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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
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2 3 - 0 8 - 2 0 0 5 Lance denies 'credible' report he used steroids
AP PARIS -- A French newspaper says Lance Armstrong used the performance-enhancing drug EPO to help win his first Tour de France in 1999, a report the seven-time Tour winner vehemently denied. L'Equipe devoted four pages to its allegations, with a Tuesday front-page headline "The Armstrong Lie." The paper said that signs of EPO use showed up in Armstrong's urine six times during the '99 race. "Unfortunately, the witch hunt continues and tomorrow's article is nothing short of tabloid journalism," Armstrong wrote on his Web site. "I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs." However, the Tour de France's director said Tuesday that L'Equipe's report seemed "very complete, very professional, very meticulous" and that it "appears credible." "We are very shocked, very troubled by the revelations we read this morning," Jean-Marie Leblanc told RTL radio. However, he cautioned that Armstrong, his doctors and his aides should be heard out before people make any final judgment. Leblanc also said any disciplinary action appeared unlikely, based on the L'Equipe account. The paper's investigation was based solely on B samples -- the second of two samples used in doping tests. The A samples were used up in 1999 for analysis at the time. The governing body of world cycling did not begin using a urine test for EPO until 2001. For years, it had been impossible to detect the drug, called erythropoietin, which builds endurance by boosting the production of oxygen-rich red blood cells. EPO tests on the 1999 B urine samples were not carried out until last year, when scientists performed research on them to fine-tune EPO testing methods, the paper said. The national anti-doping laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry, which developed the EPO test and analyzed the urine samples in question, said it could not confirm that the positive EPO results were Armstrong's. It noted that the samples were anonymous, bearing only a a six-digit number to identify the rider, and could not be matched with the name of any one cyclist. However, L'Equipe said it was able to make the match. It printed photos of what it said were official doping documents. On one side of the page, it showed what it said were the results of EPO tests from anonymous riders used for lab research. On the other, it showed Armstrong's medical certificates, signed by doctors and riders after doping tests -- and bearing the same identifying number printed on the results. The lab statement said it had promised to turn over its results to the World Anti-Doping Agency "on condition that they could not be used in any disciplinary proceeding." L'Equipe, whose parent company is closely linked to the Tour, has frequently raised questions about how Armstrong could have made his spectacular comeback from testicular cancer without using performance enhancers. L'Equipe is owned by the Amaury Group whose subsidiary, Amaury Sport Organization, organizes the Tour de France and other sporting events. A former L'Equipe journalist, Pierre Ballester, was co-author of a book published last year that contained doping allegations against Armstrong. He wrote the book with Sunday Times sportswriter David Walsh. In the book, "L.A. Confidential, the Secrets of Lance Armstrong," one of the cyclist's former assistants claimed that Armstrong once asked her to dispose of used syringes and give him makeup to conceal needle marks on his arms.
Armstrong has taken libel action against The Sunday Times after the British newspaper reprinted allegations in a review of the book in June 2004. The case will go to trial in London's High Court in November. Armstrong retired from cycling after his record seventh straight Tour victory last month. 2 5 - 0 8 - 2 0 0 5 Lance responds angrily to Tour director's reaction
Comments that cyclist 'fooled' officials blasted
By DALE ROBERTSON Responding to Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc's observation that he had "fooled" the sporting world by cheating his way to an unprecedented seven straight victories while making his name eponymous with the storied 102-year-old bike race, Armstrong called Leblanc's strident comments to the French sports newspaper L'Equipe "preposterous." L'Equipe had reported in a lengthy article Tuesday that retro-testing of urine samples from the 1999 Tour provided proof that the now 33-year-old Texan had used EPO around the time of the 1999 Tour, when he won his first yellow jersey after defeating testicular cancer. "For the first time — and these are no longer rumors or insinuations; these are proven scientific facts — someone has shown me that in 1999 Armstrong had a banned substance in his body," Leblanc told the newspaper. "The ball is now in his (court). Why? How? By whom? He owes an explanation to us and to everybody who follows the Tour. What L'Equipe revealed showed me that I was fooled. We were all fooled." In a conference call from Washington D.C., Armstrong answered Leblanc by pointing out that repeated drug tests since 1999 have shown him to be clean, adding: "I actually spoke to (Leblanc) for about 30 minutes and he didn't say any of that stuff to me personally. I've been doing this a long time. We have not just one year of only 'B' samples. We have seven years of 'A' and 'B' samples. They've all been negative." It was Armstrong's "B" samples from 1999 that L'Equipe said showed traces of EPO, or erythropoietin, which builds endurance by stimulating the production of oxygen-rich red blood cells. The "A" samples from that year were no longer available, making any after-the-fact sanctions against Armstrong somewhere between impossible and highly unlikely. Reaction from scientists and other experts on performance-enhancing substances such as EPO was less pointedly critical than Leblanc's and definitely mixed. The Canadian doctor who runs the World Anti-Doping Agency lab in Montreal was among those to seemingly question the assertion by Dr. Jacques de Ceaurriz, director of the Châtenay-Malabry lab where Armstrong's urine specimens were kept, that his method of detecting EPO is "absolutely reliable," regardless of the sample's age. ""We are extremely surprised that urine samples could have been tested in 2004 and revealed the presence of EPO," Dr. Christiane Ayotte of the Institut National de la Recherché Scientifique told VeloNews. "In its natural state or the synthesized version it's not stable in urine, even if stored at minus 20 degrees." Two prominent German doctors, speaking to media outlets in their country, openly disagreed on the matter. "Can one be certain that in samples deep-frozen for years that there were no biological changes, no aging processes that could falsify the result?" said Dr. Roland Augustin, head of Germany's National Anti-Doping Agency. "That has not been determined scientifically." But Wilhelm Schänzer, the director of the International Olympic Committee's doping lab in Cologne, said: "The results are scientifically valid for me. Urine samples can be kept in storage temperatures of between minus 20 and minus 40 degrees for years. If Dr. Ceaurriz says (the tests) are positive, then you can be assured that's right." Professor Klaus Müller, the director of a German anti-doping institute and an expert on performance-enhancing drugs, also said he believed the "results of the analyses undertaken by my French colleagues are solid." But he was troubled by the fact the samples had been kept in storage for so long, apparently without the permission of the riders involved. The French sports minister in 1999, Marie-George Buffet, expressed concerns that were shared by many when she questioned L'Equipe's revealing only Armstrong's name while protecting the anonymity of at least four other cyclists whose urine specimens produced the same results as those linked by L'Equipe to Armstrong. "Care must be taken," Buffet said, "not to just damage one individual." 2 6 - 0 8 - 2 0 0 5 Epo auch in Tour-Proben von 1998 gefunden
25. Aug 2005 Nicht nur Dopingproben der Tour de France 1999 weisen auf das unerlaubte Mittel Epo hin. Das Jahr zuvor erbrachte noch weit mehr Spuren, wie der Leiter eines französischen Doping-Labors mitteilt. Neben den zwölf positiven Dopingproben der Tour de France 1999 weisen weitere 40 Proben aus dem Jahr 1998 Spuren des Dopingmittels Epo auf. Das sagte der Leiter des französischen Anti-Doping-Labors in Chatenay-Malabry, Jacques de Ceaurriz, der «Süddeutschen Zeitung» am Donnerstag. «Von 1999 haben wir etwa 80 Proben untersucht, davon waren zwölf positiv. Von 1998 wurden rund 70 untersucht, und davon waren 40 positiv», sagte der Wissenschaftler in einem Interview der Zeitung (Freitag-Ausgabe). De Ceaurriz hatte in Zusammenarbeit mit der Welt-Antidoping-Agentur (Wada) in einem neuen Epo-Erkennungsverfahren die 150 Proben der Tour de France von 1998 und 1999 analysiert. Sechs der zwölf positiven Proben von 1999 hatte die Sportzeitung «L'Équipe» dem amerikanischen Radrennfahrer Lance Armstrong zugeordnet. Alle Untersuchungsergebnisse liegen inzwischen der Wada vor, sagte de Ceaurriz. Von den meisten Urinproben sei noch eine genügend große Menge vorhanden, um DNA-Tests vorzunehmen und nötigenfalls in einem Gerichtsverfahren zu beweisen, von welchem Fahrer welche Proben stammen. Die Tour de France von 1998 war vom Doping-Skandal um den Festina-Rennstall gekennzeichnet. Das gesamte Team war wegen massiven Sportbetrugs, der durch polizeiliche Ermittlungen aufgedeckt wurde, von der Tour ausgeschlossen worden. Sieger der Tour 1998 war der 2004 an einer Überdosis Kokain gestorbene Italiener Marco Pantani vor Jan Ullrich. De Ceaurriz wies darauf hin, dass die Zahl von 40 positiven Dopingproben nicht bedeute, dass 40 Fahrer gedopt gewesen seien. Es könne auch nur einen kleinen Teil des Feldes betreffen. (nz) 0 5 - 0 9 - 2 0 0 5 Do cycling's EPO tests need a 2nd opinion?
By Elisabeth Rosenthal When French scientists developed a test for the banned blood booster EPO in 2000, it was hailed as a revolution, since the authorities were for the first time able to detect a potent performance enhancer that had been abused with impunity in sports like cycling and distance running for nearly a decade. But last month when the same scientists, using this test, detected EPO, or erythropoietin, in Lance Armstrong's frozen urine from the 1999 Tour de France, the revelation threw the credibility of both the champion cyclist and the test itself into question. The ensuing storm has pitted the reputation of America's golden sports hero against one of France's most eminent government scientists, Dr. Jacques de Ceaurriz, the director of the French national anti-doping lab. If the test positively shows that Armstrong had synthetic EPO in his system, he undoubtedly has questions to answer. If not, the test results are clearly wrong or at best ambiguous. "There's not much of a middle ground, is there?" said Dick Pound, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, who added that it appeared that the "tests show there was EPO there" and that the EPO test is "as close to 100 percent reliable as you could get." But the test, now widely used and even patented in part by the French laboratory, has limitations and ambiguities, a number of prominent scientists said, largely because injected EPO is a near carbon copy of a molecule that naturally appears in the body. Even as the World Anti-Doping Agency, known as WADA, has adopted and repeatedly defended the French test, it has been funding projects to improve it. "This is not like a pregnancy test, where you are either pregnant or you're not," said Dr. Nicolle Packer, executive vice president of Proteome Systems in Sydney, which has one of the research grants. "It has to be prepared carefully and interpreted by an expert, who can mostly call it, I believe," she said in a tele phone interview. "But it is definitely skill-based, and that is why WADA is looking for a more clear-cut test." Just last month, because of the uncertainty, Belgian authorities overturned a competition ban on a champion triathlete, Rutger Beke. Scientific experts had raised questions about the reliability of two urine specimens that tested positive for EPO at the Belgian anti-doping laboratory. In studies, some athletes will erroneously test positive for EPO after strenuous exercise, said Joris Delanghe, a noted chemistry professor at Ghent University in Belgium, who defended Beke. How the issue plays out in these two hotly contested cases may determine how and when the test can be used, particularly to sanction athletes. It also sheds light on the increasingly hostile and high-tech cat-and-mouse game played by top athletes and the sports authorities who monitor them, in which some competitors use hard-to-detect biological performance aids, like erythropoietin and human growth hormone, that are almost identical to the body's own chemicals. "It is an unfair competition because we follow the rules and they don't," said Francesco Botre, head of Italy's anti-doping laboratory. "When we develop a new test, we spend a year publishing and presenting it at scientific meetings, so they know what we're checking," he continued in a phone interview. "They are always trying something new - and when they find a new doping strategy, they do not publish it." In the case of EPO, the battle between athletes and scientists took on epic proportions during the 1998 Tour de France, when French authorities, lacking a test, were forced to call in the French police to search the possessions of cycling teams for evidence of EPO. The injectable drug boosts endurance by increasing the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood. So it was a moment of triumph when Ceaurriz, of the French lab, announced his EPO test in 2000. "Cyclists should be worried because they won't be able to take EPO the way they did in the Tour de France in 1998 and 1999," he declared in an interview with the BBC. "It's a major breakthrough, and gives us fresh impetus in the fight against drugs." But those who did talk agreed that an EPO test - unlike, say, a cocaine test - requires skilled interpretation; it is more like reading an X-ray. "You are looking at numbers and signals, but in the end what is most important here is the experience of the eyes of an expert," said Dr. Martial Saugy, head of the Swiss anti-doping laboratory in Lausanne, who also specializes in EPO tests. "It's the 'now we see it - this looks like someone who has injected EPO."' Because of such difficulties, WADA now suggests that scientists in doubt ask for the opinion of a second lab before releasing positive EPO tests and labs tend not to implicate athletes "unless the results are very, very positive," Botre said. He added: "A pretty good test is better than no test at all." In any case, the results were intended not for sanctions or even release but for internal research purposes; they were leaked to the French sports newspaper L'Equipe. Moreover, Ceaurriz was the expert. "I trust fully in their competence," Saugy said. "They were our teachers on this test." While the French lab did not respond to requests for an interview, Pound said that scientists there were certain about the positive test results on the frozen urine before reporting them to WADA on Aug. 22. "They knew they were dealing with specimens from France's most important sporting event," he said. "They would not report this if they were not absolutely sure." Scientists at the lab were retrospectively testing urine specimens of the 1999 Tour de France mostly to gauge the level of EPO use before their test was available, but also to see if the test still worked on specimens that had been frozen for so many years. "They found EPO in some samples and said 'Holy smoke, this is alarming,"' Pound said in a phone interview. "So we told them to go ahead and extend the study since we'd like to know when this started." At least a dozen of more than 100 samples tested positive. Under standard procedure, the French scientists had no way of knowing which of their frozen, coded urine specimens belonged to Armstrong. Nor did their test - or could any test - exclude the possibility of sample tampering. A reporter for L'Équipe, which is owned by the same company that runs the Tour de France, got the confidential race forms and matched sample numbers to Armstrong's name. He charged that six of the positive specimens belonged to Armstrong, who was tested frequently as the race leader. The reporter said he did not learn which names matched the other positive tests. But incriminating Armstrong based on old frozen samples is simply bad science, Delanghe, Beke's defender, said, asserting that there was no good data on the stability of EPO in urine. "Advocates for the EPO test say that it is stable, but we don't know if that's true when someone has been sitting on a cycle for seven hours," he said. He said that cyclists have high levels of enzymes in their urine, which can break the brittle molecules on the surface of EPO, distorting the reading. Insisting that EPO is stable even after years, Ceaurriz told the American magazine Bicycling that "as long as the samples have been well cared for, there is no problem. And I know that the samples in question were. EPO is a very resilient molecule as long as the temperature is sufficiently cold to preserve it." In rebutting the charges of doping, Armstrong has said that the positive results from his six race specimens must be unreliable because he gave six others that tested negative. But Saugy and Delanghe point out that tests for EPO could sometimes be positive and sometimes be negative during an event, depending on the rider's injection schedule. While synthetic EPO is detectable in the blood for only two to three days after an injection, its blood-boosting effect persists for weeks. Those athletes who wish to abuse EPO can now do so, Saugy said, by "using early low-dose applications - they are constantly changing." He speculated that EPO was still possibly the most commonly abused drug in European sports, more than anabolic steroids, which are easy to detect. For top events like the Olympics and the Tour de France, regulators perform precompetition spot checks at training camps. But an EPO test can cost up to $500, and the logistical travel problems are huge. Erythropoietin is a protein hormone made by the kidneys that increases the production of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the muscles. It was first made by recombinant technology in the 1980s and immediately found important medical uses, such as treating anemia in patients with kidney disease and those undergoing cancer treatment. Armstrong received EPO when he was being treated in 1996 for testicular cancer. Since scientists could not distinguish the recombinant EPO from natural EPO, there was no way to detect its abuse by athletes using it to improve endurance until the French lab's announcement in 2000, in the journal Nature. "This was such an important event for us," said Dr. Günter Gmeiner, head of the Austrian doping control laboratory. To distinguish recombinant EPO from the natural substance, the scientists used a technique that did not rely heavily, as before, on more straightforward chemical tests. To test for EPO, a preparation of urine is placed on the edge of a blotter and then subjected to the pull of an electrical field. The sugar-covered proteins slowly migrate across the blotter, leaving deposits in certain patterns that resemble a tiger's stripes. Some bands are more associated with recombinant EPO, some more with the natural substance. But there is considerable overlap as well. Scientists assess the patterns and intensity of the bands. The report, which was recently removed from WADA's Web site, found that naturally occurring proteins in the urine of athletes could register in the band associated with injected EPO and that the patterns could be distorted if the urine was not properly stored. "I'm not condemning the test, but there are problems," Delanghe said. Pound said that WADA was constantly working to refine its tests. Gmeiner's lab has developed software that would help quantify the pattern of bands and Proteome Systems has developed a new test, described for the first time in the scientific literature last month, which applies electrical fields in two dimensions instead of one, giving more definitive separation of natural and illegal EPO. It is unlikely that Armstrong will face sanctions based on the French lab's new test. To prove that the test as run was scientifically valid, scientists would have to be able to reproduce it and to show that a control sample of synthetic EPO frozen for many years would give a similar banding pattern, said Packer of Proteome Systems. "If I were Lance Armstrong, that's what I would insist on in court," Packer said. 0 5 - 0 9 - 2 0 0 5 Epo allein reicht nicht
Neuer Vorwurf gegen Armstrong
Frankfurter Rundschau Frankfurt a. M. Der italienische Anti-Doping-Fahnder Alessandro Donati hat weitere Anschuldigungen gegen den siebenmaligen Toursieger Lance Armstrong (Bild) und den Profi-Radsport im Allgemeinen erhoben. "Die Leistung von Armstrong kriegt man allein mit Epo kaum hin", sagte Donati in einem Interview mit der heute erscheinenden Zeit: "Der Radsport ist in den Klauen des Dopings, wenn nicht zu 100 Prozent, dann zu fast 100 Prozent. Das liegt auch daran: Kraft ist der absolut entscheidende Faktor, Taktik spielt eine untergeordnete Rolle." Donati ist von der Korrektheit der von der französischen Sporttageszeitung L'Equipe veröffentlichten positiven B-Proben Armstrongs aus dem Jahr 1999 fest überzeugt: "Die Dokumente sind eindeutig und sehr belastend. Der Fall ist klar, wenn es stimmt, was die französische Zeitung veröffentlicht hat. Die Epo-Werte waren weit über dem Erlaubten." Wie die L'Equipe in ihrer Ausgabe am 24. August enthüllt hatte, war in sechs eingefrorenen Urinproben von Armstrong während der Tour 1999 das Blutdopingmittel Epo nachgewiesen worden. Die Tests in dem französischen Labor in Chatenay-Malabry bei Paris sind im Jahr 2004 ausgewertet worden. Zur Zeit der Probeentnahme Ende der 90er war die Nachweismethode für Epo noch nicht ausgereift, das Mittel jedoch bereits weit verbreitet. Der Italiener berichtet, er habe bereits im Juli 2005 während der Tour durch Frankreich von Gerüchten gehört, Armstrong könnte entlarvt werden. Er kritisierte aber auch die L'Equipe, die mit dem Tour-de-France-Veranstalter ASO eng verflochten ist: "Zeitungen, die über den Radsport berichten, sollten nicht an der Ausrichtung von Rennen beteiligt sein." Donati, der seit 30 Jahren im Kampf gegen Doping aktiv ist, zeigte sich davon überzeugt, dass im Radsport nicht nur Epo ein weit verbreitetes Mittel ist: "Es ist nicht allein Epo, was Leistungssportler zu sich nehmen. Epo verbessert die Atmung. Es gibt aber auch Anabolika, Testosteron und anderes mehr. Viele schlucken alles, wirklich alles, um schneller zu sein." Im Kampf gegen Doping erhebt Donati schwere Anschuldigungen gegen die Verbände: "Einige Labore haben vielfach kein wirkliches Interesse daran, dass die Dinge ans Licht kommen. Viele Labore stehen unter dem Einfluss oder der Kontrolle nationaler Sportverbände, die wiederum auch die möglicherweise betroffenen Sportler vertreten. Solange das Geflecht bestehen bleibt zwischen Sportverbänden, nationalen Regierungen, Dopingkontrollbehörden und jenen, die vom Verkauf leistungsfördernder Präparate leben, werden die Sportler immer einen Vorsprung haben." 0 6 - 0 9 - 2 0 0 5 Another former Armstrong soigneur raises doping questions
By Agence France Presse Allegations of doping against seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong appear to be continuing, with a former soigneur from the American's team adding fuel to the scandal which has rocked cycling. Dutchman Ron Jongen, who worked with Armstrong's former team US Postal in 1999 - the year in which it has been alleged he tested positive six times for banned blood booster EPO (Erythropoietin) - claims he witnessed "strange occurrences" during that year's race, which was Armstrong's first victory on the Tour following his recovery from cancer 18 months previously. Jongen said he witnessed three Spanish doctors arriving at the team's hotel in a car for regular but discreet visits. The 42-year-old Dutchman, who worked with US Postal between 1999 and 2000, told Dutch daily newspaper Limburgsdagblad that the doctors "traveled in a green car which didn't have the stickers from US Postal on it. But while the team cars always parked at the front of their hotel, the doctors always parked their car at the back. And they always made sure they didn't sleep in rooms which were on the same floor as the riders." A number of "doctors" have been sacked from cycling teams in past years for misuse of substances, although some professional riders are known to still maintain contact with doctors who are able to prescribe and administer illegal drugs. Jongen, 42, said that until recently he maintained good relations with Armstrong - who has been forced on to the defensive since French sports daily L'Equipe exposed details of his alleged drug use. The Dutchman even claims he overheard Armstrong's team manager Johan Bruyneel, who is still manager of the Discovery Channel team talking about his riders' red blood cell (hematocrit) level before the 1999 Tour de France. Using EPO, a naturally-occurring hormone which is also synthetically produced and has the advantage increasing the volume of oxygen-rich red blood cells in the blood, also automatically raises the hematocrit level. It means that drugs cheats constantly have to check their red blood cell count to make sure it stays below 50 - the permitted threshold set by the International Cycling Union (UCI). Jongen claims he overheard Bruyneel talking about his riders' hematocrit level during a final team meeting before the opening prologue of the Tour de France in 1999. "Bruyneel said 'they're all just under 50 (the permitted threshold)'. Then, when he saw that I'd heard what he said he put his finger to his lips as if to signal that I was supposed to keep quiet about it." Armstrong, who has denied all drug use throughout a career which has nonetheless courted suspicion, retired after he won the Tour for a seventh time in July. However the 33-year-old's plans for months of relaxation after several years of suffering on the bike has been short-lived. Armstrong has largely won the support of his compatriots in the past weeks, many of whom believe there is a French conspiracy to sully his reputation. However the evidence appears to be piling up against the American. Armstrong admitted in 2001 that he was working closely with Michele Ferrari, an Italian sports doctor who last year was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence for malpractice by a court in Bologna. Ferrari, the former doctor of several cycling teams - most notably Gewiss in the mid 1990s - was convicted of sporting fraud in Italy last year. Accusations similar to Jongen's emerged last year from another former soigneur, Emma O'Reilly. O'Reilly claimed in a book "LA Confidential - the Secrets of Lance Armstrong" that she had lent Armstrong make-up to cover syringe marks on his arm. The Irishwoman also claimed she was instructed to collect drugs for the American at a meeting in a car park. 1 1 - 0 9 - 2 0 0 5 Mystery 1999 EPO riders outed
Eurosport Le Journal du Dimanche has outed three other riders who tested positive for EPO along with Lance Armstrong on the 1999 Tour de France: Denmark's Bo Hamburger, Spain's Manuel Beltran, and Colombian rider Jose Joachim Castelblanco were named by the French Sunday newspaper. The Journal du Dimanche reveals that the incriminated riders happen to be the three riders randomly selected for the daily dope test on the Puy-du-Fou prologue won in dramatic fashion by Armstrong one year after his return from cancer treatment. This week, the head of the world cycling body UCI Hein Verbruggen said he knew the identity of the riders whose 12 frozen 1999 urine samples came back positive for the banned drug. French newspaper L'Equipe, which broke the story, had said that 12 samples, including six from Armstrong came back positive. Sunday's report does not specify how many samples come from which riders or whether there could be still more riders implicated. UNFORTUNATE COINCIDENCES FOR HAMBURGER Beltran who rode for Armstrong, is currently part of Discovery Channel's team on the Vuelta. At the time, the Spaniard was at the service of Alex Zülle at Banesto. On that same Tour, Hamburger was the leader of the Cantina Tollo team. He now rides for Acqua e Sapone while Castelblanco, who rode for Kelme this year finished a two-year suspension for an entirely different affair. Scientists only later developed an EPO urine test. Hamburger's case certainly raises eyebrows: The Dane tested positive for corticoids in that same race, but delivered a doctor's certificate for ventolin and cortisone. At the time, it was standard practice to use corticoids in conjunction with EPO. Note that following the 2001 Flèche Wallonne, Hamburger was to become the very first rider to test positive for EPO use under the UCI's then-new urine test. He was exonerated due to irregularities in the handling of Hamburger's B sample analysis, one of which fell below the 80% threshold, and efforts by the Danish federation to exclude from the 2004 Olympic team were thwarted. Armstrong also produced a medical certificate for a cream, Cemalyt, which made him test positive for corticoids. LANCE LAUDS UCI With questions surrounding the lack of a b-sample six years after the fact, Verbruggen cleared Armstrong this week, criticizing the manner in which the story was leaked to the press without further proof. He also issued a veiled attack on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA): "The publication of these results constituting a WADA infraction, did WADA approve this leak? The Union Cycliste International expresses the wish that governments, sporting authorities, and anti-doping agencies ask themselves what sanctions should be adopted if infractions on the part of one of these bodies is unveiled." WADA and its boss, Canadian Dick Pound have yet to react. Seven-time Tour winner Armstrong has himself praised Verbruggen for "asking many of the right questions." "I'm pleased the UCI is investigating this entire matter thoroughly, because any professional investigation will reveal that the allegations made by a French sports tabloid have no basis because I never used any performance enhancing drugs." 1 6 - 0 9 - 2 0 0 5 Former German cycling president blasts UCI's handling of Armstrong case
By Agence France Presse The former president of the German Cycling Federation (BDR), Sylvia Schenk, has hit out at the UCI for what she claims is the organization's willingness to "brush aside" the Lance Armstrong affair. Schenk, who has been at loggerheads with UCI president Hein Verbruggen for the past few months, said cycling's world ruling body is only interested in finding out who leaked information about the alleged positive doping tests of the seven-time Tour de France winner, and not in the case itself. The German official told reporters that Verbruggen is more intent up finding the source of leaks than dealing with the allegations raised three weeks ago by the newspaper L'Equipe. "The UCI and its president Hein Verbruggen are more interested in finding the leak than clearing up the Armstrong doping case." The French sports daily L'Equipe claimed Armstrong's 1999 urine samples tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin). Interestingly, in conference call with reporters on Thursday, World Anti-Doping Agency head Dick Pound said he was convinced that the information L'Equipe used to link numbered-but-anonymous laboratory results to riders' names actually came from Verbruggen himself. Pound said he had a letter from Verbruggen that left him with the impression that it was the UCI president who provided the critical link to L'Equipe. Since the fall-out from the allegations, Verbruggen - who is hoping his hand-chosen successor, Ireland's Pat McQuaid, will be voted the new boss of world cycling next week - has refused to point the finger at the American. Instead, in a recent interview with Le Figaro newspaper the Dutchman appeared more interested in slamming WADA's Pound, who said following the Armstrong affair that it looked likely the American had been doping. "We're going to be looking further into this affair," Verbruggen said last week. "It's another heavy blow to cycling so we have to take it all the way. And I also want to know who exactly it was who gave out this information." Schenk believes the UCI are burying their heads, and simply wanted to restrict their investigation to finding out who leaked the information to L'Equipe. "Verbruggen is making slower progress than expected because it was thought that it was someone in the French Ministry," explained Schenk. "However, it could be that the informer is a UCI employee. The only thing the UCI are concerned with is finding out the identity of the informants who brought this case to light." A UCI statement recently said they would take no action against Armstrong over the doping accusations and Schenk feels the American cycling icon has received special treatment. "Since 1998 the UCI has done a lot to combat doping but everything is different where Armstrong is concerned," added Schenk, who stoked the flames a few months ago when she filed an official complaint with the UCI claiming that, against UCI rules, McQuaid was benefiting from UCI payments and an apartment in Switzerland. Schenk also pointed to the fact that Armstrong, shortly after a damaging book - David Walsh's "LA Confidential" - was published claiming he had regularly used doping products, handed Verbruggen a hefty check to be used in the fight against doping. At the time, Verbruggen made no secret of the American's gift. "There is obviously a strong relationship with Armstrong," Schenk added. "The UCI took a lot of money from Armstrong - to my knowledge 500,000 dollars - and now there is speculation that there are financial connections to Armstrong, as well as the American market. I do not know what sort of connections Verbruggen has." Armstrong, who turns 34 on Sunday, has protested his innocence and said he is considering returning to the Tour next July as a result of the latest accusations. |
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