Piepoli and Schumacher - positive is so negative

According to unconfirmed reports, Leonardo Piepoli - who had seemingly admitted and then denied doping - has tested positive at the 2008 TdF to CERA. No surprise there, really. More surprising, perhaps - although many would have found it easy to believe at the time, when he seemed to be riding out of his skin - is Stefan Schumacher, positive in the same way. Funny how those unbelievable results turn out to be so - umm, unbelievable?

The German who rides for Holczer's soon to be defunct Gerolsteiner team won both of the time trials in this year's Tour, taking the yellow jersey after his win on stage four and holding it for two days before crashing during the sprint into Super Besse on stage six. His second win came on stage 20 where he beat world champion Fabian Cancellara.

I trust we can rely on at least some of our 'unbelievable' riders. Those that are consistently amazing, like Cancellara for example, draw less suspicion for their performances. Let's hope that trust is repaid. (Alternatively, if it's not working anyway - let's just ditch this 'detection and punishment' model completely and be fair to everyone.)

Do I smell smoke?

The speculation just keeps growing. It's been bubbling away since Le Tour ended... then died a bit as we got on with life. However the Schleck family saga has played a part in re-igniting interest. You know, the father's car was inspected, then months later son Frank is implicated (without proof, as yet) in Operation Puerto. And now we all wonder, who are these masked men? And will they be unmasked in 2 weeks or so?

Anti-doping expert Dr. Rasmus Damsgaard, who runs an independent testing system for the Team CSC-Saxo Bank and Astana teams, noted in July that he felt the EPO use in the peloton had not been adequately dealt with. After examining the data from several tests which had been declared negative by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) laboratories, he said the agency was "sitting on a mountain of EPO positives".

French confirm - and retest

French authorities have confirmed those other Tour de France results, and promised to retest a few samples that have remaining question marks: Bordry estimated that the additional testing would take no more than 10 or 15 days, which means results could be available as soon as before or during the World Championships in Italy. Several riders tested positive during the 2008 Tour de France including Riccardo Ricco (for EPO-CERA), Manuel Beltran (for EPO) and Dmitriy Fofonov (for the stimulant heptaminol). Ricco's teammate Leonardo Piepoli also confessed to his team manager to using the same banned substance as Ricco. Moises Dueñas Nevado secured his place on the doper's list Wednesday after his "B" sample came back positive for EPO, confirming "A" sample results. He had previously confessed to using the banned substance.

Don't you just love the suspense? And the timing!

Frigo, EPO, his wife, her car

Not a new story, more the court report: Albertville court gave former Italian cyclist Dario Frigo and his wife, Susanna, each a six-month suspended prison sentence Monday on charges related to the 2005 Tour de France anti-doping sting, according to The Associated Press. The French court also imposed a €8757 fine on the couple. In July, the prosecutor asked for a one-year sentence. French police found ten doses of EPO (Erythropoietin) in Susanna Frigo's car before the start of stage 11 in Courchevel. Police arrested the couple for carrying prohibited substances.

We can't see all of the evidence here, however they were caught with proscribed substances, and yes that's illegal.

2 years or 3, EPO or no?

More Danish EPO post-Olympic news: Danish mountain biker Peter Riis Andersen received a two year suspension from the doping committee of the Sports Confederation of Denmark after testing positive for EPO prior to the Olympic Games. His suspension runs from July 22, 2008 and covers all training and competition activities within the framework of the Sports Confederation of Denmark.

And comebacks from from various alleged, declared or just retired riders:Lance returns: do we care? Well it will kick up some dust, sure. Lance Armstrong's comeback is in the grand US tradition of retiring at the top yet seeking another "final" blaze of glory. Indeed it can't be easy to step out of the limelight and start a "normal" life, if cancer-survivor LA's life could ever be called normal. So a comeback - a well-planned, targeted one at that - could give LA another shot at proving whatever it is he's trying to prove. His innocence, perhaps?

Panic stations, I've been tested!

Well this would be a difficult situation. You are selected for the Olympics and just don't want to let go of the dream. You have taken some EPO and know you'll get caught if the vampires actually test you, but you just haven't been tested lately - if at all. You expect attention will be on the favourites, not on little ol' you anyway. And then you get called to testing. Sometimes a doper just doesn't turn up, and gets in trouble anyway. And sometimes they get away with it. And sometimes they don't.

Moreno, better known as Maribel Moreno, had been entered for the women's road race and individual time trial and tested positive for the endurance-boosting EPO drug. IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies said Moreno was tested on July 31 and left the city on the same evening. The IOC officially took control of drugs testing on July 27.

Maribel appears to have panicked and broke down in tears after the testing - but before the result. I guess we can understand why. But do we blame her, or her supplier? Or the system?

I'm not saying he's innocent, but...

Then again I am saying something like 'we can't be so certain about these things'. Read it and weep: In the case of Landis, who had no previous record of doping violations, the chances that the positive result could result from anything except cheating - a lab error, an abnormally high natural occurrence of testosterone - were dismissed as not credible. The problem, Mr Berry said, is that for the actual process used by doping labs there is no body of scientific data to show just how rare "false positives" or "false negatives" really are, and that such data is essential for interpreting lab results.

Introducing probabilities into drug testing is interesting and debatable, but I accept the basic premise - that a false positive (or negative) is always possible. Look at Ricco's statement that he took CERA and should have been caught multiple times, but wasn't. Hence we run multiple tests and develop (now, at least) a longitudinal profile of an athlete. So any 'aberrant' values will appear over time and can be tracked without jumping to conclusions over one single test on one sole sample. Even better (or complementary) is the idea for certain pre-identified markers to be identified or inserted into drugs as "tags" that can be easily identified.

So will Landis take this as more evidence for his side of the case, or has he simply agreed to disagree and move on? If he is innocent, what of the human cost here? Are we doing the right thing with these so-called drug "cheats" or are we making what could be unemotional technical points highly emotive and "charged" with guilt, suspicion and pain - and thus feeding the media monster instead of protecting the athletes?

Giro hero Sella caught out

It doesn't take too much to get noticed by the wrong people. Win a few stages, especially in a dramatic way and you can make a real name for yourself. And get 'targeted' by the drug cops.

Winner of three stages and the climber's competition of the Giro d'Italia, Italian Emanuele Sella, has been found positive in an out-of-competition doping control issued by the International Cycling Union (UCI) on July 23, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. The 27 year-old from Vicenza was found to have used the same third generation EPO – CERA (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator) – that Riccardo Riccò admitted to using in the Tour de France. 

Ricco, now Sella. It's certainly a good advert for CERA. It works. 

Ricco admits to EPO and suggests test failure

At least he's honest - eventually. Riccò has withdrawn his request to have a counter-analysis done on the B-sample, but said that the testing procedure needed some work. "Of the 10 controls taken, only two were positive. In theory all the tests should have been positive, therefore the method needs to be checked," he said.

I guess the tests need a bit of work, then? On this basis maybe a few other riders, other than those lucky enough to not get tested, slipped the net. (Bearing in mind the biological passports will help, but only if no-exceptions longitudinal analysis is done.)

Hearsay and rumour

It's just talk, but there was talk about Ricco too, before he fell off the doping cliff. Via CN, El Pais reported that Italian Leonardo Piepoli, the winner of stage 10, confessed to his directeur sportif Joxean Fernandez Matxin to using EPO. After his team-mate Riccardo Riccò was taken away by police after testing positive for EPO, Piepoli reportedly said to Matxin, "I have done the same as Riccardo." No positive doping control has been announced yet for Piepoli, but the team's manager, Mauro Gianetti, pulled the entire squad out of the race. Riccò was indicted on the same charges as Duenas in a court in Foix, but denied using EPO.

No, not Piepoli, please!

Slight irony in that blood-doper, Tour star and denier Tyler Hamilton's continuing comeback is reported on in the same page of CN: Rock Racing's Tyler Hamilton looks set to take the overall victory in the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China tomorrow after he successfully defended his lead in the second to last stage through the high Mountains on the Tibetan Plateau.

Not to mention Duenas

It's never too late to mention a rider caught out, is it? For the record, another non-negative for EPO in this year's tour: Spanish rider Moisés Dueñas has become the second rider to register a non-negative test for banned blood booster erythropoietin at the Tour de France. The results came from a sample taken from the Barloworld rider after the Grand Tour's first time trial, Stage 4 on July 8 in Cholet, according to head of the French Anti-doping Agency (AFLD) Pierre Bordry.

Ricco takes Pantani too literally

Self-confessed Pantani fan with a 'naturally high' haematocrit has seemingly been caught out. And is thus out of Le Tour and into police custody. What can one say? Beltran at least was at the end of his career... what was Ricco thinking?

Italian rider Riccardo Riccò of Saunier Duval has tested positive for blood booster Erythropoietin (EPO), French sports daily L'Equipe reported on its website on Thursday. According to the paper's Damien Ressiot, one of the climber's urine samples collected by the French Anti-Doping Agency AFLD showed traces of a third generation EPO called CERA (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator).

Of course he could be innocent. Of course.

Beltran exits stage left

One of Lance's faithful lieutenants has been caught out with EPO. Yes, it's been a while since Lance raced with the guy, and there's no evidence to suggest that Beltran used EPO before this year, but one's mind does wonder at why he should do so now. The obvious answer is to make it a bit easier in the twilight of his career. A career now effectively ended, I suspect.

Dane Bjarne Riis, head of Team CSC-Saxo Bank, looked at the positive side of Manuel Beltrán's "A" sample test result which resulted in the dismissal of the "scandalous" Spaniard from the Tour de France. He said the sport's anti-doping controls were working. "It is bad for cycling, without saying it is a 'scandal' – he is the 'scandal,'" said Riis to Cyclingnews the morning after Beltrán was asked to leave the Tour de France for his positive Erythropoietin (EPO) test. "The controls work. The system works. Those who don't understand, like him, have to leave." The classification rider of Team Liquigas was caught in a French anti-doping agency (AFLD) control following stage one that led to a positive EPO result. All the Tour de France controls are being carried out by the AFLD, which is different than in past years when handled by the International Cycling Union (UCI).

Of course Riis is right, and the kerfuffle has already died down. Let's hope that's it for Le Tour and Le Dope Scandal this year.

Professionalism re-defined

What makes a professional bike racer? Is it someone who simply rides for cash? Is it a racer who also rides clean? Or is it a bike rider who does everything possible to maintain optimum performance? Including doping?

With that thought in mind, here's an interesting quote from David Millar, via CN: Millar walks through his career, saying he was naive about the prevalence of doping in the sport when he started as an amateur and said doping "went against everything I stood for." Millar then speaks about a point in his early days as a professional after he won a race when he showed a team-mate that his natural hematocrit level at the time was 8 points below the UCI allowable 50 percent. "I saw it as showing him that you could win without doping," Millar says in the show but adds that his team-mates response was that Millar was unprofessional to not have a hematocrit level right at the allowable limits. The message, he said, was that doping was considered normal and expected.

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?

Prescription EPO... for depression...

Well this is interesting.... imagine a rider who is 'suffering' depression, perhaps because they are not winning? OK, too obvious. Perhaps they really are clinically depressed. In the near future they may well be prescribed EPO to lift their spirits... I'm feeling depressed just thinking about it!
From Physorg.com: A search for novel treatment strategies in coping with depression has revealed that erythropoietin, or Epo, a hormone naturally produced by the kidneys to stimulate the formation of red blood cells, affects cognitive and associated neural responses in humans, and could potentially be used in the treatment of depression. The study, published in Biological Psychiatry by Oxford University researchers based at the Department of Experimental Psychology and the Warneford Hospital, Oxford, found that Epo, known as a treatment for anaemia, modulates human brain activity associated with the processing of emotion.

Dope of the day: Ascani outed, Pinotti benefits

It's the new way to win. You come 2nd, wait a bit and bingo! You don't get the glory on the day but what the heck, it's still on your palmares. From CN: Ascani faces suspension for EPO Italian cyclist Luca Ascani could face a two-year suspension after he tested positive for EPO at the Italian National Championships. The Italian Olympic Committee announced Friday that the 'B' sample has confirmed the initial positive result and his exact sanction will be decided at a hearing which has yet to be scheduled. Ascani tested positive after winning the time trial and was suspended on August 2. His title was handed down to second placed Marco Pinotti.

Everyone gets a mention

Swiss cycling enthusiast and Astana main man Marc Biver appears to get a mention in for everyone, from Vino to Ferrari via Rominger... from CN:
Biver defended Michele Ferrari, whom he has known since the "EPO years [90's]." I always found him very direct, honest and nice. Back then he already made great training plans. I can't judge him by anything else, I don't have proof," said Biver, who also pointed out that Vino tested positive, which he didn't think was Ferrari's wrong-doing. Astana's general manager also said that his relationships with Tony Rominger had not suffered. The former professional was a client of Ferrari in the past and managed several riders involved in doping cases, including Astana's Kessler and Vinokourov.

Old dope: Camenzind

This goes back a little, but Oscar Camenzind has reserved the right to not name his EPO supplier. Good news for someone, I guess, who can continue to hide in shame and fear.

Dope of the Day: Libardo Nino tests positive... who?

Well he's Columbian and has tested positive, so he gets a jersey in the Dope of the Day comp. EPO, of course.