Freiburg report dumps on big name T-Mobile riders and systemic doping

These are allegations against a culture of doping in one prominent team, a culture that was almost certainly eradicated after a climactic period of exposure and scrutiny in 2006. I must stress also that these are allegations only; that they must be investigated thoroughly before firm conclusions can be drawn. For mine there are too many questions - indeed inconsistencies - surrounding exactly who took what, and where, and why some newly hired riders were considered 'outsiders' and shunned, whereas others were "in". One obvious newcomer - Sinkewitz - was inducted into the system, yet Bartko was isolated, for example.

Having said all of that, it's undeniable that we expected something to come out of it, and it's probably exactly as most of us thought: it wasn't just Ullrich (not that Jan has ever admitted it, we only have the purported DNA link and heaps - bags even - of allegations). And yet it's strange that Ullrich is implicated elsewhere, not directly with this Freiburg issue. It was a systemic issue for the team, but not a consistent one?

Experts investigating the procedures of two Freiburg University Clinic doctors who worked for cycling team T-Mobile allege German rider Andreas Kloeden doped during the 2006 Tour de France.

That's not just an allegation against Kloden, either: The issue returned to prominence last fall, when Patrik Sinkewitz said that he - and possibly others - had driven to Freiburg for illegal blood transfusions during the 2006 Tour de France, only days after team captain Jan Ullrich had been suspended for his connection to Operación Puerto. The report found that doping within the team essentially began when the team was formed and continued relatively unabated through to 2006.

The allegations go back to 1992. That's a lot of riders, some of whom are still prominent in the peleton today, indeed are current Top 10 Grand Tour favourites. It covers EPO, testosterone and blood doping, plus 'magic elixirs', the contents of which are not known.

As always, expect the worst and hope for the best!

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.

The race you win when you aren't racing

I won't comment, really, I won't: When the Kazakh cycling federation handed down its decision in December 2007, the UCI had initially planned an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but subsequently withdrew after Vinokourov announced his retirement from professional cycling. However, on May 31 Vinokourov participated in - and won - the Laurentine Kivilev, a 100 km race held on the French Riviera as a tribute to his compatriot Andrei Kivilev, who died at the 2003 Paris-Nice. Vinokourov revealed at the event that he was training three times per week, but denied a comeback was on the cards.

Justice done, and seen to be done

There's a difference between simply dispensing justice and in being seen to deliver justice correctly in accord with and open and fair procedure. Many of the perceived problems of cycling and doping have come about when justice may well have been served but it was done oddly, in an unfair manner, or in a way that breached a stated (or even assumed) procedure. When this happens you get conjecture, speculation and perhaps legal loopholes for individual cases to fall through... of course this has nothing to do with the following blood doping case...

Spanish website Todociclismo.com claimed to have seen a letter from the Kazakh federation, stating that "there are elements against opening a procedure against the cyclist Andrey Kashechkin," and guaranteeing that he "is free to return to racing." The letter is said to be endorsed by the Ministry of Sports and the national Olympic committee. The letter details the case against Kashechkin. The rider had protested against the timing of the test and other irregularities in the testing procedure. Allegedly, the UCI did not send documentation to the federation explaining how the control had been conducted.

There you go, nothing to do with following established procedures or doing the right thing in an open manner. Hmmm. Unless of course it was all done in the approved manner and someone just doesn't get it.

Accsuations in Portuguese

We have to be careful when translating from other tongues into English, but this looks clear enough: Judicial Police, the Portuguese criminal investigation department, has raided the headquarters of the cycling team LA MSS. The department confiscated doping substances, medications, equipment to conduct blood transfusions and instruments for clinical use, according to Marca.

When then makes this quite a bit more than sad: On the same day LA MSS had its headquarters raided by Police, questions have surfaced over the death of rider Bruno Neves. The 26 year-old passed away while contesting the Grande Prémio de Amarante earlier this month.

More to come I'm sure.

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?

Maybe an apology will do?

If you aren't in the mood to sue, maybe an apology will do?

Team Rabobank is requesting an apology from the German television broadcaster ARD, which had said that current and former Rabo riders Michael Boogerd, Denis Menchov and Michael Rasmussen were blood-doping clients of the Viennese blood laboratory "Humanplasma". ARD issued a public apology last week after it had said that four named cyclists and unnamed German biathletes and cross-country skiers had ties to the blood bank, implicating their doping activities. But the apology did not specifically address the cyclists, and the Rabobank management considered it insufficient.

Dope of the Day: Kashechkin

It's still a closely fought battle, the Dope of the Day. Just when you think it's slowing down, along comes a new name to add to the list. From CN: "Astana suffered another blow Wednesday when Kazakh Andrej Kashechkin tested positive for a homologous blood transfusion following an unexpected control on August 1 in Belek, Turkey. Astana issued a statement saying Kashechkin was suspended effective immediately while waiting for the analysis of the B sample."

But wait, from the same source... "Freshly crowned Tour de France winner Alberto Contador is scheduled to issue a public statement Friday along with Discovery Channel Team director Johan Bruyneel at the offices of Spain's Superior Council for Sports according to the International Herald Tribune.

The rider has been tied to Operación Puerto, the Spanish doping investigation. He is expected to make a statement, but not answer questions. No information was provided about the content of the upcoming announcement."

The mind is boggling. Of course it's a denial, but why now? Why again?