Cycling to step up a gear in anti-doping fight

PARIS: Cycling showed it was ready to make an important move in the fight against doping when the creation of a biological passport took shape on Monday.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) will also increase the number of anti-doping tests next year by more than 50 percent.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the UCI said they planned to collect blood samples from all professional riders in 2008 to create a medical profile that would then be compared to the data registered in doping tests.

"The collection of six blood samples is necessary to establish the biological standard parameters of an athlete," Michel Audran, a professor at Montpellier University, said at a two-day international meeting on doping in cycling in Paris.

"The parameters will be based on altitude, ethnicity, gender, age and sport. After the analysis of six samples, the range of variation will be stabilized.

"Then a forensic approach will help detect any variation in the athlete's data and attempted use of doping substances such as EPO (erythropoietin) or homologous blood transfusion."

One of the six samples will have to be collected randomly, said WADA medical director Alain Garnier.

The finalization of the biological passport depends of a consensus that has to be reached on the collection of urine samples to create a "steroid profile", he added.

Increased testing

Around 15,000 dope tests will be carried out next year, the UCI said, compared to 9,790 tests in 2007.

However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief executive David Howman said that increasing the number of tests, though welcome, would not be sufficient.

"We need the assistance of experts on a voluntary basis. You can conduct hundreds of tests and you still miss some cheaters," said Howman.

"Marion Jones is an example. She has been tested 160 times. She was never caught yet she has conceded she had been cheating for seven years.

"We have to use more than one weapon. We have to use the power of governments to stop those who traffic, those who possess doping substances.

"We are also looking at using forensic science. There are other ways to catch cheats than conducting tests."

Cycling has been hit by an unprecedented number of doping cases this season.

Dane Michael Rasmussen was sacked by his Rabobank team as he led the Tour de France for allegedly lying about his training program, something he denies.

Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov was found guilty of blood doping during the race and was kicked out of the event along with his Astana team.

In September, American Floyd Landis, who won the 2006 Tour, was handed a two-year suspension by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and stripped of his title by the UCI following a positive test for testosterone during his victorious ride.

Cedric Vasseur, president of the international association of professional cyclists, was concerned it was only his sport being targeted, saying: "I don't think the fight against doping is a cycling thing only.

"Riders have duties but they also have rights. We are neither criminals nor terrorists."

Agencies

(China Daily 10/24/2007 page23)