The Blood Trail in the Cycling World (Die Blutspur des Radsports) is an article which appeared last Saturday
in the prestiguous newspaper Neue Züricher Zeitung. In this article a summary is given of the findings of the Anti Doping laboratory in Lausanne, which has examined the blood values of professional cyclists on behalf of the UCI.
Researcher Pierre-Edouard Sottas uses the medical concept of the prevalence. This shows the share of persons with a certain illness (in this case doping) is within a population. "The method is very accurate", he says. "It works with all types of blood-manipulation, like EPO use, and transfusions of own and foreign blood. They claim that they know "how many doped riders are starting in an event." They know much more than they can tell.
It appears that in the time the study started, in 1996, over 80 per cent of the riders were doped, according to Martial Saugy, the leader of the research team. There were no systematic controls in other sports, but the researcher is convinced that this was also valid for other endurance disciplines. At that time Bjarne Riis won the Tour de France. Today we know: He was the best in "the race of the blood-Zombies".
1996 was also the year of the Olympic games of Atlanta. Saugy says: "I would give much, if I could analyze all doping samples of Atlanta with modern methods." But the IOC does not want a new scandal about these Games. Only the cycling sport remains.
Very interesting is the development of the last 10+ years, as produced by the researchers:
1996 Hardly no systematic controls, but it is expected that over 80% of the riders are using doping.
1997/99 The maximum value of hematocrit-value is established; the number of dopers is slightly decreasing
2000 Everyone knows how to manipulate the hematocrit, so the number of EPO users increases again
2001 An EPO-test is introduced with dramatic consequences. Before the 2001 Tour de France the Peloton was practically clean. In the third week of the Tour however, again an increase of EPO use was to be seen, which has to do with the final results which should be obtained.
2002 At the beginning, the prevalence was still low, but towards the end of the year it clearly increases
2003 In the Vuelta, the riders has the advantage of the "loose moral" attitude of the Spaniards. "One can almost speak of blanketing doping", says Sottas. The reason: EPO in micro doses and transfusion with foreign blood are not provable.
2004/05 A test with foreign blood-transfusion is introduced; Tyler Hamilton and Santi Perez are the first who were caught.
That leads to a shock, so than the manipulations with own blood started. Nevertheless the prevalence sinks: Approximately 50 percent of the riders manipulate, but under the betterthe riders the higher the share of manipulators.
But the values, measure in the Vuelta a Espana are much above all other events.
2006/07 The Operación Puerto, the dismantling of the Spanish blood scandal of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes causes a big drop in the number of (blood) dopers. It is as small as it has ever been since 2001.
"Only" less than one-quarter of the 180 riders who started in the Tour de France 2007 are riding with manipulated blood. But according to the researcher Sottas: "Amongst the first 30 riders of the final ranking, the prevalence is higher than in the lower ranks."
Based on the dat the have avaiable, the doping researcher assumes that there are no more teams that are systematically
manipulating with blood. In 2003 that was still the case. It seems clear that the picture of teams is changing.
But still there are several teams in which accumulated doped athletes are engaged, and in some countries there are
still many athletes with abnormal blood values.
They have used similar methods for some other doping products, like for anabolic steroids and testosterone.
The development is more or less the same as with blooddoping. Not surprising as very often it are the same people.
The investigations in the use of growth hormones is not that far, because the 2006 introduced test does not really function.
But other studies has proven that growth hormones are effective only in combination with EPO or anabolic steroids.
And information from police and customs are showing that the smuggling of growth hormones is - in more or less -
the same quantities as other doping substances.
And at the end the "understatement of the year": however, the last Tour de France was probably the
cleanest since years, because around 3 out of 4 riders was NOT doped.
But recent history shows, how quickly that can change.
Actually, I mentioned that a week ago in the August News thread. It's a very interesting result, I think. I don't know what to think about it, though.. I mean, hopefully cycling is getting cleaner, but it doesn't seem like it. It's not like this year has had fewer doping "scandales" than the other years which is probably due to the fact that the tests are getting better -- yet it does show there's still a lot of doping in the sport.
@Phanekim..that was good reading. Quick doping history.
Final word...But recent history shows, how quickly that can change.
This can be change eather way..sadly in cycling still we have persons who like to find some boost. Most of all I think that problem dont be riders...main cause for that is dirty teams and organizations attitude. I'm almost shure that teams are the first wich know ..or should predict what happens with their raiders. Best result we can get to hope team managers like Bruyneel etc. get enough pressure to make them quit.
Edited by Guido Mukk on 14-08-2007 11:28
doddy13 wrote:
i met someone the other day in Belgium who said
'As long as the cheats get thrown out, we'll have a clean sport'
We are getting a cleaner generation i think. But we'll see for ourselves soon!
hello again doddy
i think this generation is getting cleaner, and everyone is now more aware of doping which helps a lot.
I think it is great for the sport when people actually admit to doping, like Millar, Zabel etc. as it shows they know they have done wrong, and they want to do something about it.
it's just stupid people like Landis and Vino that keep bringing down the reputation of the sport by claiming their innocence even though they have tested positive at least twice, i know the tests can be wrong sometimes but these knds of people really don't care what they are doing to the sport by carrying on with lawsuits etc. when everyone knows they have doped anyway
