Wednesday Roundup

News
The NY Times reports this morning that HGH test kits have been manufactured and will be ready to test athletes at this summer's Olympic games in China. The kits will be used and sent to WADA accredited labs around the world where technicians will be trained in their use:

Officials at WADA-certified testing laboratories in Beijing and around the world will be trained in how to use the kits, which can each test 10 to 15 samples, Howman said. WADA would not disclose the name of the company that had produced the test, saying only that it is based in Europe.

"This is something we have been anxiously awaiting for some time,” Travis T. Tygart, the chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said of the kits in a telephone interview. “We are thrilled to hear the time is now and will immediately take the steps to put the testing into place.”

The kits work against blood samples that may have been frozen, so no Hamilton/Olympic storage problem. There have been delays to "make sure the test is reliable", but no statistics on false positives or negative are offered. Everyone is vague on how long the detection window may be, but probably not more than a few days.


The CyclingNews features a lengthly piece in which Pat McQuaid accuses the ASO of creating and promoting a rival cycling federation with its own races, rules, and agenda. McQuaid goes on to state the ASO "blackmailed" several teams, when a vote was taken by AIGCP over Paris-Nice, forcing them to participate in that unsanctioned race IF they wanted to be invited to the Tour de France. Decisions about any disciplinary actions against teams, riders, and national cycling federations are ongoing, but McQuaid says he has spoken with several teams about the situation which has thus far overshadowed the racing season.

The VeloNews prints a rather bombastic essay by former Olympian Alexi Grewal on doping in cycling, his and others. Here is just an excerpt from the piece where once again Floyd Landis is painted as a villain for proclaiming his innocence, and David Millar a saint for admitting his mistake:

When will it end? When Floyd Landis or Tyler Hamilton or any one of the many other "all prisoners are innocent," fallen stars finally and ultimately does hard time. Don't think they won't, they will. Who are we kidding? Prisons and jails are filled with men whose transgressions are much less. Face it people, come on now! Trading $70,000 for a briefcase of refrigerated hot-rod blood, your own or someone else's! Drive it across international borders, for some bike rider to drink and be celebrated as some kind of cult worship rock star for winning a bike race? Have we lost our bloody minds?

Can we not return to some sense of justice and reality? Have not some like David Millar and Bradley Wiggins and others proven that honor is still honorable? Cycling will always be the sport that requires the most suffering, but just the same the "prisoners of the road" can manifest a courage the world needs to see. We can, and now we must lead the world in the face of this disgrace, of which almost all of us have had our part. We can and should affect the attitude of men and of nations, and if there is such a thing as providence we certainly had better!

Alexi also says in the print edition that everyone he knew "stepped over the line" except for Steve Bauer. That statement implicates Greg Lemond, Andy Hampsten, Bob Roll and the rest of the 7-11 crew,the US National teams every year of the 1980's, and many others. The statement indicts that entire era of US based team and individual cycling.

The Australian Broadcasting Company seems to habe let an intern put a bunch of stories into a blender, and runs an incoherent mess that manages to intermix the T/E genetic study, Landis, Gatlin, and MLB in alternate paragraphs. Each by itself might make sense. Landis is selected for the illustration, for no apparent reason.