And now Mayo

[fuzzy29]

From Eurosport:

Spanish rider Iban Mayo had been targeted by the International Cycling Union as a possible offender prior to his positive test for erythropoietin during the Tour de France.

Mayo, who finished the race in 16th place, was suspended by his team Saunier Duval on Monday after cycling's governing body confirmed traces of EPO in a sample taken on the July 24 rest day.

"It's another sad episode in the Tour de France," UCI president Pat McQuaid said. "People need to understand, the riders need to understand that that the UCI operates in a different way than in the past. Thanks to the blood tests, we target riders.

"Iban Mayo was one of the UCI targets," he added. "The riders have to understand that we use intelligence to target some of them."

EPO is a blood-boosting substance that was at the centre of the Festina affair that tarnished the 1998 Tour de France.

"It is surprising that the riders still use it knowing it is detectable," MacQuaid added.

The UCI chief added that Alexander Vinokourov, who tested positive for homologous blood-doping, was probably unaware that the French laboratory used by Tour organisers had mastered detection methods for this kind of offence.

"Up to this year, only the Lausanne laboratory [in Switzerland] was conducting tests for homologous blood-doping," McQuaid said.

"But the Lausanne lab taught the French one how to detect it and therefore they were able to test Vinokourov's sample."

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Could also just be that the rumour mill and innuendos are rife and damaging people's careers without proof

I don't think so.

There has only been one unproven rumour during this Tour, and that was about Soler (and that was based on the mistaken sighting of a police car outside a hotel, not on the story of a failed test).

Unless you believe what riders who are caught doping say, and I haven't yet seen one of the normal testing methods challenged successfully, the scientific evidence is usually pretty damning. And this isn't a court of law - failed tests mean guilty here. You don't need anything else.

 

[Blonde]

So if a test indicates that someone took EPO and that person admits he took EPO, is that not 100% accurate?

If someone admits to it then you have to go on what they say. They do that in legal cases but people confess to things they haven't done sometimes.

No test can be 100% accurate though. Ask anyone who has wrongly been told they are, or are not, pregnant, have cancer, etc etc...

You can only ever make decisions based on the evidence provided, but it isn't always correct, that's all.

 

[Tetedelacourse]

Take anyone who has been told they are pregnant and they are. In that case the test was 100% accurate.

 

[fuzzy29]

But having cancer, being pregnant, etc. are naturally occurring symptoms. Having synthetic testosterone, EPO or someone else's blood in your body, are not natural. Surely then, the testing for these is more accurate. Also, as Flying Monkey points out, there have not been any positive samples overturned in cycling recently.

Unless Landis and his $2 million lawyers have proved that the French lab was in France, or whatever their case is.

 

[Smokin Joe]

But having cancer, being pregnant, etc. are naturally occurring symptoms. Having synthetic testosterone, EPO or someone else's blood in your body, are not natural. Surely then, the testing for these is more accurate. Also, as Flying Monkey points out, there have not been any positive samples overturned in cycling recently.

Unless Landis and his $2 million lawyers have proved that the French lab was in France, or whatever their case is.

Not so, that is also a condition where you need an injection before you return a positive...

 

[chris42]

Not so, that is also a condition where you need an injection before you return a positive...

 

[Chuffy]

Any reaction from Millar yet?

 

[andharwheel]

Any reaction from Millar yet?
__________________
Perhaps thats why he is changing teams. Apparently not happy there.

 

[Chuffy]

But if he knew, wouldn't he have said something? Given that he is Mr Anti-dope these days.

 

[Blonde]

Having synthetic testosterone... the testing for these is more accurate.

Can they test for that - and detect a synthetic? I thought they tested for higher levels of epi-testosterone than 'normal' - which is obviously a limit that someone defined based on an average taken from a sample. Hormone levels do vary from person to person and also go up and down within individuals at different times, although probably less so in men, than in women. I also thought they tested for higher than 'normal' levels of red cells rather than for the EPO itself, but is EPO as a drug actually detectable now?

Accuracy of tests doesn't have owt to do with whether something is 'natural' or not though. It's more to do with how repeatable and reliable a specific test method is and also whether or not there is any human input involved at any stage of the test.

I wonder if the reason so many riders have been caught this year has more to do with the probability of being caught increasing, rather than the actual number of doping cases rising - more riders than in previous years have been tested this year, so returning more positives?

 

[k-dog]

^ no they test the ratio and also check for 'exogenous' things.

That's what Landis is arguiing about - at first it was the JD defence etc - something distorted his ratio - and then when it was discovered that it was exogenous there is only one excuse - the lab got it wrong.

Same with blood doping - if they find someone else's blood in you there isn't really any way out.

 

[trustysteed]

He's rather of a poor advert for their effectiveness anyway...

ain't that the truth, he's pretty rubbish. imagine how rubbish he'd be without EPO.

 

[Blonde]

Heh! Makes you wonder...

 

[Blonde]

if they find someone else's blood in you there isn't really any way out.

Yes, indeed, you'd be hard pushed to find an excuse for that one. The only thing I can think of is a legitimate blood transfusion after a serious accident.