Friday update

Dark days. It is hard to know what to say. Sudden tragic death at 21 in Qatar. The suicide of a former champion in France. Even if I could find some way to write of the cruelty of fate and the inevitability of pain and loss in this life, it seems words are still inadequate in the face of death's awful finality. Life is fragile, and sometimes we take too much for granted. My thoughts go to the bereaved. I try to ignore the questions that rise in the back of my mind, as they seem wholly inappropriate amid this week's mourning, even if someday perhaps they must be faced.



Piepoli's CONI decision is now posted at the CONI website. He eventually admitted to doping, but flatly refused to name his supplier. Also posted is the decision on Stefano Cavallari (Acqua & Sapone), who tested positive for EPO. He also confessed to doping, but refused to provide any details. Another case on the CONI site is that of Alessandro Orsetti, an amateur cyclist and nurse who stole medications and medical equipment from the hospital where he worked to help supply the Oil for Drugs' doping network. Most chilling is that Orsetti was linked with Alessio Galletti.

For some unknown reason, Joe Papp posts a blood test result from 2006, with a notable hematocrit.

Even the famous Astana glitterati face scary vehicular harassment while training in CA.

"I really like to suffer. It makes me feel like I’m alive."

As always, Fanini has a lot of tough things to say, and it makes me sad that he thinks he may have to close his team because of the frequent retaliation against his outspoken anti-doping remarks.

Versus still clueless: Remember a while ago I posted a rather scathing criticism of a survey that Versus posted on their website that was sickeningly pro-Lance? Well, the other day I actually got an email from Versus saying that since they really appreciated me posting the link to their survey, they now want to send me a free jersey as a thank-you gift. That's right, they are kindly thanking me for angrily denouncing their lame survey! Some people might try READING the blog before they send me nonsensical email. Or maybe they are just among those who think there is simply no such thing as bad publicity?

The Science of Sport comments on the sad death of Frederiek Nolf.

The UK gets a new anti-doping agency, called UK Anti-Doping, with a $10.2 million budget, which constitutes a 60 percent increase on their previous anti-doping budget. Apparently the IOC demanded that this agency be operational before the London Olympics.

There is a big argument going on over the license for the Eneco Tour, with the CAS getting involved in the legal wrangling. I am just scratching my head a little over why anyone cares that much about the Eneco Tour one way or the other.

Three Russian biathletes have tested positive (A sample only so far), although there are contradictory reports about what they took, with some ominous reports claiming that they tested positive for a mysterious new blood doping drug. Supercharged-CERA, version 2.0? Next generation Dyn-EPO? Who knows. But the Russians sure are getting caught a lot these days....which reminds me, what the heck is going on with Gusev?

I think I should just declare a moratorium on complaining about the endless bio-passport waiting game because I am running low on impatient adjectives. Sounds like maybe three cases will go forward, but when is still an open question: "Some of the UCI's experts are perplexed why the cycling body hasn't yet acted on the suspicious cases they have identified." Perplexed is not quite the word I would use, and it is hard for me to trust the UCI to do the right thing given their bad past track record.

Meanwhile Saxo Bank and Astana have dropped quite a bombshell by announcing that they have stopped extra team-based testing by Damsgaard, although he will still be reviewing the results of their standard UCI bio-passport tests. Saxo Bank claims rather disingenuously, "The UCI has set a standard which means that we would simply be doubling up." In other words, they have suddenly decided that the number of tests by the UCI is sufficient enough for them, without any additional tests by Damsgaard's program. But conveniently neither Astana nor Saxo Bank bother to specify exactly how often the UCI bio-passport testing actually occurs for each rider. If we have to guess, the latest UCI testing numbers for 2008 are 8,300 blood samples for 804 riders, which works out to somewhere around 10 tests per rider for the year, or less than one test per month (although targeted riders surely are getting more, and other riders less). In contrast, Garmin's previous ACE program tested their riders on average once every 2 weeks. Garmin is continuing their current anti-doping program, now run by Catlin's ADSI, so clearly not everyone agrees that the UCI testing is enough on its own. What angers me is the way that Saxo Bank tries to spin their backtracking with glib statements about the uselessness of the so-called duplication of testing. They seem to forget that the whole point of Damsgaard's program was that more frequent testing is better at catching and deterring doping. If they want to stop the extra tests, then they should just say so without trying to pretend it will make no difference. It does make a difference. The UCI's bio-passport is still totally unproven, and it seems quite premature to be putting total faith in it.

You have to remember also that Riis started with the Damsgaard program under extreme pressure from all sides after the Birillo debacle, when the team's credibility was in the toilet. It was never something Riis seemed ready to freely choose to do out of moral conviction about the importance of clean cycling for the future viability of the sport. He was doing what he had to do to save his team and keep his sponsors. Now that the Basso crisis is long past, maybe he thinks he can get away with backtracking a bit on the anti-doping front, especially when he desperately needs to cut his budget (thanks to Stein Bagger) and anti-doping is expensive. Between dropping the Damsgaard testing and the team's laughable denials about the recent Schleck/Puerto revelations, Saxo Bank's status in the anti-doping hierarchy is unfortunately headed downhill.

In other news, someone out there must know what has happened with John Devine. He is off the Columbia roster, and so far I have not seen any mention that he has been hired by another team. Anyone know?