussen met Cassani again for the first time since last year's fallout. Cassani expressed his remorse for revealing Rasmussen's lie to the public, "I cried that evening that they sent you home. I felt terrible. I felt as if I had stabbed you in the back," the Italian said. Rasmussen didn't blame him, saying, "I know who sent me home. You told your story in good faith."

Giro opens a can of worms

What a can of worms the 2008 Giro has opened, by excluding 4 ProTour teams. You'd think that there was something intrinsically "wrong" with these teams, to exclude them in this overtly political way. They are ProTour teams after all, and effectively part of the premier league of cycling. So exclusion becomes a sporting issue, and it matters. The obvious question arises - is it for "drug issues", a taint that seemingly can't be overcome? Or something else?

One such "something else" is the tendency of some teams to use the Giro as training for Le Tour. Surely that includes quiet a few other teams, not just this lot.

Read the CN story here: Angelo Zomegnan, the head of Giro organizer RCS Sport, said that the decision was not simple. "There were many requests and too many problems weighing on the past histories major teams related to doping," he told Gazzetta dello Sport. "This has not been an easy decision, and we have had to leave out large teams like Astana and the illustrious Italians Stefano Garzelli [Acqua & Sapone], Marco Pinotti [Team High Road] and Pietro Caucchioli [Crédit Agricole]."

And the UCI reaction is here: UCI President Pat McQuaid reacted Wednesday to the omission of four ProTour teams from the Giro d'Italia start list by race organizer RCS. He said it was like "taking a step back 20 years."

The excluded teams are Astana, High Road (formerly T-Mobile), Credit Agricole and Bouygues Telecom (all ProTour) plus the Professional Continental team Acqua & Sapone of former Giro champion Stefano Garzelli. That's a big chunk of talented riders to remove from contention.