Of all the news I’ve read and websites I’ve visited in the last 48 hours, this brief piece right here sums us exactly what has happened, is happening and expected to happen.

Well done gavia.

Let’s go for a bike ride.

it’s really the only solution

You make it out like a greek tragedy. Goal for Gavia. Bravo.

“Police seem to be ahead of thieves, which is something we could not have imagined a few years back. Those who have cheated must tell themselves that they will get caught. I imagine there could be one or two more cases but we are a long way from the list announced by some.”

Via Reuters.

“This is a hard blow for the credibility of men’s road cycling. Obviously, the riders have not changed their mentality. They had a chance to do so, but they did not and this makes it even worse. I hope that now these stakeholders realize that they have to join this program and work seamlessly together. They have to react. The credibility of men’s road race cycling is at stake. I am confident that UCI will react and will call upon the other stakeholders to join and to work hand in hand. They have made an effort, but it’s not enough if you have no real collaboration and co-operation. The UCI has to be the leader.”

link

UCI press release:

The UCI congratulates the AFLD on the excellent work it carried out during the Tour de France. The collaboration with the AFLD shows that cycling as a whole rejects any kind of doping and is committed to eradicating cheating.

The correspondence of the results obtained by the AFLD with the information gathered under the biological passport system confirms the reliability of the latter. The biological passport was introduced this year and will soon be fully operational.

A thorough approach and the deployment of all possible means are vital if we are to safeguard the interests of those riders who are clean, who make up the great majority of the peloton. Such rigour applies to all concerned. In this respect, the UCI was extremely disappointed to learn of the allegations made recently by several media organisations regarding a number of riders, whose names were mentioned, completely unfairly, in this context.

The Luxembourg anti-doping agency is expanding an investigation against Frank Schleck, one of the stars of this summer’s Tour de France. […] But the agency ruled on Tuesday it was insufficient to declare him innocent and said in a statement it will widen the probe.

AP

Fränk , Fränk , what teh hell have you gone and done Fränk ?

This latest fiasco is like one of those powerpoint presentations with pictures of people that died in car crashes. You are afraid to look, but you can’t help but want to see the faces of the accident victims laying 10 feet from the bodies they formerly belonged to. Bring on Friday!!!

Yes. I feel my forefinger may be slightly overworked this week. I mustn’t give myself RSI.

or 7 out of the forty?

Is the team list that was floating around a week ago still relevant?

I assume the three are SS, peeps and Ricco.

So….crap….yeah….seven more? huh. Shit.

 To big to typ an article myself so..

Hold your chair..

Sastre, Kohl, Kirchen, O’Grady en Cancellara. Ouch!

Source
I try to find the Gazzeto dello sport

The head of the French anti-doping agency AFLD, Pierre Bordry, told German state network ZDF on Wednesday that a new method to detect blood transfusions is currently being developed.

He said that samples from around 30 riders, who had abnormal blood levels at the start of the July race, will be retested.

‘We have already received strong hints of blood doping cases. We won’t be able to say until a later date whom that involves,’ Bordry told ZDF.

‘Soon we will be able to detect blood transfusions and we will then conduct retests.’

link
another article in German

but this tune keeps playing in my head….

July 17 ‘08
Super Besse was far behind
It was business as usual
In police room 609
Oh Ricco, Ricco, because Ricco
Oh Ricco, Ricco, because Ricco

Now Saunier-Duval is American Beef
And Schumacher’s in the tank
When he bonked in the Olympics
We knew those Tour wins stank
Oh Ricco, Ricco, because Ricco
Oh Ricco, Ricco, because Ricco

You can blow out a candle
But you can’t blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Oh Ricco, Ricco, because Ricco

And the eyes of the world are
watching now
watching now

…so according to this quote from Bordry those who are being tested would have been the recipients of a letter during the Tour about concerns over their blood values…

******

"It’s about 30 riders who had abnormal blood values, and they all got a letter from me during the Tour. Det er disse ryttere, der nu testes", fortæller Bordry til sporten.dk. It is these riders who tested now, "says Bordry to sporten.dk.

******

According to Brian Nygaard at CSC SaxoBank these letters were known about back during the tour and they asked all their riders whether they’d had one or not and they all said no. Soooo either Nygaard is lying (which would be very dumb), the riders lied at the time (also dumb but possible), the letters got lost in the post so they weren’t lying but possibly were sent one OR the riders from CSC are in the clear

I’m now more confused than before (if that is possible) – it would be helpful to know at the end of this process who has been cleared by these tests as well as the names of people who are being caught..

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=da&u=http://www.feltet.dk/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search3Fq3Dfeltet2Bdk26hl3Den26sa%3DG

say what you will about speculation, but there were 2 contenders that started way too fast, mixing it up in sprints and then fell off the face of the race. hmmm

House searched and fraud charge being considered. Holczer also subject of investigation.

I do hope there’s gaol time for a fraud charge. It’s about time a cyclist went to gaol.

hearing pushed back to Oct. 22. CP

I love the way local news outlets put their own spin on international stories.

 post unto itself, so I’ll just drop them here. Some are worth considering and may have been missed in the initial wave of reporting:

IOC statement on retests:

"The IOC intends to further analyse the samples collected this summer during the Olympic Games in Beijing. Substances that will be analysed across all sports include EPO CERA. All samples are currently being repatriated to the WADA-accredited laboratory in Lausanne where Olympic samples are usually stored after the Games. The details of the procedure, such as the number of samples to be further analysed and the timeline, are currently being discussed with WADA."

"As part of its zero-tolerance policy against doping, the IOC is storing samples collected during the Olympic Games for eight years. This allows the IOC to analyse samples retroactively should fully validated tests to detect new substances/methods become available."

"’Our message is very clear. The IOC will not miss any opportunity to further analyse samples retroactively. We hope that this will work as a strong deterrent and make athletes think twice before cheating,’ said IOC President Jacques Rogge."

"Some 4,770 doping tests were carried out in Beijing in the framework of the largest ever testing programme for an Olympic Games. The tests included 3,801 urine and 969 blood tests. Urine tests included 817 EPO tests, and blood tests covered 471 human Growth Hormone (hGH) tests. All the tests covered the 29-day period from 27 July until 24 August 2008. Athletes qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were tested by the World Anti-Doping Agency and BOCOG under the authority of the IOC. As a general rule, all top five finishers, plus a further two, were tested."

According to IOC spokesperson Emmanuelle Moreau, the IOC did not test for CERA during the Olympics. The new test had not been sufficiently validated. Of the retesting procedure, Moreau’s reported to have said:

"We will initially retest blood samples based on intelligence we have."

WRT cycling’s future in the Olympic movement, Moreau said:

"The IOC will continue to support the UCI – and any other international federation – as long as it is deploying meaningful and credible means and efforts to fight against doping."

Patrick Schamasch (IOC medical director) said:

“We have indication of other substances." He said that the testing "will be based on intelligence, on information we receive and many other parameters. Once we decide how many tests, and who to test, then it will not take long. We’re not pushed by anyone. We will do it when we are ready.”

Arne Ljungqvist (IOC medical commission chairman) added more information:

“You don’t do it just by random. You have to base it on some suspicion. A number of blood samples were taken in Beijing. We will look into where we may have some suspicious parameters. Endurance events are of particular interest. Our hope is to have this done during the coming few months. Since we store the samples and have them at our disposal, we will not hesitate in doing further analysis. This is a message to people who are tempted to cheat that there may be something coming up soon or later.”

Some comments from various talking heads:

Christiane Ayotte (Director, Institut National de la Recherché Scientifique, Canada):

"There will most definitely be some athletes who thought they could escape being caught because they thought the test would not be ready. We knew it came to the market just before springtime last year and if there were positives in the Tour de France, then we think there will be positives from Beijing. […] Why the technique was not put into place in Beijing, I have no answer to give you. But we’re not missing anything. The opportunity to have those samples retested one or two months later is great. […] Some people were cynical at the end of the Olympics, saying out of 5,000 tests there were only nine positives, how could that be? But the testing is not over. The athletes who doped should not sit back and say: ‘Oh, I was never caught. I’m O.K.’ No, they should still be worried."

Frédéric Donzé (WADA spokesman)

"WADA is confident that the process will withstand any potential legal and scientific challenge."

John Fahey (WADA president):

“There’s a distinct possibility that the retesting will bring out cases that weren’t otherwise thought possible to detect. WADA believes that this is a very strong deterrent against any athlete who may be tempted to cheat. […] We suggest that athletes who may be tempted to cheat keep this reality in mind, and we believe that retrospective testing will serve as a strong deterrent.”

Michael Ashenden (Science and Industry Against Blood Doping):

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we had more athletes caught. CERA is more easily detectable in blood than in urine. If there are some athletes that showed indications of it in urine, anticipate there will be even more of it in blood.”

Perfect countdown timing for the other shoe to drop.

… to retests. The dirty little Italian wusses. Or is Angelo Zomegnan just being a cheapskate and letting the ALFD do all the heavy lifting and even heavier spending?

“The Giro d’Italia has already made the necessary checks. The labs and the UCI have told us these tests were done, and nothing was found that could be taken as suspect. It’s useless to ask for more [tests]. These tests, I’ve been told, began during the Giro. To me, it seems excessive to ask for more. Each organizer takes care of its own event.”

ESPN

Michael Lehner:

“Stefan Schumacher’s blood levels at the entry check for the Tour de France on July 3 and at the check on the rest day July 15 were not only each without complaint, but rather in an absolutely inconspicuous area. The A samples analysed immediately after both doping checks were negative, without a doping finding. Under which circumstances and which blood tests have allegedly tested positive for CERA three months later in a laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry is, according to the information available up until now, completely unclear.”

What an original defence plea.