Post Olympic wrap-up continues. Rebellin, now Schumacher post-dated and positive?

It seems like a strange, leaky system (or cistern?), this post-Olympic drug-doping-dripfeed. We get told there are a number of athletes suspected, but we can't say who because we have to be absolutely certain. And so we speculate about who may be involved. And then we get told that a cyclist is involved, and that it's the talented Italian one-day rider, Rebellin. I guess that was both not a surprise, as he seems able to pull rabbits out of hats at times, and a shock, as why would he want to sully his brilliant career?

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has opened an investigation into Davide Rebellin as a result of a positive doping control at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. It has immediately prohibited the Italian, 37, from competing and called him to Rome for a hearing on May 4 at 12:00.

Rebellin will defend the accusations. The Italian Olympic Committee saw it as a virtue to name names early, rather than keep everything in the dark:

"We are the only Olympic committee that has released a communiqué. We are the only ones who communicated all of this with transparency. Today the Corriere della Sera newspaper wrote that 'CONI lost a silver medal, but won the transparency battle,'" a spokesman for the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) told Cyclingnews.

And then, having been prompted by the Italians, more names emerge:

Stefan Schumacher is the second cyclist confirmed to have tested positive for Erythropoietin (EPO) derivative CERA at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The German cycling federation (Bund Deutscher Radfahrer, BDR) confirmed the news of its cyclist Wednesday afternoon.

No suprise that Schumacher is caught again, of course. Allegedly, pending hearings and all that jazz. And it doesn't end with cycling, either:

Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi, the 1500-meter champion and his country's first gold medalist in track, was among three track athletes—and a half-dozen Olympians in all—snagged in the latest game of cat-and-mouse between cheaters and those who try to nail them.

Allegedly, of course.

If all of that has some stamp of authority, there's also this story about the T-Mobile team from 2006, based on absence rather than proof, and assumption rather than evidence:

How many of the T-Mobile Team went to Freiburg University Clinic for a blood transfusion during the Tour de France 2006? The German news magazine Spiegel reports that an independent commission investigating the case believes that three riders went to the clinic, but also uncovered further evidence that seven riders within the team may have had some sort of blood "manipulation". The magazine states that the commission "assumes" that Andreas Klöden, Matthias Kessler and Patrik Sinkewitz travelled to the clinic for blood transfusions on the night of the first stage of the 2006 Tour de France. There is no mention of whether the remaining four non-German riders on the team participated in the trip.

It all sounds very flimsy, indeed. And all denied, of course.

US rider Lange cops 2-year suspension for ye olde strychnine

It's nice to see the old herbal remedies are still in use, but this may be going too far...

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has announced that Michael Lange has accepted a two-year suspension due to a positive drug test while competing at the 2008 Tour of Qinghai Lake in China. Lange tested positive for strychnine, a stimulant, as a result of a urine test carried out on July 15, 2008 during the Tour of Qinghai Lake.

Wkipedia says this: Although it is best known as a poison, small doses of strychnine were once used in medications as a stimulant, a laxative and as a treatment for other stomach ailments. A 1934 drug guide for nurses described it as "among the most valuable and widely prescribed drugs".[2] Strychnine's stimulant effects also led to its use historically for enhancing performance in sports.[3] Because of its high toxicity and tendency to cause convulsions, the use of strychnine in medicine was eventually abandoned once safer alternatives became available.

As a home, or away-from-home remedy it doesn't sound too safe to me.

Tyler Hamilton, depressed, desperate and retired

Tyler Hamilton has achieved far more in cycling than most of us, and at 38 he can feel proud of what he has done athletically. Many will say he underachieved, and that may be true... He has also incurred the wrath of officialdom and his peers, firstly for succumbing to blood doping, and now for what seems a fairly innocuous and desperate attempt to restore his mental health at a time of personal pain. Whilst we all go through pain and loss in our lives, not all of us take medication to deal with it, nor do all of us need it. We can't see inside Tyler's head and feel his pain, or know why he weakened and took a product that he knew would in all likelihood end his cycling career. But he did it, and he accepts his fate. Having denied the blood doping, he now is open about the DHEA. It's almost trivial, but in some way it's fitting that by his own hand he moves on.

His latest offence and some background:
"Hamilton claims he took the suggested dosage for two days prior to the out-of-competition urine test. USADA's legal limit of DHEA found in the urine is 100ng/mL. Hamilton's urine sample was tested at UCLA where lab technicians found 130 ng/mL of DHEA in his urine sample. Dr. Paul Scott, founder of Scott Analytics, reviewed the testing procedure for the B sample...

"Dr. Charles Welch, at Mass General hospital in Boston diagnosed Hamilton with clinical depression in 2003. He was prescribed Celexa as an anti-depressant for the next six years. According to Hamilton, he took amounts double the prescribed dosage for two weeks in January when his mental health declined further after his mother was diagnosed with cancer."

Tyler doesn't need further pain with this result, he needs some distance from pro cycling and continued support from family and friends. I hope he gets exactly that.

Mystery doper "K" uncovered? #cycling

Strange days indeed. Most dopers get caught out, named and shamed. But others get caught, tell all, do a deal and remain nameless: The Austrian cyclist arrested in March for dealing in doping products has admitted to using doping products and also giving them to five or six colleagues and friends. However, he denied making any financial profit on the dealings. The rider's name has never been publicly released and he has officially been identified only as "K". However, the Austrian Continental team RV ARBÖ Wels Gourmetfein announced that it had cancelled its contract with Christof Kerschbaum, whom it said was "in all probability" the rider involved..

It's all a bit unfair if it isn't Kerschbaum, of course. And I for one don't know who the heck "K" might be...

Kohl admits to doping from 2005 onwards #cycling

What seemed to be a case of crash-and-recover-quicker-with-"insert drug here" has become more of a whole-of-pro-career effort. Full details here: Bernhard Kohl, winner of the mountains classification and third overall at the Tour de France, told investigators the names of all the people who helped him dope. The Austrian included the name of the person who provided him the blood booster CERA-EPO for which he tested positive for at the Tour de France, he said at a press conference Tuesday evening in Vienna, Austria.

It will be hard to come back from here, surely. Not hard to feel some sympathy though for someone who was clearly sucked into a toxic vortex of deceit at a young - but adult - age.

Valverde's Spanish DNA found in Italian swoop on Le Tour? #cycling

It's getting to be ridiculous (IMHO) but Operation Puerto staggers on... it's shut, then its open. Then it shuts again. Now the Italians allegedly use the Puerto DNA to allegedly pin Valverde to the alleged wall for a doping test on Italian soil during the (alleged) 2008 Le Tour. Is it legal? Will it stack up? Is it a witch-hunt?

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) requested a two-year suspension on Wednesday in Rome for Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde. CONI reportedly used DNA evidence to connect the 28-year-old Caisse d'Epargne rider to the Operación Puerto investigation.

Let the 2009 Le Tour doping scandal season begin! (Don't forget that Puerto promised alleged links with soccer and tennis stars, too. It's not just about the bike!)