Doping

That’s the whole thrust of the piece. That contamination is a regular occurrence in the Pharma industry.

I once found a tooth in a scone. It can happen.

Burden of proof is still on the athlete. Not great but how much do most countries have to spend on anti-doping? Always seemed to me it's setup mostly as a deterrent rather than doing meaningful testing. Maybe up the thresholds for bullshit 'positives' like this one and life ban for anything clearly shady.

Seems like a fair enough point she's making about clearing the athlete and yet still having an ADRV against their name too. That seems daft (though it's happened before and Froome, the twin, BeLekker and others all continued racing)

“ I never really understood the meaning of what a masking agent was”

Dwain Chambers wants a word

UKAD do not come out of this well. They look like a bunch of obstructive and bungling bureaucrats who don't understand their own science. The fact that Lizzy managed to expose this on her own with limited resources is in itself very revealing. Usually it takes an official enquiry years and millions to come up with a series of stark findings like this. Chapeau Lizzy.

by this approach Bala is vindicated!

She didn't expose this on her own, she had Mike Morgan representing.

We wait for the reasoned decision.

Same goes for WADA.

“Chlortalidone is not known as a contaminant of medication (or Meat). There is therefore no reason for the Contaminants Working Group (or other WADA group or body) to consider introducing a MRL for this substance”

but also

“WADA does not keep a log of all products (if any) that have been asserted or found (rightly or wrongly) to have been contaminated with chlortalidone (or other prohibited substances). Moreover, and more generally, WADA does not have the (human) resources to conduct research in respect of matters arising in first instance cases (of which there are hundreds at any given time) to which it is not a party.”

So, they don't keep records of contaminants... but can also tell you that the thing they pinged you for is not a known contaminate. Um, something fishy much?

Fraud.

Oh, look, here's his photo from behind the stage...

contamination is possible at any stage @hippy

maybe the straw

If you artificially boost the hematocrit of the human child you are stealing all the blood from, does that still count as doping? Asking for a Valverde friend.

Lizzy Banks is interviewed by a Telegraph sports writer on the latest non-giro episode of the cycling podcast. So far it’s like the article tho.

Sounds like she's had to borderline bankrupt herself to challenge it as well. Feels like a complete miscarriage of justice ... It'll be interesting to follow what happens over the coming weeks in her case. I really feel for her.

I can't find the original quote in French, but Raphael Geminiani once said 'Dope testing is a cancer on the face of cycling'

Up to now I had thought this was just a rather feeble defence of Anquetil (he was his DS at the time) who had just had his hour record disallowed for refusing to take a test (1967).

Having read the story above, I'm beginning to have increased respect for Gem.

Perhaps most interesting here (considering all the implications of his remark) is that Le Grand Fusil only has to last another few days to celebrate his 99th birthday!

Superman given a 4-year ban

He's appealing it, apparently

And another 4-year ban. Robert Stannard this time

Michael Hessman, of Visma-Lease-a-bike, given a four month ban after German anti-doping authorities accepted he was likely a victim of contamination.

https://www.teamvismaleaseabike.com/news/news/statement-team-visma-lease-a-bike-after-ruling-in-michel-hessmann-case/

EF Education Easypost have sacked Andrea Piccolo after he was caught with HGH.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jun/22/cycling-andrea-piccolo-fired-ef-pro-team-italy

Back on this surely someone tipped them off in order for him to be caught !

Maybe they became suspicious after he became Andrea Medio within a few weeks?

He was under investigation. Training and racing in Colombia.
EF say they wanted to sack him after he was suspended for taking an un-prescribed but legal sleeping medication but, legally, were not allowed to. So, naturally, after he came back from his unpaid leave they selected him for the Giro. There must be one or two riders at EF pretty pissed off that he got a spot and they didn't.

Skyfall..

https://sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/skyfall-my-new-investigation-into

I didn't read the paywall stuff from the first part... was there anything new in it as the other stuff was just stuff that I think was in the public domain already

I'm going to stump up the cash and have a look later. Will report back. I hope that Test Dave gets walloped.