Three days have passed since the leaked rumors of a positive test for one of cycling's big names which occurred during the Tour de France. Speculation has raged since then with names like Tony Martin and Samuel Sanchez being offered up as potential candidates. As yet there has been no official words from any national federations, teams, riders or WADA as to the identity of the rider, or even to confirm if the rumors were true.

A number of teams have come out to defend their riders, lead by Vaughters of Garmin-Sharp. Following the news he released all 9 Tour riders Bio Passports in an effort to shift suspicion away from his squad. This move was then replicated by FDJ and Argos-Shimano. In addition to these teams a number of riders have followed suit, such as Vincenzo Nibali, Taylor Phinney, Andre Greipel and Thomas Voeckler. While we were no closer to knowing who is involved a number of riders can now be excluded.

The media have been keen to pick up on those who have been slow to respond. Johan Bruyneel's RadioShack-Nissan have been quiet following Franck Schlecks positive test. Janez Brakjovic and Alexander Vinokourov's Astana Team have also been silent on the matter, and we all know this team has more than a dodgy past. While Nibali released his data, his Liquigas Team has yet to make a comment with eyes anxiously watching young superstar Peter Sagan. Finally Tour winning Team Sky has also kept quiet. Having fielded these questions for almost a year now it can be safe to assume their stance is a denial of any allegations.

The latest updates point towards a press conference being held by WADA tomorrow, when they will release all the latest information on the case once they have confirmed the findings from the riders B Sample. The speculation will continue long into the night about which rider is on the verge of collapse, and even if there could be more than one rider involved...

As promised WADA held a press conference today. The announcement was held outside their Olympic HQ in London. It certainly made for a different atmosphere being in the heart of the Olympics with athletes everywhere and an overwhelming mood of optimism and happiness. The room was also packed out as almost every news and sports company had sent a representative over from the big Olympic action. Everything combined made for a much higher profile conference than the rider must have been hoping for.

Playing on this feeling WADA began by explaining the situation. On 10th July, the Tours first rest day, a blood sample was taken and tested. Initially it turned up no traces of doping, but upon secondary testing after the Tour back in Switzerland the sample came back positive. The A-Sample tested positive for Acadesine (AICAR) which is a drug that turns fast-twitch into slow-twitch. The B-Sample was also tested, and confirmed the AICAR positive, as well as showing traces of GW1516 and amounts of a diuretic. The same riders tests from the second rest day, 17th July, contained the same elements. However the Olympic tests did not contain any traces of doping.

WADA then had to release the riders name. As suggested he rode both the Tour de France and the Olympic Road Race, and also the Olympic Time Trial....
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Bradley Wiggins. Tour de France Winner, Olympic Time Trial Winner, multiple Gold Medal winner of the Track. The new superstar of British cycling has used performance enhancing drugs as part of his greatest success. Shocked doesn't do the reaction justice. Instantly questions were fired in from all corners of the press hall, but WADA were not finished!

They announced that another rider had also tested positive!

As soon as WADA announced that a second rider had tested positive a few members of gathered crowd yelled out one name in question, "Chris Froome?!" This was everyone's first thoughts, and you could see people calculating the damage to Sky in their heads.

The WADA spokesperson continued, ignoring the shouts. He went on to say that the sample was taken, again, on Rest Day 1. But this time it was not AICAR or GW1516, but EPO that was found. They explained that they did not instantly announce this during the Tour as they believed the test to be wrong, as no-one could have been desperate enough to use something as easily detected as EPO. Once back in Switzerland they tested the B-Sample, which confirmed it. This rider was using EPO during the Tour de France. WADA also took a sample from the rider after the Olympic Road Race, and it also contained EPO.

Now the gathered media just wanted one thing more, that second name...

A stunned silence had settled over the crowd at the press conference. You could see it in their faces. That name must have been wrong. He couldn't have done it. Not him! Then the realization set in. The thoughts trickled out. Well it was obvious in many ways. No one could do that and be clean.

WADA went on to confirm that both riders would be given 12month bans, dated from the B-Sample tests, ending August 1st 2014. The UCI will remove their results from 10th July 2011 up to and including 1st August 2012.

Neither team was at the conference, and press releases are expected tomorrow. Of course we will update this information as soon as possible. It is a grim day for cycling.

The first Monday since WADA's release of two cyclists were confirmed in doping. Both Bradley Wiggins and Peter Sagan used performance enhancing drugs during the Tour de France, and Sagan also during the Olympics. Today both Team Sky and Liquigas-Cannondale made press statements, as did British Cycling and the Slovak Cycling Federation.

Team Sky: We are very dissapointed in Brad. We put all our riders through regular testing and nothing showed up in those results. Any doping undertaken was not supported by the team, and was done solely by the individual. Team Sky are still a zero tolerance team, which has lead us to releasing Brad from his contract, effective immediately. Neither will he be welcomed back in the future. We will redouble our anti-doping efforts as a result.

Liquigas-Cannondale: Any actions taken by Peter Sagan were done without our knowledge. We do not condone doping here at Liquigas-Cannondale and cannot accept any form of cheating amongst our ranks. As such Peter Sagan is sacked from the squad. This is also one step too far for main sponsor Liquigas, who will dropping out of cycling at the end of the season.

Both British Cycling and the Slovak Cycling Federation upheld the 12 month bans, confirming that Wiggins and Sagan will not be racing again until August 2013 at the earliest.

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BREAKING NEWS:
Reports are coming in of a crash. We are hearing that a rider has been hit by a lorry whilst out on a training ride. Details are few at the moment. The rider has been rushed to hospital, no word on who it is or their condition. We will bring updates as we get the information...

Yesterday a rider was hit by a lorry whilst out on a training ride. Early reports where small and incomplete. Today a couple of statements have been released giving details of yesterdays incident. What is perhaps more shocking, was that two accidents occurred. Two separate riders where hit in two separate collisions, in two separate countries!

The first was Chris Froome, 2nd place finisher in both the Tour and the Vuelta. He was clipped by a lorry on a minor A road in the Pennines. Chris was taken straight to hospital. It is confirmed that Chris will miss the rest of the season. His injuries were not serious, the worst being a broken leg. Rehabilitation will take some time, but Chris is fully expecting to make his return in time for the 2013 season where he will be the leader of Team Sky.

The second was a lot more serious. Details are harder to come by for the second incident. Again it has involved a lorry and a major rider. Early notifications point towards a much more worrying state. The rider is in hospital, but is in a very bad state. Whether that is life threatening has not been officially confirmed, but the general rumors suggest that is the case. Updates will come as they are released.