/ 30 June 2011

Fight against doping overshadowed by Contador

Cycling’s anti-doping chiefs are standing united in a bid to show potential cheats at this year’s Tour de France that the window for enhancing performance is getting smaller and smaller.

Efforts by the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the French National Anti-Doping agency (AFLD), however, will come amid the ongoing controversy surrounding Alberto Contador’s positive test in 2010.

Contador’s joy at winning the tour for a third time last July was tempered in dramatic fashion barely a month later when he announced he had tested positive for clenbuterol on the race’s second rest day.

The Spaniard’s claim that he ingested the banned substance while eating a contaminated steak was accepted by the Spanish authorities, but did not wash with the UCI nor the World Anti-Doping Agency.

An appeal has since been made to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which, after months of legal toing and froing, will not deliberate until August.

While the race organisers are frustrated — Contador could lose last year’s victory and, if he wins, this year’s if he is sanctioned — the UCI has called for the Spaniard to be viewed as innocent until proven guilty.

“… Alberto Contador has the statutory right to take part in any competition insofar as he has not been found guilty by the CAS,” a statement by the UCI on June 16 said.

The fight for clean cycling meanwhile continues, largely thanks to the UCI’s pioneering biological passport programme and several new deterrent measures.

Noticing a change
The principle of the passport programme is to test, chart and then compare the blood and urine values of athletes over their career. If changes are noticed, riders can be targeted for further testing randomly or in competition.

Since it was introduced in 2008, eight riders have been charged with doping based solely on the evidence of biological passports parameters.

The UCI’s chief doctor Mario Zorzoli suggested last week that more positives could be in the pipeline.

“We can see for example a change in the value of certain parameters, which are completely different in 2010 to what they were in 2008 or 2009,” Zorzoli said.

“Obviously that leads us to suppose that some kind of manipulation has taken place.”

A new rule, recently applied at the Giro d’Italia, has also banned the use of syringes, even if used to inject health-boosting vitamins. Any teams suspected or found using syringes now face sanctions.

Random tests
The fact the UCI and AFLD have recently kissed and made up after years of political fighting could also spell bad news for the cheats.

Although both bodies were reluctant to spell out their strategy, they have acted on the independent post-race report in 2010 which suggested that although “of good quality”, the race’s anti-doping programme would benefit from far more random tests.

Now, two teams of three controllers — making six in all — will be fully operational every day of the July 2 to July 24 race, with the possibility of riders being asked to provide samples at unsociable hours.

Those efforts are to be backed by French customs officials and the National Centre for the Fight Against Threats to the Environment and Public Health.

Cycling observers will remember that when major scandals have erupted they have been largely down to the efforts of customs officers or dedicated police — such as the Festina scandal in 1998 and Operation Puerto several years ago. — AFP