Soldier Ride

I told Frankie Andreu at the Soldier Ride that I would post this:

The front group dropped Frankie. . .did the 60-mis course in under 3 hrs at a 20.4 mph pace.

Kohl seems to come clean about being dirty. . .

From cyclingnews.com

Kohl details his doping practice

A crash in the Dauphiné time trial started the downfall for Bernhard Kohl
Photo ©: Roberto Bettini

Austrian Bernhard Kohl, who returned a non-negative A-sample for EPO, gave details about his doping consumption. He started using it at the Dauphiné Libéré until one week before the Tour de France. He used it twice in three weeks and also said that he did all on his own.

Kohl said he used EPO for the first time. "A lot of things had come together. At the Dauphiné I was in good form. At the time trial I had the fourth-best time, but then crashed. I couldn't train for a week and I was running out of time," Kohl told Austrian paper Kurier. The former Gerolsteiner rider knew already there was a chance that Gerolsteiner would not continue and was also fighting to find a team. "I didn't have a result yet."

Kohl explained that he injected EPO himself, "Into the stomach, just like an insulin shot." He added that neither the team nor a doctor was involved. In fact, he praised Holczer for his anti-doping stance. "He did all he could. He talked to us and lived the clean sport for us – but he can't look over me for 24 hours. He definitely had no clue. Had he known he would have thrown me out of the team."

Kohl wasn't aware of organised doping in any of the teams he had been riding for. Kohl was at Elk Haus, Rabobank and T-Mobile before Gerolsteiner. "Maybe it was like that earlier. I have read the interviews with Jörg Jaksche. In comparison what he says, a lot has improved. It's probably thanks to the blood passport of the UCI. They see exactly when something is wrong. I never had as many controls as this year."

Despite the blood passport, Kohl decided to take the risk. "I was told CERA was undetectable." He started to have a bad feeling at the world championships, when rumours started that something would come out. Kohl realised he could get problems, but was holding out hope. "Maybe they won't find anything, maybe I took it long enough in advance. At the time I had no idea how long it would be detectable."

Kohl is choosing a different approach than his teammate Stefan Schumacher, who was also caught for CERA usage. "He says he is innocent. I can only say, I am going my way," Kohl stated. Kohl went on to explain that the crown witness rule to reduce his sentence would not be for him. "I deserve the ban and I will accept it. A bit of distance will be good, too. In sports you make a lot of sacrifices."

More positive results. . .

Kohl and CERA

Positive from the Tour. . .

Piepoli and Schumacher Tour de France samples positive for CERA

Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval - Scott)
Photo ©: Roberto Bettini

Both Leonardo Piepoli and Stefan Schumacher have tested positive for the performance enhancing substance CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator) according to reports released Monday. The riders were declared positive by the French Anti-doping Agency (AFLD) which last week re-tested a number of blood samples taken during the Tour de France.

The Italian Piepoli tested positive twice according to a statement by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), and confirmed by the AFLD on Monday. Pieopoli's results came back positive for samples taken one day prior to the Tour on July 4 and also on July 15.

During the same edition of the Tour de France, Piepoli's team-mate and stage winner Riccardo Riccò also tested positive for the third-generation EPO. As a result, team director Mauro Gianetti pulled the entire Saunier Duval team from the race.

Prior to the team's withdrawal, Piepoli won stage 10, and Riccò won stage six and stage nine of the Tour de France. Riccò confessed to CONI that he had used EPO and has since received a suspension totalling 24 months.

According to Spanish media, Piepoli previously confessed to taking EPO; however, he later denied doping when called before CONI as a witness during a hearing concerning Riccò.

CONI will hold a hearing with Pieopli on Friday, October 10.

Double time trial winner positive

Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner)
Photo ©: AFP

Stefan Schumacher tested positive after being targeted by the AFLD, and was one of the riders who turned in suspicious results for the urine test for CERA, according to his team manager, Hans-Michael Holczer. The AFLD was unable to declare a positive from the urine results, and last month ordered blood samples delivered from Lausanne, Switzerland, corresponding to the riders with suspicious results.

"I heard the news a few minutes before – I read the report on L'Equipe and I got a phone call from Christian Prudhomme," said Holczer, confirming that he believed the report to be true. "The whole team has been betrayed ... I will do everything that is possible to sue him," he told Cyclingnews' Gregor Brown.

The German who rides for Holczer's soon to be defunct Gerolsteiner team won both of the time trials in this year's Tour, taking the yellow jersey after his win on stage four and holding it for two days before crashing during the sprint into Super Besse on stage six. His second win came on stage 20 where he beat world champion Fabian Cancellara.

Last month, he signed a contract with the Quick Step team, replacing two-time world champion Paolo Bettini on the Belgian squad.

This isn't the first time that Schumacher has failed under suspicion of doping. In 2007, he showed abnormal blood values prior to the world championships. He attributed the changes to intestinal problems. Following the 2007 season, he crashed his car while under the influence of alcohol.

In 2005, he tested positive for the stimulant cathine while racing for the Shimano-Memory Corp. team. He was cleared after demonstrating that his positive came from allergy medicine prescribed to him by his mother, a physician. The medicine contained the drug, but was not on the banned substances list.

Mircera misinformation uncovers cheats?

CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator) is a longer lasting form of EPO which supposedly results in a more stable increase in red blood cells. It is similar to previous generations of EPO, but has a chemical called polyethylene glycol attached to it. Because this molecule makes the drug larger, it was rumoured to be undetectable in urine, which may be why some riders were convinced that they could get away with using it.

However, the AFLD used a two-pronged approach to root out cheaters in this year's Tour de France. They first checked the blood values of every rider in the Tour in pre-race screens, and began targeting any rider with suspicious values with additional controls. They then rolled out a urine test for Mircera, which was developed in co-operation with the manufacturer, Roche.

The targeted tests ended up catching two riders: Riccò for CERA and Manuel Beltrán for EPO (the type was not announced). Moises Dueñas tested positive for EPO after a random control.

The urine tests were somewhat unreliable at giving definitive results, so the AFLD decided to order the blood samples taken before and during the Tour for additional testing with a newly developed CERA blood test. The testing was delayed, but resumed last week, giving rise to rampant rumours about who might test positive.

The positives of Piepoli and Schumacher are the first to come out of this new batch of testing. AFLD did not say how many more riders' blood was being tested.

The UCI followed the French agency's example in August, putting Emanuelle Sella, the winner of three Giro d'Italia stages and the mountains classification, under the microscope. He was found to be positive in August after an out-of-competition control.

Dura-Ace 7800 starting to be on SALE. . .

With the new DA models coming out (7900 and the electronic version soon. . .), some have started putting the 7800 models on sale.

See Competitive Cyclist for one such sale. 30%-40% off.