15 Le Tour 2008 samples to be retested

We already knew that 30 riders were in the frame for biological passport anomalies, now we know that 15 riders are being targeted from the 2008 Tour de France as well. (There may or may not be some overlap here as we have different agencies at work - seemingly competing for top prize in dope sleuthing.) An earlier unconfirmed suggestion was that the 15 were targeted from the top 20 riders in last year's tour. If true, there will be some big names here... and none of them will be from Astana...

The French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) will re-examine urine samples from the 2008 Tour de France according to comments made on Sunday by the agency's President, Pierre Bordry. "Before this year's Tour start in Monaco, we warned some 15 riders that in conformity with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code, we would analyze retrospectively (the) samples taken in the 2008 Tour," Bordry told Reuters.

Cyclocrosser Albert thinks it impossible to win w/o dope

Well ain't that a shock? A cyclocrosser - albeit a really good one - thinks that the top road guys can't win Le Tour without some assistance. Well it could be training, teamwork, nutrition - whatever - but it could also be something else. How would we know. How does Albert know?

Google Translate: "The Belgian Niels Albert, current world number one Cyclo, in an interview with Belgian magazine Humo commented that winning the Tour de France without doping is impossible. Albert, nacido hace 22 años y actualmente en las filas del equipo Palmans, en la entrevista, entre otras cosas dice que 'para ganar el Tour hay que utilizar buenos productos. Es una carrera muy dura, de tres semanas en la que los cambios de ritmo son continuos, llano, montaña, sol, frío y la media final de la carrera es de unos 42 kilómetros por hora'. Albert, born 22 years ago and now in the ranks of the team Palmans, in the interview, among other things says that 'to win the Tour you have to use good products. It is a very tough race in three weeks in which the changes rates are continuous, flat, mountain, sun, cold and final half of the race is about 42 kilometers per hour. '

El ciclista belga, que lidera en estos momentos la Copa del Mundo y el Trofeo Superprestigio de ciclocross, dice que 'esta modalidad ciclista es diferente. Una hora de competición también en circuitos y condiciones climatológicas que no siempre son iguales, pero después hay tiempo para recuperar hasta la próxima prueba'. The Be"

Ex-Serbian cycling coach arrested in doping raid

Just thought that this was interesting... obviously no comment of course...

The Associated Press: Cops arrest ex-Serbia cycling coach in doping raid: "ROME — Italian police have arrested Serbia's former national cycling coach in an alleged doping ring involving both professional and amateur riders in northeastern Italy.

Police in Padua said in a statement Thursday that another 30 people were suspected of being involved in the doping ring, including 12 professional cyclists, executives of pharmaceutical companies and three directors of cycling teams. They are suspected of smuggling banned substances, including the banned blood booster CERA.

Police allege that Alexandar Nikacevic, the former Serbia coach, had a central role in the ring. Most of the other suspects were Italian."

Russian federation acts on 3 cases

Cyclingnews.com reports that the Russian cycling federation has acted on 3 cases: Ilnur Zakarin, 19 years old and European junior time-trial champion in 2007, was suspended two years after testing positive for the forbidden anabolic methandienone. The product introduced in the 1960s was very popular with bodybuilders for building up body mass. It has been banned in the United States, but is still readily available in Russia.

Former Russian mountain bike champion Ykaterina Melnikova, 22, was also banned for two years for the same product.

Mountain biker Kiril Bozhenko, 22, was banned for one year after testing positive for carphedon. The Russian-developed drug is said to increase physical stamina and improve tolerance for cold.

Russian athletes in other disciplines have been suspended for the use of carphedon in 2006 and 2008. In cycling, German Danilo Hondo was suspended after testing positive for it in 2005.

Here we go again - Dekker's EPO problem

Well it was 2 years ago, almost:

Dutch cyclist Thomas Dekker has failed a drugs test for the performance-improving hormone erythropoietin and been scrapped from his team for this year's Tour de France race. The test relates to a urine sample given in December 2007. Dekker was part of the Rabobank cycling team at the time, but was sacked last year. The reason was never made clear, Elsevier.nl reports.

But apparently it wasn't clear exactly what he took... until now.

The Dutch rider's haematological profile led the UCI to review the EPO analyses for urine samples conducted since the introduction of the biological passport programme. An anti-doping laboratory in Cologne, Germany, re-examined the December 2007 sample, and on June 20 reported finding EPO in the same.