This started before he was at Sky and only showed up as an anomaly when he joined the Sky team and joined the BP programme. If you had read the UKAD report it would show you that he was suspected as having been clean at the ToB.
The reasoning went onto say that, “There was no dispute that the abnormalities in the sample were consistent with the use of an erythropoietic stimulant which had been discontinued approximately 10 to 14 days before the sample was taken
...it was taken on September 22nd at the ToB, so the glow time was long over.
The blood passport programme is designed to test for anomalous readings over an extended period of testing and not for one-off doping.
JTL was working with Sky for a significant proportion of the year before his signing. He attended training camps with them.
JTL was at the World Championships when the sample was taken on the 22nd, the men's road race was the 23rd.
My post presumes that most observers could work out, without the benefit of thousands of pounds of expensive lab equipment, that JTL was well-fueled at the TOB and that is why he was able to beat all the Sky riders - please see Brian Smith's crowings about this as evidence of the unique and unusual nature of JTL's performance.
Sky profess to be experts in rider analysis. They should ask the secret pro if they are in doubt; he knew.
We all know what the BP is supposed to do. Dr Ashenden, not me, doubts that as currently specified, it is effective - suggesting only a cretin will be caught by the current parameters - these are professional cyclists so those that dope will be professional about doping.
Er, surely what it shows is that the out-of-competition testing is *not* useless.
The IN competition testing at the TOB, where he would have been repeatedly testing showed that he was not positive. Which is why I stated that the IN competition testing was useless.
Dr Ashenden's opinion on the BP is out there for us all to read. I would suggest that it would be rash to consider that catching JTL at the time of the 2012 Wold Champs means the rest of the peloton who passed the BP there, are clean, but of course, maybe I am too cynical.
