Doping is not a thing of the past
Doping is hardly a new problem in cycling, as all the outcry and argument over the Floyd Landis – Lance Armstrong investigation seems to suggest. Fans have forgotten (or willfully rejected) the 1998 German Observer article, when Hans Halter put things in perspective.
“For as long as the Tour has existed, since 1903, its participants have been doping themselves. No dope, no hope,” wrote Halter.
Two riders, Thomas Dekker and Davide Rebellin, were pulled from the 2009 Tour de France at the last minute before the first stage, something which did not happen this year.
"Drugs were part of cycling in the past but I truly believe today it is very, very little and cycling has become a very clean sport," said Bjarne Riis, admitted doper and 1996 Tour de France winner, to the Associated Press.
Unfortunately, Bjarne Riis is wrong.
Traditionally, tests and investigations are hush-hush during the Tour de France, which paints its riders as Herculian champions, kings among men, until the end of the Tour when they finally test all the blood they’ve taken and (sometimes) release the results to the public.
This year has seen a new generation of investigators, the war-on-drugs generation. Jeff Novisky, who leads the federal investigation into the operations of the US Postal Service team and its former members, including Armstrong, and Benedetto Roberti, the Italian prosecutor against Team Lampre and Tour de France green jersey winner Alessandro Petacchi, have both made their allegations seriously and publicly during the Tour. Still, in the week after the Tour, many more riders suddenly found themselves under suspicion.
Petacchi has refused to answer to any police questioning, insisting that he has done nothing wrong despite the allegations that he has been using Perfluorocarbon (PFC) and human serum albumin to increase the oxygen-carrying capacity of his blood. PFC is so far undetectable by blood testing.
“The accusations are too generic and so we decided not to respond to questions. There’s nothing strange about doing that, it’s a normal defence strategy,” said Petacchi’s lawyer, Virgilio Angelini, to Gazzetta dello Sport.
Armstrong’s case has now expanded to include the former Rock Racing team, with police opening investigations against the former team’s owner Michael Ball. Several of Armstrong’s former teammates, Landis included, rode for Rock.
"Novitzky was looking at Michael Ball long before Floyd met with Novitzky or even with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency," claimed a source close to the investigation.
The new leader of Armstrong-founded Team RadioShack and long-time Armstrong teammate Levi Leipheimer has been implicated by his former team manager, Hans-Michael Holczer. With the release of the German’s book “Guaranteed Positive,” the manager has claimed that it was clear to him that Leipheimer was doped during the 2005 Tour de France, which the cyclist finished in 6th. The manager did not take action because he felt it would have meant the dissolution of his team sponsorship.
“I was caught between a moral obligation and a legal threat,” Holczer said.
British cyclist Dan Staite has been served with a two year ban after testing positive for erythropoietin (EPO) and an aromatase inhibitor after being tested on 13 March at the Roy Thame Cup. The positive was finally confirmed at the end of July and the suspension will last until 1 May, 2012.
“We are naturally disappointed that a cyclist has been found guilty of doping, however, this case shows that the comprehensive testing programme which operates at all levels of the sport is delivering results," said Bob Howden, Chair of British Cycling’s Anti-Doping Commission.
Two Italian cyclists, Pietro Caucchioli and Francesco De Bonis, have been sentenced to two-year suspensions by the Italian Olympic Committee. Franco Pellizotti tested positive just before the 2009 Tour de France, where he won the king-of-the-mountain classification, and the results predictable took over a year to come out. He has been recommended for a two-year ban and faces the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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