anti doping tour de france

The UCI reveals its programme to combat doping and technological fraud for the 2023 Tour de France

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) today reveals its programme to combat anti-doping and technological fraud that it will implement for the upcoming Tour de France (1-23 July).

The comprehensive anti-doping programme deployed at the French Grand Tour will be led by the International Testing Agency (ITA), the body to which the UCI delegated the operational activities of its fight for clean cycling in 2021. After ensuring a level playing field for all participants at the Giro d'Italia last May, the ITA will once again work with all stakeholders, including the French authorities, to protect the integrity of one of the world's most prestigious cycling events.

This will be the third time that the ITA has taken charge of the anti-doping programme at the Tour de France since the UCI delegated its anti-doping activities to the agency. Within this framework, the ITA is in charge of the overall anti-doping strategy, which includes the definition of a precise and targeted testing plan. This plan is applied on the basis of a risk assessment that takes into account a wide variety of relevant factors whilst constantly adapting to current circumstances or new information. The testing plan also considers any relevant information received through the monitoring of the athletes’ Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) or gathered by the ITA’s Intelligence & Investigations Department.

All doping controls at the Tour de France will be targeted and performed at any time throughout the three-week race, not only at the finish line. At every stage, the yellow jersey and stage winner will be tested. Additionally, all athletes will already be tested before the start of the event as part of their medical monitoring. At the end of the race, the ITA will make a selection of samples that will be kept for potential re-analysis over the next 10 years.

Doping controls will mainly be conducted by the ITA’s Doping Control Officers (DCOs) with in-depth cycling experience. The ITA is also in close contact with other relevant French and international actors, for example with authorities, for support and exchange of information.

It should be remembered that 2023 has seen a significant increase in funding for cycling’s anti-doping programme . The UCI, UCI WorldTeams, UCI ProTeams, UCI WorldTour organisers and men’s professional road cyclists decided to further strengthen the capacity of the ITA to protect the integrity of the sport thanks to a progressive 35% budget increase up until the end of 2024. This funding principally reinforces the areas of Intelligence & Investigations, testing, scientific analysis, data analysis, long-term sample storage and sample re-analysis.

The Director General of the ITA Benjamin Cohen said: “We are looking forward to delivering the anti-doping programme for this major cycling race for the third time under the responsibility of the ITA and in collaboration with our partners to ensure a level playing field during the event. As the testing operations for this event are already at a vigorous level, the additional resources stemming from the decision of the cycling stakeholders to further protect the sport from doping will allow us to step up in other relevant areas of the clean sport programme for the Tour de France and throughout the year. Most notably, it allows us to invest more in intelligence and investigations, an area that has proven to be very effective and complementary to the testing regime. We are steadfast in our commitment to ensure a clean and fair competition environment for all participants in this highly anticipated event.”

When it comes to the fight against technological fraud at the Tour de France, controls for the presence of any possible propulsion systems hidden in tubes and other bike components will be carried out with the use of three tools: magnetic tablets, mobile X-Ray cabinet and portable devices using backscatter and transmission technologies.

Before each of the 21 stages, a UCI Technical Commissaire will be at the team buses to check all bikes being ridden at the start of that day’s stage. These pre-stage checks will be carried out using magnetic tablets.

After each stage , checks will be carried out on bikes ridden by:

the stage winner

riders wearing a leader’s jersey (yellow, green, polka dot, white)

three to four randomly-selected riders

riders who give rise to suspicion, for example following the pre-stage scan, an abnormally high number of bike changes (in which case the bikes on the team car can also be checked) or other incidents picked up by the UCI Video Commissaire

These post-stage checks will be carried out using either mobile X-Ray technology or devices that use backscatter and transmission technologies. If necessary, the bike in question will be dismantled.

Once the riders have crossed the finish line, the bikes subject to post-stage checks will be quickly tagged, enabling rapid control procedures to be carried out in a matter of minutes. The introduction of RFID tagging (tamper-proof tags using radio frequency identification technology) for all bicycles as part of the UCI Road Equipment Registration Procedure for the 2023 Tour de France and Tour de France Women with Zwift strengthens the UCI's ability to monitor the use of bicycles throughout the stages.

As a reminder, the mobile X-Ray technology, which is safe for users and riders, provides high resolution X-Ray image of a complete bike in just five minutes. Meanwhile the backscatter and transmission technology provides instantaneous high resolution images of the interior of the sections examined that can be transmitted, remotely, directly to the UCI Commissaires.

For road cycling, the UCI carries out bike checks at all UCI WorldTour events, as well as the UCI Road World Championships, UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, UCI Women’s WorldTour events and the Olympic Games. Controls are also carried out at UCI World Championships for mountain bike, cyclo-cross and track as well as the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup.

At last year’s Tour de France, a total of 934 bike checks were carried out and no cases of technological fraud were detected.

UCI Director General Amina Lanaya said: "The UCI continues to take the possibility of technological fraud very seriously. Our range of tools to combat all forms of cheating using a motor enables us to carry out rapid and effective checks. With the introduction of RFID tags on all the bikes, the UCI has the ability to monitor the use of the bikes during the race. This is essential to guarantee the fairness of cycling competitions and to protect the integrity of the sport and its athletes."

Tour de France anti-doping measures explained

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There are 23 days until the start of the Tour de France, but still a host of issues to have to be resolved if the race is to avoid the controversy that has dogged the previous three editions.

Yesterday (Wednesday, June 10), the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and French anti-doping agency (AFLD) hosted a joint press conference to announce a significantly increased testing programme for this year’s Tour de France.

UCI president Pat McQuaid also sought to clarify several issues that are looming on the horizon and Pierre Bordry of the AFLD explained the testing procedure for the 2009 Tour de France. The press conference, held at a Novotel in Paris, around the corner from a road named after Henri Desgrange, the founder of the Tour de France, was attended by current race director Christian Prudhomme.

Here, Cycling Weekly explains where each of the key bodies stands on each issue, and looks at what may happen between now and the start of the Tour in Monaco on July 4.

Scroll down to read more on the biological passport, Alejandro Valverde, Tom Boonen, Bernhard Kohl and the 2009 Tour de France anti-doping effort.

BIOLOGICAL PASSPORT Where do we stand?

Pat McQuaid said that the UCI would inform ‘a certain number of riders’ early next week that their biological passport data showed anomalies. He refused to confirm how many riders. Once the riders have been informed, their teams and national federations will be told.

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Does that mean they will be banned?

Not immediately. Mr McQuaid said that the UCI would not be able to provisionally suspend the riders on the basis of the biological passport, so it will be up to the teams to decide whether to withdraw the riders from competition.

What if one team withdraws their rider, but another doesn’t?

That could happen, and it could be divisive. Certain teams may seek to challenge the biological passport’s authenticity. However, if a team were to withdraw a rider from racing, or suspend them, the rider could challenge the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Can riders be banned as a result of the biological passport at all?

They can. There is provision within the rules, but it’s a longer process than a clear anti-doping code violation such as a failed test. First the rider’s national federation would have to decide whether there is a case to answer. There is a precedent. Ivan Basso was banned for blood manipulation – removing blood. If it could be shown that certain blood values had decreased, and the only way they had decreased was because blood had been removed from the system, that would be an anti-doping code violation. But that process will take time.

How come Antonio Colom has been provisionally suspended then?

The Katusha rider was targeted for specific testing because of irregular blood values detected by the biological passport. Colom was positive for EPO after an out-of-competition test taken in early April. That is an anti-doping code violation.

In the meantime isn’t there going to be a bit of a witch hunt?

There could be, yes. When the UCI names the suspect riders, their teams will come under pressure, particularly from the media. ASO may decide to bar those riders from the Tour, and there could be a challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It’s going to be a busy three weeks.

ALEJANDRO VALVERDE Valverde is banned from racing in Italy for two years, the Tour’s 16th stage goes into Italy, so presumably he’s also barred from the Tour? Who stands where on this?

The UCI has requested that CONI [the Italian Olympic Committee] sends the full documents regarding Valverde’s suspension. CONI had 30 days to deliver, and that deadline is up today (June 11). McQuaid said the UCI’s lawyers will study the documents and if they conform to the WADA code, the two-year ban will be globalised, meaning Valverde will not be able to race anywhere.

How long will that take?

McQuaid said a matter of days – four, five, or six – but said the issue would not drag on.

Isn’t Valverde appealing the CONI decision?

Yes, he’s taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but there is no date for a hearing yet, and so it may not be resolved before the Tour.

So what has ASO said?

Prudhomme has said that unless the CONI decision is overturned, he would be uncomfortable with Valverde starting the Tour. Caisse d’Epargne suggested pulling Valverde out of the Tour before the stage that goes into Italy, but Prudhomme has said that is unacceptable. The French Minister for Sport has said that Valverde is not welcome, although the rider is currently racing in France at the Dauphiné Libéré, so once again there’s a lack of consistency.

The UCI says Boonen can race, but the French Minister for Sport says he can’t, what’s going to happen?

Technically, the UCI is correct. Boonen tested positive for cocaine in an out-of-competition test in April. Cocaine is not on the WADA list of substances when detected out-of-competition, so Boonen cannot be suspended.

But last year Boonen stayed at home?

Yes, the Tour’s organisers and Boonen’s Quick Step team agreed to leave the rider out because they felt his presence would have compromised the image of the sport. But this year, Quick Step appears less willing to leave its prize asset on the sidelines and is pushing the issue.

Where do the UCI and ASO stand?

McQuaid stood by his statement that Boonen’s actions had damaged the sport’s image and said that the UCI disciplinary panel would be proceeding with a case against him, most likely for bringing the sport into disrepute. That case is not going to be heard before the end of June. ASO tentatively welcomed Boonen to the Tour, on the basis that no anti-doping rule has been broken. But the French Minister for Sport said it was unacceptable for Boonen to ride the Tour, even though the Belgian is currently racing on his turf at the Dauphiné Libéré.

BERNHARD KOHL The Austrian gave a strong interview to French newspaper L’Equipe but he appears to be back-tracking.

The eye-grabbing line in Kohl’s interview was that he alleged that most of the top ten in last year’s Tour de France were doping, a comment he now denies making. He’s threatened to sue the newspaper.

What has the UCI said?

The UCI has invited Kohl to their headquarters in Aigle to discuss his comments and to see what he can add to the anti-doping effort. McQuaid said he strongly disagreed with some of Kohl’s comments.

Bet the riders who finished in the top ten aren’t too happy either

As McQuaid said: “If I was Carlos Sastre, Christian Vande Velde or some of the other riders in the top ten, I’d be very angry.” Cedric Vasseur, head of the riders union, has threatened to sue Kohl.

ANDREAS KLODEN He was named in the independent report into the Freiburg clinic, but nothing seems to be happening. What’s going on?

Cycling Weekly was told by Swiss Cycling that Anti-Doping Switzerland is investigating the case.

But Kloden’s German?

Yes, but he rides under a Swiss licence.

What stage is the investigation at?

The UCI referred us to Swiss Cycling. Swiss Cycling referred us to Anti-Doping Switzerland and Anti-Doping Switzerland has not made any comment at this stage.

Aren’t riders under investigation supposed to be pulled out of racing?

According to the old ProTour ethics charter which was drawn up by the teams. That agreement no longer exists because certain teams refused to acknowledge it.

TOUR DE FRANCE TESTING PROGRAMME How many tests will there be?

ASO gave the UCI a list of about 300 riders from the 21 teams selected for the Tour who would be likely to start the race. A testing programme based on these riders has been underway for a number of weeks.

Around 50 riders are being specifically targeted for extra, extremely detailed testing, although McQuaid stressed that did not mean there were 50 suspect riders. He said the riders that were being most closely monitored where the favourites for the overall, the most likely stage winners as well as some who were being targeted as a result of their biological passport data.

At the pre-race tests, taken a day or so before the race, two samples will be taken so that in the event of a positive, a B sample will already be available for analysis.

During the Tour, around 300 to 400 tests would be carried out, with up to 10 riders tested after each stage.

In addition to that there would be other tests in the morning and evening.

Are they looking for anything specific?

EPO, insulin growth factor and human growth hormone.

What about signs of blood transfusions?

Blood transfusions of another person’s blood (homologous) can be detected. It is harder to detect a blood transfusion using a rider’s own blood (autologous) but not impossible. The UCI’s Dr Mario Zorzoli said that the biological passport showed signs of blood being removed and of red cells being injected.

Will samples be stored for future analysis?

Yes. And McQuaid said that testing is underway now on samples taken at the 2007 and 2008 Tours.

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Sports journalist Lionel Birnie has written professionally for Sunday Times ,  Procycling  and of course Cycling Weekly . He is also an author, publisher, and co-founder of The Cycling Podcast. His first experience covering the Tour de France came in 1999, and he has presented The Cycling Podcast with Richard Moore and Daniel Friebe since 2013. He founded Peloton Publishing in 2010 and has ghostwritten and published the autobiography of Sean Kelly, as well as a number of other sports icons. 

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13 October 2021

Consistency and deterrence: A summary of ITA’s anti-doping program for the Tour de France

The international testing agency (ita) managed the anti-doping activities for the 2021 edition of the tour de france for the first time after the delegation of the entire cycling clean sport program by the union cycliste internationale (uci) in the beginning of the year. the comprehensive and targeted clean sport program was implemented in close collaboration with the agence française de lutte contre le dopage (afld) and the french authorities. to date, no anti-doping rule violations (adrvs) were asserted in connection with the event..

The 2021 edition of the Tour de France, one of the world’s most prestigious cycling races, was the first edition of the event to be supported by an independent anti-doping program delivered by the ITA. Earlier that same year, the ITA was entrusted with the entire operational anti-doping program for cycling by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and integrated the experts that had already been implementing cycling’s anti-doping program into its structure within a dedicated cycling unit.

Following its anti-doping operations for the Giro d’Italia, the ITA continued to focus on a dedicated pre-Tour program, and collected 500 mostly out-of-competition samples from riders bound to take part in the Tour de France during the month between the two races. At the event itself, all 184 participating riders were subject to a pre-competition blood test ahead of the start. In addition, 393 blood and 162 urine samples were overall collected over the three weeks of the race, resulting in over 60% of athletes being tested during the event. These doping controls were targeted based on several factors such as prior risk assessment, performance or intelligence. At every stage of the race, the yellow jersey and stage winners were tested. The overall level of collected samples at the 2021 Tour de France is consistent with that of previous years (see infographic).

All the samples collected during the race were analysed in the WADA-accredited laboratory in Paris and specific further analyses were carried out by the Cologne WADA-accredited laboratory upon request of the ITA.

Currently, the testing of athletes remains one of the key tools in the fight against doping to promote clean sport and act as a deterrent for using prohibited substances or methods. While no ADRVs were asserted to date as a result of the analysis of the collected samples during the Tour de France, all samples will be stored and may be re-analysed at a later point in time should new or more powerful analytical methods be implemented by WADA-accredited laboratories or if the ITA receive any specific intelligence. Together with the monitoring of the riders’ Athlete Biological Passports, information acquired through intelligence work or reporting platforms, in- and out-of-competition testing activities and the storage of samples for re-analysis constitute a long-term approach in keeping cycling clean.

For the operational roll-out of the UCI anti-doping program, the ITA collaborated closely with the AFLD and the French authorities represented by OCLAESP (Office central de lutte contre les atteintes à l’environnement et à la santé publique – Central Office for combating environmental and public health offences) in the scope of the event. This collaboration is fundamental, as a comprehensive and robust anti-doping program not only involves testing but also relies heavily on the exchange of information with the local public bodies, as this was concretely the case during the Tour de France.

To protect the health and safety of participating athletes, the staff of the cycling teams and the anti-doping workforce, a sanitary protocol was in place to ensure that doping controls were conducted with as little risk as possible.

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Tour de France’s doping history clouds a ‘cleaner’ sport

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With the start of the 101st Tour de France only one day away, the topic of doping in cycling will no doubt start to rear its ugly head. While the riders cover 3,664km in 21 stages over three weeks in an extraordinary feat of human endurance, the aftershocks of the Lance Armstrong affair continue to colour our approach to the event and its champions.

Armstrong was meant to be the saviour of modern day cycling as it sought to recover from the Festina scandal of 1998 . He was credited with an intense attention to detail and dedicated scientific approach to his preparation; his cycling team was revered for a scientific and systematic approach to training and racing. Both parties were seen as having “too much to lose” to be caught up in the doping scandals that surrounded the sport during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Unfortunately as we now know, this was not the case.

So where does this leave the current crop of cyclists as they push out on the start from the start line of this year’s Tour? Even the most cynical of us hope that the riders are clean, or at least cleaner than the previous decades. The anti-doping debate is also testament to the hope that people involved in the sport want change, and want to believe that professional cycling has cleaned up its act.

Media, sponsor and fan pressure is starting to force teams to take a “zero tolerance” stance on doping, and is undoubtedly behind the decision of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) President, Brian Cookson, to create the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) . Cookson’s actions have won many admirers including International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach, who said he was “impressed” with the UCI’s efforts to stamp out doping in the sport.

Change on the horizon?

But is the attitude towards doping in cycling actually changing in the peloton itself? It is difficult to say for certain. Thanks to the history of the sport there will always be scepticism about whether riders are clean. It is unfortunate, but inevitable, that riders and teams who carry the yellow jersey that has been stained by years of doping and cheating, will be questioned. It was no great surprise that many in the sport viewed Chris Froome and Team Sky’s dominance at last year’s Tour with a level of suspicion.

The introduction of the biological passport for athletes in 2008 appears to have had an effect on athlete behavior and attitudes towards doping in the sport. The biological passport monitors certain parameters of a cyclist’s blood over time, making it more difficult for them to dope without detection. The passport does not test for specific banned substances, rather for the manipulation of blood parameters that suggest doping has occurred. Encouragingly, the biological passport has stood up to legal challenges . But it will take more evidence to show that the biological passport provides a long-term deterrent to doping within the sport.

So, why is doping such a big issue in cycling and other endurance-based sports? Well it improves performance, quite significantly, and in some cases by as much as 6% according to research work by Yannis Pitsiladis. Therefore, assuming that professional cycling is cleaning up its act, the Tour should be significantly slower than the 1990s and 2000s. This can be tracked as the Tour often visits the same routes and mountains year on year, affording historical comparisons.

Sports scientists such as Ross Tucker from South Africa have performed these comparisons, which demonstrate that from 2009, the average performance speed and power outputs of top tour riders fell by 5-10%. This is apparent from the fact that the tour winners of 2010 to 2012 being barely able to make the top ten in tours from the 1990s and 2000s.

Cycling power output carries with it some important physiological implications because the cyclist/bicycle system is “closed”: physiological power can be directly measured as mechanical power by a power meter on the bike. Therefore it is possible to estimate, with a few assumptions, what kind of physiology determines a given output. The performances of some riders in the Armstrong era were such that it is hard to believe they were the result of the “normal” training processes, however gifted they were.

In time, technological, training and nutritional advances might slowly narrow the gap between recent performances and those of the 1990s and 2000s. Last year Chris Froome’s ascent of the main mountain stages (Ax-3-Domaines and Mont Ventoux) matched the level of performance seen in the Armstrong era.

Speculation and accusation

Unsurprisingly following Froome’s performance in the mountains fingers started to be pointed at both him and Team Sky. Following a period of concerted pressure from the media, Sky eventually released Froome’s power data for “expert” review. Dave Brailsford, Team Sky Principal, suggested that their reluctance to release Froome’s data was due to the actions of “pseudo scientists” who misinterpret power output data either inadvertently, or deliberately, to make it say more or less what they want.

In some respect Brailsford is absolutely correct, there are many things that influence performance which power output data alone fails to capture (weather, race tactics, equipment calibration), making definitive conclusions difficult. It would be a misapplication of science to accuse a rider of doping due to an unrealistic performance, even though many do.

But secrecy and refusal to openly discuss performances inevitably leads to the speculation about their veracity. What most people strive for is a cleaner sport: at times there appears to be a polarised approach, either look to the future and deny everything from the past, or examine every detail and challenge every performance which from time to time leads to unfair accusations. A balanced approach is probably somewhere in the middle.

At the weekend, all eyes will turn to Froome and Team Sky as Tour favourites. Their performances are currently seen as the benchmark for the rest of the peloton, as well as cycling fans who want to know what it takes to win the Tour.

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Here's how drug testing works at the Tour de France, the world's greatest race

MONTAUBAN, France, July 10 —  Each day here at the Tour de France a handful of the world's fittest athletes climb into a small office on wheels to pee into a plastic cup. For the riders it is part of the job, as routine as riding their bikes, but for a sport not long ago plagued by doping scandals the testing is critical to its integrity and survival.

There has not been a doping positive in this Tour so far. In last year's race there was one positive, for cocaine , and in the 2014 Tour there was no positive test reported. (Here's a list of doping cases in cycling .)

At least on the surface, pro cycling today appears much cleaner than it did a decade or so ago .

How does the world's biggest bike race detect if a rider is doping? Welcome to "antidoping control," where officials try to ensure that cyclists are racing clean by testing their urine and blood, usually with little notice. If a rider fails to report to antidoping, for whatever reason, he is considered to be positive and immediately kicked out of the race.

This week at the Tour, cycling’s governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) , and the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF) , the independent organization mandated by the UCI to define and carry out the antidoping strategy in cycling, granted Business Insider access into their mobile antidoping-control facility. Here's what we saw:

Before each stage finishes, an official from the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF) posts a list of riders' numbers near the finish line.

Teams send a representative — usually a soigneur — to check the list to see if one of their riders has been selected for testing. Meanwhile, CADF chaperones are sent to the finish to notify the selected riders and escort them to antidoping.

The riders' names are not printed on the list but their race numbers and team names are.

It isn't hard to figure out who's who as the riders' race numbers and names are public knowledge. A quick Google search will easily identify each rider. The riders don't have to go directly to antidoping, so if they are asked to do a postrace press conference or wish to go to their team bus and clean up, they can do that — as long as they are with their assigned chaperone at all times.

The antidoping control is usually located just beyond the finish line.

This is where the riders and team doctors or another staffer report. If there are other riders being tested, they have to wait in this area.

There are two different stations in the truck, so two riders can be tested at the same time. The truck was built when only a few rider were tested, so space inside is a bit tight.

On the day we visited the waiting area was a tent with a dirt floor.

Water is provided and that's important, because if the riders are dehydrated after racing they won't be able to urinate, which means they might have to wait some time before they can provide samples — as long as a couple of hours. That could delay the team from driving to the next stage's start town and also delay plans for massage, dinner, and any number of things on the schedule.

Still, every rider I spoke said they understood why the tests were necessary.

Once inside the antidoping station, the rider first signs paperwork that says, among other tings, that he acknowledges that he is being tested and understands what will happen going forward with his samples and the lab analysis. The rider signs and gets a copy.

These days, a lot of the information is filled in beforehand, and so the rider often just signs his name and perhaps adds a few missing details.

The winner of the day's stage and the overall race leader are automatically tested, as well as six or seven additional riders.

In the past, riders were mostly selected at random, but now the testing is a lot more structured, according to the CADF official I spoke with. Riders are chosen now based on different factors, including intelligence gathered from national cycling federations and other sources, a CADF representative said.

There was a TV showing the race live.

The white Styrofoam boxes are the testing kits.

Each box contains two jars, for the A and B samples. The riders urinate into the plastic cups, or "collection vessels," and then pour that urine into the jars before finally sealing them.

These are the jars for the A and B samples.

There are plenty of extra testing kits on hand.

There is a refrigerator for storing the samples until a courier arrives — as well as bottles of water for all the riders who pass through.

In the antidoping-control station, riders normally give just a urine sample. But the CADF may also draw blood samples. These are the materials used for taking blood samples.

 This is done for what's known as the biological passport , the purpose of which is to "monitor selected biological variables over time that indirectly reveal the effects of doping rather than attempting to detect the doping substance or method itself," according to WADA .

When officials want blood samples during stage races such as the Tour, they often go to the rider's hotel in the evening. During this Tour, CADF officials have already visited team hotels for additional testing.

The riders have to wash their hands before touching anything.

It helps ensure that they give a good sample. They are the only people allowed to handle the A and B sample vessels until they are sealed.

The riders urinate into a collection vessel.

To ensure that a valid sample is taken and there is no cheating, an official from the CADF must watch the rider urinate, so he looks through the window on the left. There are two mirrors, which allow the testing official to see from different vantage points.

The whole process typically takes about 20 minutes, but that can vary a lot if the rider is unable to provide a sample right away. It is not uncommon for riders to take up to 2 hours to provide a sample.

A courier who has worked for the Tour for years is in charge of transporting all the samples.

Each day after the samples are collected from the riders, the courier places them into a cool box, seals it in front of the CADF officials, and then drives directly to a lab in Paris. He does this every day, according to the CADF representative we met. 

So each day the courier drives back to the Tour de France's next stage and does it all over again.

Sometimes the courier even gets a police escort, which opens the roads for faster travel. For smaller races, the turnaround time for the samples is longer, but for the Tour it's best that the samples are moved the same day, a CADF representative said.

Riders give two samples, an A and B sample. Should a rider's A sample test positive, he has the right to have the B sample tested.

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At Tour de France, doping is always part of the story

DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — A scene from Godfather III about sums up where the Tour de France is with doping as the 2017 edition begins on Saturday.

In the movie, Al Pacino's character Michael Corleone laments that his efforts to become a bona fide businessman are being undermined by his family's underworld connections. "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in," he wails.

Likewise, cycling's showcase race seemed largely to have extricated itself from the swamp of widespread blood doping that characterized Lance Armstrong's era. The 12 riders banned or provisionally suspended by cycling's governing body, the UCI, in 2015 and 2016 for using blood-boosting agents like Armstrong were largely second-tier. Just one, France's Lloyd Mondory, had previously raced in the Tour — in 2009 and 2010 when Armstrong was still competing.

But just four days before the 2017 edition gets rolling in Duesseldorf, Germany, came a reality check.

The UCI announced that Andre Cardoso, a seasoned pro who was to have raced in support of 2007 and 2009 champion Alberto Contador in his quest for another Tour title, tested positive for EPO, a hormone banned because it stimulates the production of oxygen-carrying blood cells.

EPO was also part of Armstrong's doping armory when he cheated his way to seven Tour wins from 1999-2005. Those victories were subsequently all stripped from the Texan, who has been banned for life, leaving the sport and the Tour laboring under corrosive clouds of suspicion.

Time and cycling's sustained anti-doping efforts have helped to heal some of those wounds, and to win back fans in countries like Germany, where broadcasters had turned their back on the Tour. But Cardoso's positive test shows that the race isn't out of the woods yet — and likely never will be.

"We keep saying that time is the healer of the sport and what people did 10 years ago to ruin the sport will be healed by time and the fact that nobody is doing it anymore," Team Sky rider Luke Rowe told The Associated Press.

But Cardoso's test, he added, "just puts a bad shadow on the sport again."

Describing himself as angry and frustrated, Rowe said he'd like the Portuguese veteran of seven Tours of Italy and Spain to be banned for life, "especially if you are caught with something as obvious as that."

"Guys like him should never be able to race a bike again," said Rowe, who is racing with reigning champion Chris Froome for a third time at this Tour.

Cardoso said in a statement that he has never taken banned substances, having "seen firsthand through my career the awful effects that performance-enhancing drugs have had on our sport."

But if a follow-up test also comes back positive for the Trek-Segafredo team racer, the conclusion must be that cycling still hasn't convinced all of its most experienced athletes that cheating isn't worth the risk. And that's despite the thousands of yearly tests and the regular scrutiny of riders' blood for tell-tale signs of doping.

For Brian Cookson, president of the sport's ruling body, the UCI, Cardoso's positive result shows that testing is working.

"I don't think it demonstrates that there are many, many other riders doping," he told the AP. "From time to time an athlete is foolish, and the chances are they are going to get caught."

Cycling can rightly argue that it is one of the most scrutinized sports and far from alone in being affected by the doping scourge.

Its anti-doping unit says it conducted a whopping 15,000 tests last year — the bulk of them on male professional road racers. On top of that, 41 pro teams are being monitored by the blood passport program that cycling helped to pioneer, tracking riders' blood values over time for any suspicious variations. Pro teams provide more than two-thirds of the costs.

"From being a pariah and an outcast, almost, because of our poor doping record, now I think the reverse is true," Cookson said. "We have a very good reputation in the anti-doping world and the wider sports world."

At the Tour, cycling's anti-doping unit is planning an average of eight tests each day — always including the race leader and winner of each stage, plus six others. The best riders' samples will be stored for 10 years, for possible retesting as detection methods improve. Anti-doping officials and French police have again agreed to share intelligence, to help target tests. In exceptional circumstances, sample collectors can even visit riders in the middle of the night.

The anti-doping unit director, Francesca Rossi, told the AP that Cardoso's positive test doesn't signal a renewed EPO trend.

"I'm not worrying because it's one positive for a long time. Statistically, this is acceptable," she said. "We are not anymore in the EPO era, for sure."

Tripping up Cardoso before he took the start spared the Tour further embarrassment. The 32-year-old said sample collectors visited him at home on June 18.

Irish rider Nicolas Roche, embarking on his eighth Tour, said he was surprised but also relieved that Cardoso was caught because "when someone tests positive once in a while it also means that the test works, which is in a way reassuring."

"I was just like, 'Really, do riders still think they can get away with it?'" he said.

The use of chemical boosters has been part of the story of the physically punishing Tour since its earliest days. That has never stopped millions of people from lining its roads each summer.

"You had to be naive to think it couldn't happen again. And it will happen again. It's logical. Just because we haven't seen riders caught for EPO for a while doesn't mean that riders weren't taking it," said Marc Madiot, head of the French FDJ team.

"We could meet again in five, 10, 15 or 20 years and there are still bound to people who will try to get around the rules."

AP Sports Writers Andrew Dampf and Rob Harris contributed.

Tour de France's Jonas Vingegaard has 4th doping test in 2 days

COURCHEVEL, France -- Tour de France overall leader Jonas Vingegaard has undergone four anti-doping tests in the last two days, including one an hour before the start of Wednesday's 17th stage, his Jumbo-Visma team said.

Vingegaard extended his overall lead to one minute and 48 seconds over second-placed Tadej Pogacar with a stunning performance in Tuesday's individual time trial, which he won by 1:38.

Pogacar was second in the stage.

"It was already the fourth in two days," a Jumbo-Visma spokesperson told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We are perfectly fine with it... We've been asking the International Cycling Union (UCI) to act like this actually."

Pogacar and his team mates were also tested Wednesday morning an hour before the start in Saint Gervais, a UAE Emirates spokesperson told Reuters.

Since 2021, the International Testing Agency (ITA) has been handling testing in cycling.

On the Tour de France, the overall leader is tested everyday and every stage winner has to undergo an anti-doping test as well.

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Lance Armstrong Is Stripped of His 7 Tour de France Titles

By Juliet Macur

• Oct. 22, 2012

The International Cycling Union announced Monday that it would not appeal the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s ruling to bar Lance Armstrong for life from Olympic sports for doping and for playing an instrumental role in the team-organized doping on his Tour de France-winning cycling squads.

That decision to waive the right to take Armstrong’s case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest court in sports, formally stripped Armstrong of the seven Tour titles he won from 1999 to 2005.

“Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling; he deserves to be forgotten in cycling,” Pat McQuaid, the president of the cycling union, known as U.C.I., said in a news conference in Switzerland. “Something like this must never happen again.”

McQuaid said he was “sickened” by the facts in the 202-page report the antidoping agency made public two weeks ago regarding the evidence it had in the Armstrong case, and called it mind-boggling how former teammates like the five-time national time-trial champion David Zabriskie were pushed to use performance-enhancing drugs.

McQuaid said that Armstrong’s teams had a “win at all costs” attitude fueled by “deceit, intimidation, coercion and evasion,” and that all of the evidence was there to prove that Armstrong doped. He added that he was sorry the cycling union had not caught Armstrong and his teammates “red handed” so he could have thrown them out of the sport.

Armstrong, who has vehemently denied ever doping, declined to comment Monday. But in the past, he said that he, his teammates and those riders who competed against him would always know he won those seven Tours. By early Tuesday, his biography on his Twitter page had been changed to no longer say he is the seven-time Tour de France winner.

The antidoping agency applauded the cycling union’s acceptance of the penalties the agency gave Armstrong in August, when Armstrong gave up fighting his case. Back then, the cycling union was battling to gain jurisdiction over the matter.

“Today, the U.C.I. made the right decision in the Lance Armstrong case,” Travis Tygart, the antidoping agency’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Despite its prior opposition to Usada’s investigation into doping on the U.S. Postal Service cycling team and within the sport, Usada is glad that the U.C.I. finally reversed course in this case and has made the credible decision available to it.”

Tygart said there was still more to do to clean up cycling because there were “many more details of doping that are hidden, many more doping doctors, and corrupt team directors, and the omerta has not yet been fully broken.” He called for immunity to be given to riders who come forward and confess their doping, so the sport can learn from its mistakes.

The World Anti-Doping Agency now has the opportunity to appeal Usada’s decision, and its officials said they were still in the process of reviewing the evidence.

The cycling union’s announcement delivered yet another devastating blow to Armstrong, who has unceremoniously fallen from grace within the past two weeks.

Last week he stepped down as the chairman of Livestrong, his cancer foundation, and lost nearly all of his sponsors, including Nike and the Trek bicycle company. Oakley sunglasses, one of the companies that had been with Armstrong the longest, announced Monday that it was dropping him, too.

Also, the International Olympic Committee is reviewing Armstrong’s case and will probably strip him of the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Christian Prudhomme, the Tour’s race director, said at a news conference Monday that he no longer considered Armstrong a Tour champion and that the Amaury Sport Organization, the company that organizes the Tour de France, would erase Armstrong’s name from its record books.

He added that the runners-up should not be elevated in the standings because of the prevalent doping that occurred during that period in the sport.

“Those dark years must be marked by the absence of a winner,” he said.

Prudhomme characterized Armstrong as “a true talent who strayed” and “played with fire,” and said he would like Armstrong to repay the millions of dollars in prize money he won at the Tour.

But the cycling union will make the final decision on that.

McQuaid said the management committee of the cycling union would meet on Friday to discuss the ramifications of Armstrong’s downfall, including if and how Armstrong would repay prize money and how the cycling union would handle the standings at the Tours he won. He said the committee also would discuss the possible repayment of prize money by Armstrong’s former teammates who provided testimony in the antidoping agency’s case and confessed their own doping.

“A lot of these guys made a lot of money out of their cheating,” McQuaid said. “A lot have admitted they cheated and apologized to their family and friends, but they have not apologized to the U.C.I. or the sport.”

McQuaid also disputed accusations that the cycling union covered up positive drug tests for Armstrong or took bribes from him, calling those claims absolutely untrue.

The decision to strip Armstrong of his Tour victories has also created legal problems for him. One is that SCA Promotions, an insurance company based in Dallas, is trying to recoup $9.5 million in performance bonuses it covered when Armstrong won Tour after Tour.

The company withheld a $5 million bonus for Armstrong’s winning the 2004 Tour after a French book claimed he had doped and cheated to win. Armstrong sued the company to force it to pay him that bonus. The two parties reached a settlement, with the insurance company paying Armstrong $7.5 million — and now SCA Promotions wants that money returned, along with the other $4.5 million in bonuses, for a total of $12 million.

“Once he loses those titles, in our minds, he’s not entitled to those payments,” Jeffrey M. Tillotson, a lawyer for the company, said. “We’re sending a demand letter to him, which I’m sure he’ll throw away. But fair is fair. We want our money back.”

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Mohoric wins furious stage 19 Tour duel as Vingegaard is quizzed on anti-doping

• ‘It’s cruel to be a pro cyclist,’ says Slovenian after photo finish
• Leader Jonas Vingegaard asked about pre-Tour altitude camps

Matej Mohoric won a volatile 19th stage of the Tour de France after narrowly outsprinting Kasper Asgreen, a stage winner 24 hours earlier , in Poligny. The Slovenian won by a hair’s breadth, his last-gasp bike throw doing enough to ensure his Bahrain Victorious team’s third stage win in the 2023 Tour.

A rapid afternoon of racing through the Jura focused less on the overall standings and more on Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jasper Philipsen. The wearer of the green jersey as leader of the points classification, Philipsen battled to ensure that rival Mads Pedersen, of Lidl-Trek, was not allowed to sneak up the road to further narrow the gap between them.

In the end, it boiled down to a furious chase between a nine-man group of pursuers, containing the Belgian sprinter Philipsen, and three breakaway riders. Asgreen, of Soudal Quick-Step, winner in Bourg-en-Bresse on Thursday; Ben O’Connor of AG2R Citroën; and Mohoric as they closed on the finish line. After his win, Mohoric said that his success meant a lot because “it’s hard and cruel to be a pro cyclist”.

“You suffer a lot in preparation, you sacrifice your life and your family and do everything you can to be ready,” he said. “Then you realise everyone is so incredibly strong that it’s hard to follow the wheels sometimes.

“Sometimes you feel like you don’t belong here … even today I was thinking how the guy who is pulling [at the front], is suffering as much as you do. It’s cruel.”

Speaking to the media after the stage, the race leader, Jonas Vingegaard of the Jumbo-Visma team, was again asked about his pre-Tour altitude camps and about the number of anti-doping controls carried out during his visits to Tenerife, Sierra Nevada and Tignes.

“I cannot remember, really – I have no clue,” he said. “I don’t remember the number of doping controls I have in February. I was tested for sure at each one of them [the camps].”

Meanwhile the fallout from the chaotic scenes in Wednesday’s stage over the Col de la Loze to Courchevel continued, with one team manager citing the numbers of small children on the race route and telling the Guardian that he was “very angry” at the lack of crowd control on the narrow climb.

The race director, Thierry Gouvenou, was one of those to acknowledge the “Netflix effect” increasingly being cited as the reason for this year’s Tour attracting rowdier crowds to the roadside. The Netflix series Tour de France: Unchained, first streamed in June, is believed to have attracted a new, younger cycling fan to the roadside, one that is perhaps unfamiliar with the culture of the race.

“This year the Tour has been exciting and there are many, many more spectators than in other years,” Gouvenou said. “And it’s a slightly different crowd, one that’s a bit more festive and less respectful, that doesn’t know the etiquette of a good supporter. So it’s true that in some places, we’ve found ourselves in a bit of difficulty.

“I don’t know if it’s the Netflix effect. I know the viewer wants to be with his phone and he wants to put himself in the picture, in the Tour de France. That’s the way it is.”

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Days after an attack by Tadej Pogacar had been blocked by unruly crowds and motorbikes, media motorbikes, race direction vehicles and team cars were all stalled at points during the steep and narrow climb of the Loze, even forcing Vingegaard to stop at one point.

“The gradient on the section of the Loze where there have been problems is more than 20%,” Gouvenou said. “Barriers in 20% sections don’t work.

“We’re going to have to review the number of vehicles in these difficult sections. Maybe we have too many media around the riders in these passages where we know there are going to be people and steep gradients, but we’re not going to ban the public from coming to the Tour de France.”

Saturday’s final mountain stage, over six climbs in the Vosges, from Belfort to Le Markstein, is expected to be, in Vingegaard’s words, “really explosive”.

“It’s the last mountain stage and I think everybody in the bunch has saved their legs,” the Dane said.

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The fight goes on: WADA, doping, and the biological passport - part 1

“Look at the climb of Alpe d’Huez in 2022. [Geraint] Thomas, [Tadej] Pogačar, [Jonas] Vingegaard, they were all there and over three minutes slower than [Marco] Pantani in 1995. And he was on a 9kg steel bike. Over the last 10 years, the sensitivity of doping and analysis has increased by a factor of 1,000, which means that you’re able to detect substances with a concentration that’s 1,000 times less than before. We are still improving the system, but I would say that if there is a doping substance in the body of an athlete, it will be found.” 

These are the words of Raphael Faiss, research manager at the Centre of Research and Expertise in Anti-Doping sciences (REDs) at the University of Lausanne. The cause of Faiss’ optimism? The Athlete Biological Passport, or ABP, this year celebrates 15 years since WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, rolled out its “new testing paradigm”. 

Over two parts, we speak to experts in the know to chart the strengths and weaknesses of the ABP, discovering why old-school EPO is favoured over the new, why blood bags remain problematic and why estate agents often look upwards when selling to cyclists. We’ll look at the present and the future, but start by looking back to see what stimulated the development of the passport… 

Beating anaemia… and the competition

While an aerodynamic Greg LeMond flew past Laurent Fignon’s old-school TT set-up to win the 1989 Tour de France by eight seconds, a development in the medical world looked set to transform the lives of severe anaemics as FDA (the USA’s Food and Drug Administration) approved the use of exogenous EPO (erythropoietin). EPO is a hormone naturally produced by the kidneys that stimulates the production of red blood cells. Vis-à-vis, the recombinant version would benefit those who couldn’t generate sufficient levels on their own. And, it soon transpired, cyclists and their teams seeking a competitive edge.

While amphetamines were historically the cyclist’s drug of choice, EPO was next level as suddenly world-class climbers morphed into world-class time triallists. Athletes whose haematocrit levels – the percentage of red cells in your blood – came in at 44% could now raise it to more than 55%, even 60%. Great for endurance performance but mightily dangerous. Tales circulated of cyclists awakening in the middle of the night to perform press-ups to prevent their hearts from stopping due to high blood viscosity.

The UCI (cycling’s international governing body) took note, primarily for health (and arguably PR) reasons, and blood tests were eventually rolled out alongside a haematocrit cut-off of 50% for men and 47% for women with the first ‘no-start rule’ applied at the 1997 edition of Paris-Nice. The price of their misdemeanour? A two-week suspension. That still proved long enough to upset riders and teams who tagged phlebotomists the ‘vampires of the peloton’. 

But already the teams were ahead of the game as in 1998; it became clear that the plasma expander hydroxyethyl starch (HEL) was being used to decrease haematocrit concentrations; in fact, many teams had purchased Coulter ACT haematology analysers at the beginning of the season to ensure haematocrit values measured on the morning of each race dipped under the threshold.

A year later, in 1999, Pantani was thrown off the Giro d’Italia when leading due to haematocrit levels of 51.9%. Indeed, this year's race marks another anniversary in the history of cycling doping, as it has been 25 years since that exclusion.

This, coupled with the 1998 Festina affair , left cycling’s reputation in tatters. Something more needed to be done, and it arrived thanks to a direct test for EPO developed by a French lab with the first two adverse findings in 2001.

Look indirect rather than direct

The defence had been bolstered. But there remained clear cracks. The problem with the EPO test, which is used to this day, is that for each new drug, a new test must be developed. This creates a significant lag, ensuring the cheats kept well ahead. The solution? What if instead of looking directly for drugs, you looked indirectly? To measure the physiological impact of drugs by observing trends? By examining longitudinally an athlete’s blood? This led to the development of the ABP, first used in battered-and-bruised cycling in 2008 and then rolled out by WADA a year later. Reid Aikin, deputy director of the Athlete Biological Passport at WADA, explains how it works.

“When you take EPO, you generate more reticulocytes or new red blood cells. This can skew your results above line,” says Aikin. “But there’s also an ‘off-phase’ component. When an athlete stops taking EPO, the body responds to this supra-physiological dose by shutting down the normal production of red blood cells in search of homeostasis. You then have lower reticulocyte values than normal. So, you have this booster and off-phase that the ABP picks up. When the ABP started, you were having so many athletes turn up with low levels of reticulocytes because everyone stopped taking it during competition.”

By this time, out-of-competition had cranked up, too. Both these anti-doping advancements had an immediate impact upon a rider’s blood profile, illustrated by a 2010 paper by Mario Zorzoli and Francesca Rossi entitled ‘ Implementation of the biological passport: The experience of the International Cycling Union ’. They observed that from 2001 to 2007, around 10% of the samples taken exhibited reticulocytes in the extreme range of either below 0.4% (off-phase) or over 2% (on-phase). On introduction of the ABP, this dropped to 2-3%. The category defined as  ‘very extreme’ – below 0.2% for off-phase and over 2.4% for on-phase – disappeared entirely.

No such paper has been published since though there’s compelling evidence that the ABP has had an impact. In 2007 there were 643 positive tests. That had dropped to 146 in 2021. In 2004, around 4.6% of anti-doping samples tested were positive; in 2022, that had dropped to less than 1% (you can see the full breakdown of test volume and AAFs in WADA's published testing figures ).

Evolution of the ABP

Of course, history challenges the notion that an absence of a positive test means a clean athlete. “I’ve been tested 500 times and never failed a drug test,” Lance Armstrong repeated. Often. But the ABP has evolved to target a wider gamut of performance-enhancing drugs. Originally, the ABP featured solely a haematological module. “But in 2014, a steroid module was added to the ABP that’s detected in urine samples,” says Aikin. “Then last year, we launched the endocrine module, which profiles markers of growth hormone or IGF (Insulin-like Growth Factor 1) use. This is via blood, albeit it’s a serum sample, so each module requires its own separate sample collection, though follows the same basis of observing trends over time.”

The ABP also now accounts for the performance evolution of an athlete. “It’s a project we’ve worked on with Professor James Hopker of the University of Kent, England, where we can observe ‘normal’ career progression compared to outlier efforts,” says Faiss. “This includes looking at power data. There’s much conjecture about technology fraud and motor doping. But we can look at the figures, look beyond the leading riders of a race to those who might feel they can hide in the peloton and notice that they might have needed 100 fewer watts to reach the end of the stage, meaning that they might have used a motor. Essentially, this system shines a light on any given athlete at a given time point. We don’t have infinite resources, so it’s all about pointing the light in the right place at the right time.”

The athlete system behind the passports evolved, too. WADA introduced the Whereabouts system in 2004, and it requires athletes to update their ADAMS (Anti-Doping Administration and Management System) app to state where they are one hour per day, seven days a week. 

“This has been refined,” says Aiken. “We used to give details of the blood data from the lab tests but it turned out certain ‘projects’, including Aderlass [which we delve into shortly], were using this data to fine-tune their doping programmes. It’s a restriction of athlete data but they understand why.”

A costly exercise

This evolution comes at a cost. As of the end of 2021, each men’s WorldTeam and ProTeam contributed around €185,000 and €96,000, respectively, to the International Testing Agency (ITA) International Testing Agency’s, an independent body that’s led anti-doping operations on behalf of the UCI since the start of 2021. According to Iwan Spekenbrink, CEO of Team DSM-Firminech PostNL and vice president of the MPCC, aka Movement Pour Credible Cycling, this isn’t enough. The MPCC created an educational video entitled ‘Keeping the light on’, in which they raise awareness about the fight against doping. 

“We as teams contribute less than 1% of our budget to anti-doping,” Spekenbrink says in the video. “Thanks to the MPCC, we’ve increased the budget so made a step but need more. Teams spend more on digital content and hospitality than doping. The biggest thing for our sport is to be credible to the world – sponsors, fans. We must increase funding.”

The UCI has increased its financial backing for its anti-doping programme by 35% in 2023 and 2024 to €10 million. Further money comes from the Tour de France ($214,000), while the Giro and Vuelta contribute $181,900 each. WADA’s annual budget is just under $50 million.

That increased budget is needed as testing isn’t cheap. At the beginning of the programme in 2008, the UCI planned to collect a total of 10 blood and four urine samples for each athlete both in- and out-of-competition. In 2009, this would remain for new riders entering the programme, while the older ones would undergo a reduced number of tests (six blood and three urine tests), unless other reasons (i.e. abnormal profiles, sport performance) dictated otherwise. 

Now, the aim of the ABP is an average of three tests per year, with some riders tested once, some more than 10. This tends to vary depending on success, with the leading riders tested at least three times during a Grand Tour. Complete two Grand Tours in a season, and that’s already six without taking into account other in-competition and out-of-competition tests. If you’ve raced for many years at the top level, your passport will have ballooned to over 130 samples that are then kept in storage, albeit a bugbear of many in anti-doping is that GDPR stipulates the data can only be stored for 10 years.

With the passport, it takes a long time to see if there’s something wrong, to spot trends. It can take several seasons to see if a rider’s profile potentially says that he or she is cheating

Testing frequency also depends on which country you’re based, says Aiken. “When we talk about 15 years of the passport, there's still a real gradient of experience with some countries only implementing improved anti-doping measures in the last few years,” he says. There are 30 WADA-accredited laboratories worldwide but only one apiece in South America and Africa, meaning unless a rider is training in Rio de Janeiro or Bloemfontein, their sample will have to travel a significant distance at great expense. 

Then again, if a rider is training in a remote location, this arouses suspicion at the UCI, whose ‘Regulation for Testing and Investigations’ lists a number of factors where riders should be tested more frequently, including “moving to or training in a remote location”. Other factors include “nearing the end of a contract” and “withdrawal or absence from expected competitions”.

Understandably, what it doesn’t list are the weaknesses of the ABP. Roger Legeay is president of the MPCC, creating the organisation in 2007 off the back of ‘another’ doping scandal, Operacion Puerto. “The passport is a great tool for the fight against anti-doping but has one clear problem,” he says. “With the passport, it takes a long time to see if there’s something wrong, to spot trends. It can take several seasons to see if a rider’s profile potentially says that he or she is cheating.”

It’s a criticism Aiken counters: “You can flag outliers even on the first test as you can compare with that athletic population and say, this is highly abnormal. In fact, we often flag up an athlete’s data after their first test because they don’t think they’ll be under scrutiny. In general – and this is published WADA stats – almost 80% of EPO positives are with the first EPO test of an athlete. Of course, when it comes to the ABP the athlete’s limits narrow more over time and it becomes more personalised to them, becomes more sensitive.”

Importance of Aderlass

Of course, like any tool, the ABP is only as effective as the experts who use it. And that means learning. Which is why Aderlass provided much insider material for the anti-dopers to pore over. Operation Aderlass was one of the highest-profile doping scandals of recent years and was an investigation in Austria and Germany into doping practices carried out by German physician Mark Schmidt. Numerous cyclists and cross-country skiers were implicated. 

On  March 3, 2019, Stefan Denifl, who last rode for Aqua Blue Sport the season before, confessed to blood doping under the assistance of Schmidt , while a day later, Georg Preidler, who was riding for Groupama-FDJ at the time, also confessed to having had two blood extractions with Schmidt in late 2018 but denied ever actually doping. Both were handed four-year bans. 

The abiding image of the Aderlass scandal, however, is one of Schmidt’s clients, cross-country skier Max Hauke, caught red-handed by the Austrian police in the middle of a blood transfusion. One of the police filmed the episode.   

“Hauke recently presented at an anti-doping conference where he explained some of the tactics employed by doping athletes to beat the testing,” says Faiss. 

“One of the simplest involved living on the top floor of a high-rise apartment block. When a doping officer rings the bell, you have more time to rapidly drink saltwater that impacts your plasma volume [of which we’ll elaborate on shortly]. You then play dumb to buy more time and try to charm the officer before telling them that you’ve just trained hard, which means you need to wait for two more hours as hard exercise can impact the results.”

“Hauke also told us that he was using blood transfusions and growth hormone rather than EPO because Dr Schmidt told him he’d be caught if he took EPO,” Faiss adds, stating that this was before the endocrine module of the ABP was brought in last year. 

Faiss also revealed that there’s evidence that athletes using EPO are reverting to the original product as the latest generation’s designed so that severe anaemics would require fewer injections so it lasts longer in the body. Great for them, not for dopers. 

One of the simplest involved living on the top floor of a high-rise apartment block. When a doping officer rings the bell, you have more time to rapidly drink saltwater

How they take EPO can vary, too. “Athletes take the same substances but in different forms,” the head of science and medical at the ITA, Neil Robinson, explains in the ‘Keeping the light on’ video. “When I began my doctorate, athletes were taking EPO subcutaneously. It’s the best and cheapest way to make sure it works. But it’s detectable. So, dopers went from subcutaneous to intravenous. It’s less effective, offering fewer benefits but also less detectable.”

Blood transfusions seem medieval compared to EPO, but, says Faiss, there’s a good reason they’re still used. “Taking your blood out, putting it in the fridge and reinfusing it, compared to the quantity that you have in your own body, that’s not much, so that’s a challenge. Historically, we’d look for plasticisers, which are small plastic particles from the pouch that were detectable in the blood. But then athletes started using pouches that didn’t release any plastic particles.”

The major challenge: micro-dosing

That 2010 paper by Zorzoli and Rossi revealed the behaviour change stimulated by the ABP. Which brings us to micro-dosing, more specifically, micro-dosing of EPO. As the name suggests, this simply involves injecting smaller quantities of EPO that are harder to detect by the ABP but still high enough for a performance boost. A 2022 paper, ‘ Altitude and Erythropoietin: Comparative Evaluation of Their Impact on Key Parameters of the Athlete Biological Passport: A Review ’ by a team led by Jonas Saugy, showed that traditional EPO resulted in haemoglobin and reticulocyte levels that were 1.7 times higher than micro-dosing while haemoglobin mass was four times higher. Despite that, one Danish study showed a 5% increase in time-trial effort after micro-infusion.

“In a sense, I’d say the ABP’s working because it’s forcing athletes to change their attitude towards doping, which is certainly less dangerous,” says Faiss. “Imagine you’re in a car travelling from A to B. You know there are never police on that road so you can drive really fast. But what happens when you know there’s a road with a speed camera on? You know you must reduce your speed. Okay, you may drive slightly over the limit, but not fast enough to be flashed. It’s safer and ultimately health of a rider is the number one concern.”

Both Aiken and Faiss concede that micro-dosing EPO is problematic for anti-doping organisations, especially as its blood profiles are very similar to an environment increasingly inhabited by the world’s finest cyclists. That 2022 paper by Saugy showed that an athlete’s blood profile when micro-dosing was “hardly distinguishable from those identified after hypoxic exposure”. In other words, when an athlete hits altitude (legal), the endurance-friendly adaptations are at a similar level to micro-dosing (illegal).

“It’s true that differentiating the two is absolutely a challenge in anti-doping,” says Aiken, “so when athletes combine the two, it can cause confusion. We've invested heavily into research in this area. It’s high priority for WADA.” A series of papers spearheaded by Nikolai Nordsborg of the University of Copenhagen is investigating different markers to separate the two, including genetic markers. “But it’s worth speaking to Laura Lewis,” says Aiken. “She’s an expert on the haematological module.”

And so we did. What Lewis told us left us feeling reassured and concerned in equal measure. Find out next time about the nefarious performance benefits of extracting blood at altitude, why the future of anti-doping is artificial intelligence and how DNA testing lay behind the case of the Kenyan doppelganger.

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World Anti-Doping Agency to investigate Tizanidine drug discovered at Tour de France

'We are entitled to ask certain questions' says WADA scientific director Olivier Rabin

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will study the effects of Tizanidine, the drug allegedly discovered in a team hotel during the 2021 Tour de France and tested for in hair samples by researchers in Strasbourg on behalf of French police.  

Tizanidine, also known as Zanaflex or Sirdalud, is not a banned substance and no further information of the French police investigation has emerged since experts from the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Strasbourg revealed how they created a Tizanidine hair test. In a research paper they said they had discovered the drug in three of seven samples taken at the “international three-week cyclist race in France.”

A statement from the Marseille prosecutor's office at the time said the investigation concerned the possible “acquisition, transportation, possession and importing of a prohibited substance or method for use by an athlete without justification by members of Team Bahrain Victorious." 

Bahrain Victorious team confirmed their riders had been searched and their hair tested at the time but claimed they had been damaged by reports of the search for Tizanidine in hair samples.   

Colbrelli suggests Tour de France police raid on Bahrain Victorious was sparked by jealousy French prosecutor opens preliminary investigation into doping allegations at Bahrain Victorious Police raid Bahrain Victorious hotel at Tour de France Mohoric says Bahrain Victorious have 'nothing to hide' after Tour de France doping raid

"Team Bahrain Victorious and any of its riders have not been officially or unofficially notified about any findings related to tizanidine or other substances," read the team’s statement last October . 

"The Team would like to stress that the authors of the scientific article to which all allegations refer have unambiguously pointed out that tizanidine is not a prohibited substance in sport.”

However, investigations will now be done into why professional athletes could be tempted to use Tizanidine. There are suspicions athletes use the drug off-label to help ease muscle pain.    

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"It is not a substance considered to be prohibited at this time. That said, in view of the latest events, we have put it on the agenda of the 'list committee' for the month of January,” Olivier Rabin, the  scientific director of WADA, was reported as saying by French newspaper L’Equipe . 

"We do not know this substance too well because it is used for therapeutic purposes. By looking at its profile we can legitimately ask ourselves the question of what the doping purposes could be.” 

Rabin suggested athletes could use Tizanidine for side-effect benefits but warned that other side effects could influence performance. Tizanidine is designed to treat muscle spasticity perhaps from spinal cord injuries or multiple sclerosis. Side effects can include dizziness, hallucinations, vomiting and stomach pain. 

"We mustn't overlook the fact that some of the people who help athletes perform at a higher level are subject to pressure to try to find solutions, to bring about new things, without there being any scientific rationality behind them,” Rabin explained. 

“We want to have a 360 degree view, including what could be a doping use. We look at the pharmacy-safety files of molecules where the doses are higher, where the side effects are exacerbated, because we have sometimes seen that the side effects of a drug could be sought for doping purposes. And that allows us to reflect on a substance. Today, this work is in progress. We’ll discuss it with the expert committee.”

WADA regularly updates its list of banned substances and carries out research into new drugs and medicines to help the fight against doping in sport. 

“Sometimes substances can jump out at us and we include them very quickly. Regarding Tizanidine, we are entitled to ask certain questions,” he concluded. 

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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters , Shift Active Media , and CyclingWeekly , among other publications.

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• Unterhaltung: Alles über Stars

Jan Ullrich: "Die Leute vergeben mir endlich"

Dieser Beitrag stammt aus dem Nachrichtenangebot von spot on news und wurde nicht durch unsere Redaktion bearbeitet.

Vor einem halben Jahr gab Jan Ullrich zu, während seiner Radsport-Karriere gedopt zu haben. Das Geständnis bedeutete für den frühere Tour-de-France-Sieger einen Schritt in ein neues Leben, in dem er nach vorne blicken kann.

Mehr News zu Stars & Unterhaltung

"Jetzt hat zum Beispiel auch 'Eurosport' wieder angefragt, ob ich was zur Tour de France machen kann. Das zeigt mir, dass ich auf dem richtigen Weg bin und die Leute mir endlich vergeben", führte der Olympiasieger von 2000 aus. Ullrich, der nach dem Doping-Skandal 2006 auch privat turbulente Zeiten durchlebt hatte, habe endlich wieder zu seiner "Mitte gefunden". "Ich mache alles sehr ruhig, im Gegensatz zu früher, nehme mir viel Zeit für die Familie und will mich nicht übernehmen", berichtete er.

Doping war "ein riesiger Fehler"

Nach seinen zahlreichen Negativschlagzeilen sei Ullrich heute nüchtern und achte auf seinen Körper. "Ich ernähre ich mich gesund, ich trinke seit fünf Jahren keinen Alkohol mehr und versuche, viermal die Woche je zwei Stunden auf dem Rad zu sein", betonte er. Seine Taten von damals bereut der frühere Tour-de-France-Champion. "Natürlich war das mit Doping ein riesiger Fehler, da kann ich jedem nur aufs Schärfste von abraten. Aber der Druck im Sport und in der Gesellschaft waren damals anders", behauptete er.

Tiefer Fall 2006

Jahrelang hatte Jan Ullrich im wahrsten Sinne auf der Überholspur gelebt und im Radsport einen wichtigen Titel nach dem anderen geholt. 2006 war dann schlagartig alles vorbei, nachdem er in den spanischen Dopingskandal "Fuentes" verwickelt war. 2012 sprach ihn der Internationale Sportgerichtshof CAS in letzter Instanz des Dopings schuldig.

Bis zum November 2023 hatte Ullrich ein Doping-Geständnis trotzdem immer abgelehnt. "Gegen mich lief damals noch ein Strafverfahren. Meine Anwälte haben mir empfohlen zu schweigen. Ein Rat, den ich befolgt habe, an dessen Folgen ich aber lange gelitten habe", begründete er das in seinem Enthüllungs-Interview mit dem "stern". (eyn/spot)  © spot on news

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