Steroid Nation

No stealth molecule in CERA EPO: Roche denies WADA claim

Apparently WADA didn't understand the science, or WADA president John Fahey misspoke.  Roche, the manufacturer of the new CERA variety of EPO. (Science Blogs)

Roche Holding, which makes a version of a stamina-building drug illegally used by some athletes, said it didn't plant a molecule in the substance to help identify it in doping tests, spokeswoman Martina Rupp said, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

Riccardo Riccò, a Tour de France rider, tested positive for erythropoietin, or EPO, and was ejected from the cycling race last week after winning two stages. The Saunier Duval-Scott team fired the Italian and withdrew from the race.

John Fahey, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Roche planted a molecule in its red-cell boosting product CERA, or Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator, during its manufacture to help anti-doping authorities detect its illegal use. Roche sells the drug as Mircera.

"The information that a special molecule has been added to Mircera is wrong," Rupp said in an e-mail.

WADA clarified the situation on Wednesday:

WADA issued a statement Wednesday saying that Fahey's remarks had been misinterpreted. The agency said the drug can be detected because Roche and accredited sport-doping laboratories worked with the agency early.

"WADA received the molecule well in advance and was able to develop ways to detect it, including through the current EPO detection method," the agency said in the statement.

So apparently no stealth molecule in the CERA drug allowing detection.  A good idea not implemented.

Daily Steroid Dose

1.  How will the MLB Hall of Fame look after the Steroid Era?  (The Guardian)

2.  Who is trustworthy in sports today?  (Sun-Sentinel)

3.  Coaches in Louisiana want control over their high school players to keep them away from 'roids.  (Daily World)

4.  New book examines professional cycling's dope masters.  (New Statesman)

5.  St Petersburg FL officers having problems, including steroid use.  (inRich.com)

Afternoon Steroids Injections

1.  'WADA' scientists working on HGH urine test.  Pisses off some.  (USA Today)

2.  The Italian Olympic authority will schedule a hearing for Ricco and Piepoli (Canadian Press)

3.  Why do cyclists dope?  Maybe to win?  (AP)

4.  Mark Spitz was not on steroids.  (USA Today)

WADA traps Tour de France drug cheats with stealth EPO/CERA molecule

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh, WADA is lips sealed on this, but leaks say that Tour de France EPO drug cheat Riccardo Ricco fell to a stealth molecule attached to the drug by the manufacturer (Roche).  The new EPO preparation  -- CERA, a pegylated version of EPO  -- appears to have a trojan horse embedded somewhere that can be detected in WADA labs.  And WADA isn't telling what or how -- and we bet lawyers will be suing.

The Sydney Morning News is outing CERA.

A MOLECULE was the undoing of Tour de France drug cheat Ricardo Ricco, World Anti-Doping Agency chief John Fahey revealed yesterday.

Fahey said the war on drugs was stepping up, with WADA uniting with drug manufacturers to trap cheats. Italian rider Ricco, who had won stages six and nine of the Tour, tested positive for the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). It's believed Ricco thought there was no test for the red-cell booster he was using called Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator (CERA).

A molecule placed in the drug during its manufacture caught Ricco out last week, and Fahey said that more cheats would be sprung like this.

"I can't tell you the details of how he was detected," Fahey told ABC Radio. "[But] I can indicate the particular substance is called CERA … which is a perfectly legitimate substance to deal with anaemia.

Interesting data; however we can see legal challenges coming down the pike.  How can one be convicted on evidence that is not public?  Is this the secret doping police?

"In the development of that particular substance close cooperation occurred between WADA and the pharmaceutical company Roche Pharmaceuticals so that there was a molecule placed in the substance well in advance that was always going to be able to be detected once a test was undertaken."

Fahey said it was likely more drug companies and scientists would co-operate to ensure drug cheats across all sports would be caught.

"There's more and more of this occurring," he said.

"The more co-operation the scientists can have with the drug companies in the detection of performance-enhancing drugs the greater the likelihood is they will be detected when tests are undertaken."

OK, the stealth molecule catches drug cheats, but shouldn't an athlete have due process including information and data about the evidence against him?  Will the stealth EPO test show up in the Olympics?

Daily Steroids Dose

1.  Marion Jones wants to be forgiven for her sins; asks President Bush for pardon.  (AP)

2.  Editorial says media only cares about character if someone like Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens is involved, but not themselves.  (Red Orbit)

3.  New book on Don Catin's sleuthing out of Aranesp in 2002:  The Night Olympic Team.  (Market Watch)

4.  Inhaler helps triathlete breathe easier.  (NY Times)

5.  The Media figured out Katerina Thanou on Greek Olympic team (SI)

6.  Despite the taint currently over track, Gay, Powell, and Bolt look to pour excitement into the Beijing 100M.  (RTE Sport)

7.  Ex-White Sox slugger Eric Soderholm, ex-Cubs catcher Randy Hundley and pitcher Bill Campbell spoke to a "History of Baseball" class at Harper College: say no asterisk for Barry Bonds's Hall of Fame baseabll.  (Daily Harald)

8.  Ukrainian boxer given the boot after doping violation.  (Independent ie)

9.  Tour de France leader Frank Schleck and his CSC team surprised by dope tested.  (Dallas Star-Telegraph)

Daily Steroids Injection

If the news isn't about Brett Farve it's about Dara Torres.  Good review of her career. (Orange County Register)

2.  South Africa remember a drug-riddled Marco Pantani, Riccardo Ricco's idol.  (IOL)

3.  Ricco remembers Floyd Landis;  doubts the validity of the EPO test.  (The Guardian)

4.  The New York Times picks up on suspicions about Jamaican runners.  (NY Times)

5.  Missouri's swimmer Max Jaben could be in trouble with the NCAA because of positive drug test.  (Swimming News)

Dr. Jesus Losa emerges as doping source for Tour de France riders, as confessions leak out

A Spanish physician appears to be implicated in the Spain-gate Tour de France 2008 doping scandal.  Dr. Jesus Losa was named by riders as a source of the juice -- likely EPO.  Tour rider David Miller (pictured) may also have consulted with Losa for doping expertise.  Losa was suspended in that episode.  To Cycling News:

Two riders who have withdrawn from the Tour de France confessed to using EPO, the Spanish daily El Pais reported Saturday. The first, Moises Dueñas, a Spanish rider who was the second to test positive for EPO at the Tour de France, confessed to using the drugs after testing positive. After police uncovered doping products in his hotel room, Dueñas told investigators in Tarbes that he had purchased the products from a Spanish Doctor named Jesus Losa.

Losa, a former team doctor for Euskaltel-Euskadi, was quick to deny he had any involvement. "I have never given banned products to Moises Dueñas," Losa told El Pais. "In fact, I have worked with Dueñas, but only in matters of nutrition, diet and training. And indeed, I have received money from him, I do not know how much, but there are bills around."

Four years ago Losa was named by David Millar as providing him with EPO, but while he was suspended from Euskaltel-Euskadi after that revelation, Losa said he never was charged. "I was never called by a judge to testify as a witness or even less as a defendant," said Losa Saturday. "And if they call me to Tarbes I shall have no problem in going to testify."      

The 4th Tour rider nailed with dope -- Leonardo Piepoli -- kneeled to confess today:

In the same article, El Pais reported that Italian Leonardo Piepoli, the winner of stage 10, confessed to his directeur sportif Joxean Fernandez Matxin to using EPO. After his team-mate Riccardo Riccò was taken away by police after testing positive for EPO, Piepoli reportedly said to Matxin, "I have done the same as Riccardo."

No positive doping control has been announced yet for Piepoli, but the team's manager, Mauro Gianetti, pulled the entire squad out of the race. Riccò was indicted on the same charges as Duenas in a court in Foix, but denied using EPO.

 

Spain linked to 2008 Tour de France doping cases: Moises Duenas arraigned; Implicated doctor in doping

The Scotsman explores the 3 doping cases (actually 4) by linking them to Spain, home of Operational Puerto's infamy a fews Tours back.

What links all three doping cases – four if you include Piepoli, though he has not tested positive – is Spain. Beltran and Duenas are Spanish; Piepoli and Ricco ride for a Spanish team.

It was Spain, too, where Operacion Puerto, the blood doping investigation that came to public attention in 2006, was centred. It concerned a blood doping ring based in Madrid, with bags of blood recovered from a flat, reportedly belonging to around 200 athletes. The doctor at the centre of the ring, Eufemiano Fuentes, was linked to footballers, tennis players and athletes (his wife is Cristina Perez, the Spanish 400 metres hurdles record holder), as well as around fifty cyclists.

Previously, he had been chief club doctor at Las Palmas, but he left his position when syringes containing EPO were discovered in the team's dressing room.

Duenas possessed quite the doping arsenal:

Though Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich were high profile casualties of Operacion Puerto, rumours have continued about other top riders, some of them riding this year's Tour. Indeed, most agree that unless it is re-opened, Operacion Puerto will continue to be a malignant shadow, stalking the sport.

David Millar, who lives in Girona, and last year rode for Saunier Duval, has described Spain as "the wild west" as far as doping is concerned. Pat McQuaid, the International Cycling Union (UCI) president, has also suggested that the doping culture remains most deeply ingrained in Spain.

And the links to Operation Puerto:

Duenas appeared before a French court in Tarbes on Thursday, where he was charged with the "use and possession of plants and poisonous substances." The prosecutor, Gerard Aldige, described the stash of products recovered from the Spaniard's hotel room as a "small pharmacy," containing "syringes, needles and blood bags (and] a multitude of other products, in liquid and sachet form."

According to Velo News, the Spanish doctor involved in Jesus Losa:

Spanish rider Moises Duenas, kicked out of the Tour de France, has blamed a Spanish doctor for his positive test for the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), the daily El Pais reported on Saturday.

Duenas, who was charged with "use and possession of poisonous substances" before a court at Tarbes, southwestern France on Thursday, had claimed that the products were sold to him by Spanish doctor Jesus Losa.

But the former Euskaltel-Euskadi team doctor denied "ever providing Duenas with prohibited products" and was ready to testify as such.

El Pais said that Losa's name came up several years ago in connection with Scottish rider David Millar and the Cofidis doping affair, but he was never questioned.

Barloworld rider Duenas is one of three cyclists to fail a drugs test during this year's Tour de France along with compatriot Manuel Beltran of Liquigas and Italy's Riccardo Riccò of Saunier-Duval.

Daily Steroids Dose (and EPO Tour Special)

1.  Why so cynical?  It's only the Tour de France.  WADA boss John Fahey says it's a game of spot the cheat.  (The Age)

2.  South African conglomerate Barloworld dropping cycling team.  (LA Times)

3.  Aussie cycling team Credit Agricole may be pulling out due to the drug cheats.  (SMH)

4.  Vroemen may be cut from Olympic team because of doping violation.  (Sign on San Diego)

5.  This lawyer gets USA dopers off the hook.  (WaPo)

6.  Bioengineering the perfect athlete.  (SLAM)

Tour de France dope quatro: Leonardo Piepoli sacked from the 2008 Tour by team; Ricco in jail

Number four -- and counting -- gone from the 2008 Tour de France.  This time veteran cyclist Leonardo Piepoli ended up sacked by his team Suanier Duval-Scott for ethics violations, in conjunction with the doping violation of teammate Riccardo Ricco.  Ricco checked out a room in jail last night.  To Cycling News:

Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli have both been fired by Saunier Duval-Scott for "doping practices", the team announced Friday. Team spokesman David Garcia told Reuters: "[Team manager]  Mauro Gianetti has lost faith in them and he decided to fire them from the team. They have been fired for doping practices."

The news follows Riccò's failed test for a third generation form of the blood boosting drug EPO and the team's subsequent departure from the Tour de France on Thursday morning.  Riccò spent Thursday night behind bars at a police station in Mirepoix, while the Saunier Duval bus was stopped and searched around 17.30 local time as it made its way from the race.

Riccò appeared in court in Foix on Friday morning to face charges relating to his failed test. The possession and use of banned substances is illegal under French law.

Piepoli, the winner of stage 10 to Hautacam, is not reported to have failed a drugs test, but the team decided to fire him after conducting an internal investigation. "[Gianetti] did a personal investigation and consequently lost faith in Riccò but also in Piepoli because of a violation of the team's ethics code," read a team statement.

The new variation of EPO is known as CERA (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator; trade name = Micera).  WADA was ahead of the testing curve on this drug.

Ricco's mother will not be happy about this next next part.

"All our riders gave us guarantees that they were clean," the statement added. "Riccò swore on his mother's head that he had never turned to illegal substances or means to improve his performance. Despite all the efforts made both internally and from outside the team we have failed to avoid this deplorable situation. We are the victims of the deceitful behaviour of those who put our sponsors' investments and the jobs of so many honest people at risk with the loathsome purpose of improving their cycling performance."

Thierry Leroy, a spokesman for title sponsor Saunier Duval, told French radio station RTL that the company would seriously consider its future investment in the cycling team. "It is highly probable that we will pull out of sponsoring cycling following this affair," said         Leroy.

He added that Saunier Duval would be prepared to launch legal action against the team if proof was found of organised doping practices.

CERA is a new form of EPO; apparently the riders thought that the EPO attached to polyethylene glycol would not be detectable.  Wrong.