The bright side of the Alberto Contador scandal
Jonathan Vaughters has earned his reputation as a voice of reason and his response to the Alberto Contador scandal has fulfilled that reputation. Vaughters is the manager of team Garmin-Transitions and a prominent anti-doping advocate.
He has suggested that the media frenzy in response to Contador’s positive tests for the use of banned substances at this year’s Tour de France has been misdirected.
“The test is being overlooked and I don’t understand why that is. If it’s true that a test for autologous blood transfusions, has taken place, well for me that’s the best news I’ve heard in anti-doping in a long time. It’s incredibly
good news.”
Vaughters has explained the important part of the story is not Contador’s test but the fact that a test which is able to detect plasticisers has been proven effective, a point which has been almost unanimously ignored in reports covering
the controversy.
"It's totally good and robust, and it's one of the most important anti-doping advances in recent years because it's the only way of knowing if somebody has undergone an autologous blood transfusion," explained Dr. Jordi Segura, the
developer of the test.
The doctor went on to explain that plasticisers are a chemical in blood bags and that the concentration of the chemical recorded in Contador’s blood are a good indication that he had undergone at least one blood transfusion at the
2010 Tour de France, the cyclist’s third time as Tour champion. The important part of this news is that a viable way to detect blood transfusions has been confirmed.
“Transfusions were the last effective stronghold for cheating within cycling,” said Vaughters to
Cyclingnews. “There are a millions of little things that people can experiment with but I think blood transfusions were the only truly effective means that could change human performance or the results of a race that were difficult to find by the passport.”
Vaughters has also been an outspoken advocate of the relatively new biological passport system implemented by the UCI. Any rider being considered for a transfer to Team Garmin has their passport rigorously studied by the manager himself.
Fellow anti-doping advocate David Walsh, despite having butted heads with Vaughters in the past on the subject of the usefulness of the passport, has agreed with him on this subject and recognized that the Team Garmin manager has had a large part in supported
the trend among young riders to overcome to doping culture.
“I saw [Garmin-rider Daniel] Martin win a stage of the Tour of Poland. It was fantastic,” said Walsh to
Cyclingnews. “I looked at him and I thought, my god, that’s how cyclists used to do it. The effort he was making, the exhaustion, I just though yes, that’s the sport that I used to love. Sadly we don’t see enough of that. Your heart goes out to young
riders like that.”
As for the UCI’s biological passport system, Walsh was more pessimistic. The passport, he said, won’t stop sophisticated dopers and may even help cyclist keep an eye on what their levels should look like and target those levels in
their doping routines.
"The passport seemed like a good idea, but I don't believe that the system can catch the sophisticated cheater. The evidence we have so far is that the guys toward the winning end of the classification in big races are still significantly
ahead of the UCI's checks."
Vaughters has said that the criticism is unwarranted and, though the passport will take time to be perfected, no other support has such a sophisticated system. He did admit that one of the failings of the passport was its inability
to detect autologous blood transfusions, which have long been known of as a valid method of doping.
"All the athletes and myself want isn't to find out if people have ever taken any kind of medicine or drug in their entire life, but to ensure fair competition. So as long as you feel that the athlete isn't getting an unfair advantage I don't think there's
a problem."
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