Tuesday Roundup

News
The VeloNews says hold everything and not so fast, the Mayo "B" sample is not negative, it has not yet been completed according to Anne Gripper of the UCI:

The second sample is not negative," UCI anti-doping coordinator Anne Gripper told AFP at Tuesday's doping summit in Paris. "The analysis of it has not yet finished."

There were some reports that labs botched the test, but Gripper insisted that testing methods between labs in France, where the "A" sample was tested, and follow-up tests in Belgium are not the same. Officials now want a second sample to be re-tested at the Chatenay-Malabry lab in France.

She said it would be another "five or six weeks" before the second round of tests is completed. Even if the follow-up tests are negative, the UCI said it might consider an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

They want them tested at the LNDD? Mayo seems to remain in the crosshairs, and comments below try to decode the authority for multiple tests. The B was sent to Ghent for primary analysis, and confirmation by Australia. Gripper and McQuaid are saying the results were inconclusive, but don't mention Australia, only Ghent. The re-testing at LNDD by the UCI has the aroma of a bunch of apparatchik's sending the test to a "politically reliable" lab, which ought to raise eyebrows. The benevolent reading is that the Ghent/Australian test were officially reported as inconclusive, but even then it is hard to see why the original lab is involved in an EPO test, which has special status as we understand it under the WADA code requiring a second lab confirmation.


The Courier Journal writes about the culture of suspicion that now surrounds sport where doping is concerned, specifically in the case of Paul Byrd from baseball.

MSNBC reports on today's final meeting at the anti-doping summit in Paris where Dick Pound of WADA declares a new day has dawned:

"There has been a lot of harsh language back and forth about how cycling got to where it is today,'' Pound said. "This is a new day. We are trying to work with cycling to help in insofar as we can - to get cycling back to where it should be.''

Pound said he hoped that some day, historians would look back on the 2006-07 seasons as the years that cycling officials "looked over the edge of a very deep chasm, pulled back, and said, 'No, enough.'''

The UCI's Pat McQuaid is a bit more cautious calling the much ballyhooed "blood passport" program just one more element in the fight against doping.


But, if you read the Mirror.co.uk you'll find Pat McQuaid and the UCI being portrayed as more enthusiastic about the new era in doping controls, the blood passport


The CyclingNews writes up today's conclusion to the doping summit in Paris at which Dick Pound, Pat McQuaid, and Christian Prudhomme once again became friends thus assuring McQuaid and the UCI a welcome at the 2008 Tour de France launch later this week. All represented organizations agreed that the "blood passport" was to be instituted for the 2008 competition year:

The program, based on half a dozen blood analyses to determine each rider's blood profile, is considered by all parties (UCI, WADA and ASO) as a real weapon against blood doping. "We hope if it's successful in cycling that once we know it is successful, we'll use it in other sports after 2008," Pound said. The biological passport will not be compulsory at the start of all races but "the main ones". It will concern road riders only when it's put in place on January 1 and McQuaid added: "I'd like to think we'll do it in other disciplines than road possibly before the Olympics in Beijing."

ESPN posts the AP report on the conclusion of the doping summit in Paris which ended today.



Blogs
Rant is disturbed by the lack of harmony between the UCI and WADA when it comes to dealing with doping cases such as that which now finds Iban Mayo cleared of doping charges due to a negative "B" sample result. Rant also thinks that ALL positive "As" should be tested at labs other than those which found the "A" samples positive, as was Mayo's.

I Pull 400 Watts gives Floyd Landis the "quote of the week" about training:

"If you overtrained, it means that you didn't train hard enough to handle that level of training. So you weren't overtrained; you were actually undertrained to begin with. So there's the rule again: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins."

—Floyd Landis

High Voltage Report feels the Landis legal team must just LOVE the Iban Mayo story since it illustrates that testing suspected "B" samples at a lab other than the LNDD can produce results different than found from the "A" sample. HV is of the opinion that this can do nothing but help Floyd Landis in his appeal to the CAS.

Sara Best saw a spoof ad on the CBC. that referred to "that guy who won the Tour de France last year".

KanyonKris says get ready for the circus now that the Mayo "B" sample has come back negative after being tested at labs other that the LNDD, which had found the "A" sample positive. KK trusts the anti-doping agencies less and less and finds it all turning into a witch hunt, and quotes from the Hippocratic Oath:

So when the anti-doping agencies make accusations but don't have their act together, they're making a bad situation worse. Of course the anti-dopers say the fallout from this current "purging" phase is the price to be paid to have the sport clean in the future. But if the therapy cripples or kills the patient, more has been lost than gained and the course of action was wrong. "I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone."

Tarheel22 rants about cycling's credibility with reference to "Floyd (doped-to-the-gills) Landis".

Kable Access does an "A-Z" exercise reminiscent of something elementary kids would do for Mother's Day. "L" is for Landis, and he wants Floyd to just give it up.

Bike World News feels the UCI should be all set to move its headquarters to Salem, Mass. as the "witch hunt" is definitely on.

By the way, how come there is enough of the "B" Mayo sample left to send to the LNDD? No problems, though, the LNDD used up all the Landis B samples so their final results couldn't be second guessed by anyone else. Think there will be enough after LNDD gets done with this test for another facility to confirm?