ABC Australia News carries a syndicated piece on the eve of the Tour de France focusing on the extent of doping, and on the difficulty of catching the dopers. Gone may be the days of simply infusing stored blood products, but drug-cheats now use sophisticated methods of doping. Like ACTH.
French doping expert Professor Jean-Pierre de Mondenard feels the UCI's new anti-doping charter, which all teams must sign prior to the start, is a ploy to paper over the cracks.
And while he applauds the increase in the number of random doping controls being carried out by the governing body, he says the UCI are powerless to stop those who want to cheat because many of the substances used are undetectable.
"More random tests are the way forward. But even going looking for suspect cheats can be a waste of time," he said.
"There are too many undetectable products around for the doping controls to be efficient. It's a masquerade.
"Everyone knows it's easy to get around the controls."
De Mondenard can speak with authority: he is a physician and a cycling enthusiast.
As well as being a passionate amateur cyclist, Professor De Mondenard is a world authority on doping in sport.
Recently he published the respected "Dictionnaire du Dopage"; a 1200-page who's who of doping substances and who has been caught using them.
One drug he cited and which he claims is used on a widespread basis in sport is Synacthen, also known as ACTH. According to one one definition, the drug, made synthetically, "promotes the synthesis and release of the other adrenal steroids, namely aldosterone and the adrenal androgens".
Professor De Mondenard said it is only one example of a product which has befuddled the controller. "In his allegations (Jorg) Jaskche talked about Synacthen, in the Operation Puerto affair there was Synacthen found in a cool box," he said "Synacthen has been commercialised since 1969 in France, it is forbidden since 1999 - and it is still undetectable. How can we realistically talk about a fight against doping? It's a joke. You can't fight against something that has been around for over 30 years, and which you can't still detect."
De Mondenard sums up the situation well. As anabolic substances become detectable by anti-doping authorities, they are not useful. Newly developed drugs then enter into the drug-cheat's equation. Having taken an anabolic, a doping athlete appears to be hooked on cheating, always looking for the new dope.
"Because scientists can now detect homologous blood transfusions, it's no longer of any use. It's the professionalisation of dopers. Every time the fight against doping moves ahead, the dopers move along too."
He added: "There are also a whole range of 'borderline' substances being used which are efficient, can be used to dope, but which are not banned and so not targeted during the controls.
"All the doping controllers look for are the substances they are capable of finding."
In November 2006 a lab test
was introduced that can detect the most minute traces of Synacthen. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6135712.stm (BBC)
Posted by: Bad_Cop | 07/07/2007 at 10:23