by VeloNation Press

Hans Joachim Seppelt, a journalist with the German TV station ARD, has cast doubts on Alberto Contador’s explanation for his Clenbuterol positive, making the explosive claim that chemical traces in samples taken during the 2010 Tour de France suggest he may have received a blood transfusion.

Seppelt, who specializes in doping matters and who was German sports journalist of the year in 2007, was speaking on ARD’s Mittags Magazin programme. He claimed that they contacted UCI president Pat McQuaid yesterday and received a complete denial that Contador was being investigated.

“We have been on this case for weeks and we knew a few days ago,” he said during the television interview. “We tried to contact the UCI yesterday, but they said they won’t give a comment. We then called Pat McQuaid. He said ‘I don’t even know what you are talking about’.”Then later the press release came out. So the UCI was lying yesterday.”

The news that ARD was poised to break the story could explain why Contador’s press agent released the news hours before the Elite world championship time trial.

Seppelt felt that the governing body was deliberately stalling. “The UCI has had many problems with credibility in the last few years, like in the case of Lance Armstrong. [In Contador's case] the A and B sample were already taken, the procedure was done and still the public wasn’t informed. It appears they want to keep this case under the covers or give Alberto Contador the opportunity to find arguments for his innocence. This should not happen. To me it appears to be a cartel from those who want to conceal.”

A more explosive claim relates to another matter. Contador held a press conference today and said that the most likely source for the Clenbuterol traces found in his urine sample was from a piece of tainted meat someone brought across the border from Spain.

ARD’s contention is that the traces could be in blood that was taken out of the rider during a non-competitive period, then reinfused back in around the time of the second rest day, when the urine sample in question was taken. The inference is that not enough care was taken to ensure that Contador was clear of the substance when the blood was taken out.

Even if this was checked in a laboratory, the Cologne lab used for analysing Tour samples has far more sensitive equipment when it comes to looking for substances such as Clenbuterol.

“ARD has obtained the exact values from Spain. This shows that it is not very likely that we are dealing with contaminated foods, especially in light of the fact that in Europe, it is highly unlikely that foods, such as meat, are contaminated with clenbuterol. It happens in Asian countries, but it is strictly prohibited in Europe. Also, there were no other positive test cases with contaminated meat, so the statement from Contador is not credible.

“There are other, very, very incriminating suspicious facts against Contador. Other values have appeared that are ten times over the higher value from so-called plasticizers [such as di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) – ed.] which are used in blood bags. These values were measured one day before the positive dope control. These blood bag softener values could indicate that autologous blood doping may have been performed.”

“The UCI completely kept this under the covers,” he continued. “They didn’t say anything to this yesterday. Again the question about the credibility of the UCI comes up.” Seppelt didn’t reveal the source for his information about the plasticizer values, or explain why the urine sample that pinpointed this didn’t also show high levels of Clenbuterol.

Contador has provided supporting evidence from experts he has commissioned, and said that he is confident that he will be cleared. He argues that the levels concerned, 50 trillionths of a gram, are 400 time less than what antidoping laboratories accredited by WADA must be capable of detecting, and are so miniscule as to confer no possible benefit.

Despite this assertion, Seppelt argues that the rider will ultimately be both disqualified and suspended.

“If the other incriminating factors are added, if potential autologous blood doping was used and if it can be proved – which is currently strongly debated – then there is the question if Alberto Contador can keep his yellow jersey. I am pretty certain that just like Floyd Landis, the title will be taken away from him in the foreseeable future. It is not only the Tour winner who looks to stand in a shady light, but especially the UCI, which couldn’t prove its credibility.”

When asked if it was a serious issue for cycling, he suggested that it could be wider than that. “You can ask the question if it is a cycling problem or a problem of organised sports,” he said. “I think the UCI has a problem and a president who lies. He clearly stated that there is no doping case, only to say the opposite the next day.”

Rasmus Damsgaard, who previously ran the internal anti-doping programme in the Astana team, has already suggested that the Clenbuterol traces might be linked to a transfusion of blood taken out earlier in the season.

“If the data is correct then it’s most likely that it is a ‘Landis’,” Damsgaard told Danish TV station TV2 via SMS. “It would suggest that he has received a transfusion of his own blood, taken out a few months earlier when he used clenbuterol, which he has gotten back into his body.”

Germany has a history of being tough on doping matters. Contador is certain to dispute what ARD is claiming, but Seppelt’s claims add another dimension to the debate. They also indicate that the Tour winner may have a very tough fight on his hands.

The Copenhagen Post

Team Saxo Bank-SundGard took a major hit today when Tour de France winner Alberto Contador announced he has been suspended by the International Cycling Union for doping.

Although Contador was informed about the positive test result on 24 August, team owner Bjarne Riis himself apparently knew nothing about it when he signed the Spaniard to his team. Experts say the charges against Contador could lead to Saxo Bank and SundGard ending their sponsorship of the team.

A spokesperson for Contador made the announcement late last night, and a press release from the union (ICU) today confirmed that the cyclist had tested positive for asthma drug clenbuterol while participating in the Tour on 21 July, the second rest day of the race.

UCI had the results sent to a German laboratory for a subsequent test, which confirmed the presence of trace amounts of the drug.

Contador has denied intentional doping and has adamantly insisted that the drug traces almost certainly came from meat he ate the previous day. Apparently, no traces had been detected in the previous days’ drug tests during the Tour.

UCI indicated that ‘the concentration found by the laboratory was estimated at 50 picograms (50 trillionths of a gram, ed), which is 400 times less than what the anti-doping laboratories accredited by the World Anti Doping Agency must be able to detect’.

Riis told TV2 Sport that the news was ‘incredibly unfortunate’ but believes Contador is telling the truth.

‘It’s not a drug that makes you ride faster. It’s an old drug that has no effect whatsoever, only side effects,” Riis said. ‘I was given the same explanation that he gave to everyone else – that it must have been caused by something he ate.’

By Agence France Presse • Updated: Sep 30th 2010 1:02 PM EDT

Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, suspended Thursday after failing a dope test, blamed the positive result on contaminated meat, in an emotional protest of his innocence.

Earlier in the day, the UCI announced said that the cycling superstar had been provisionally suspended after a minute trace of clenbuterol, a banned substance, was detected in a urine sample taken from the Spaniard on July 21.

“It’s a case of food contamination to which I was the victim,” Contador, who appeared tense and at times on the verge of tears, told a news conference in a hotel in his hometown of Pinto, outside Madrid.

Contador, who won his third yellow jersey at the end of July’s three-week epic, said he ingested the tiny amount of clenbuterol in meat that he had eaten both the day before and the day of the control.

He said the meat came from Spain, but did not say specifically where it was bought. Contador said he was the only one to have been tested among the riders who ate the meat.

The 27-year-old, one of only a handful of riders to have won the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, said the UCI informed him of the positive test on August 24, and two days later he spoke “at length” with the UCI medical team “about how it all happened.”

“The UCI itself affirmed in front of me that it was a case of food contamination,” he said. “This is a genuine mistake, it’s sad that a sport such as this … is involved in things like this. I think that this will be resolved in a clear way, with the truth up front.”
Trek Travel

The UCI “understands that is a special case, which has to be examined.”

The rider said he was “sad and disappointed, but with my head held high.”

“I have been through this for a month a half, without sleeping,” adding that he had not even told his own family “because I prefer that they don’t suffer and I that I alone suffer.”

A banned substance which can be used to help lose weight and help breathing, clenbuterol is also known to boost performance by helping to increase muscle-to-fat ratios, which is why it is sometimes illegally used by meat producers.

Contador said the tiny amount detected in his body “is completely insignificant” in terms of helping his performance in the Tour.

He said the UCI is in talks with the World Anti Doping Agency “to see if the system can be revised.”
Alberto Contador news conference, Sept. 30, 2010

The UCI said clenbuterol was detected in a urine sample taken from the Spaniard on July 21, during the second rest day in Pau at the foot of the French Pyrenees and four days before he won his third Tour de France title.

The governing body, however, added that only a “very small concentration” of the drug had been found and that the case warranted “further scientific investigation” because the Cologne laboratory that detected the substance is known to be able to detect the tiniest traces of drugs.

“The concentration found by the laboratory was estimated at 50 picograms (50 trillionths of a gram) which is 400 times less (Editor’s Note: The WADA standard is actually 40 times higher than the level detected by the Cologne lab.) than what the antidoping laboratories accredited by WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) must be able to detect,” the UCI said, adding that testing of a second “B” sample taken at the same time confirmed the result.

New York Times
Christian Science Monitor
The Guardian
Wall Street Journal

Growing up among the 1,341 people in Taylorsville, Miss., Oakland Raiders quarterback Jason Campbell probably didn’t encounter the best coaches or the greatest competition. Which probably helped him reach the NFL. Studies show that small towns are better breeding grounds for athletes than cities, and sports psychologists are using these data to question our ideas about talent development.

Only one-in-four Americans come from towns of fewer than 50,000 people, but nearly half of NFL players and PGA golfers do, according to two recent studies. The small-town figures for golf and baseball are just under 40%. The studies use 1980 Census figures because they most closely represented the birth year of pro athletes.

A co-author of the studies, Queen’s University’s Jean Côté, attributed the small-town overrepresentation to a number of factors. These include the accessibility of sports role models in little towns, the cultural values placed on sport (think “Hoosiers”), and even the “big fish little pond” effect, which can be a positive reinforcer for young athletes. Dr. Côté also argues that, despite the prevailing notion that kids need to specialize early and immerse themselves in 10,000 hours of repetitive training, small-town athletes excel precisely because they spend more time playing outside of schools and leagues.

“In bigger cities, youth sport is overorganized and overcoached,” Dr. Côté says.

Dr. Côté admits that potential superstars eventually have to move to get superior training, but specialization before age 13 or 14 is more likely to produce a tired-out teen than a Tiger Woods, he says.

Then there’s what might be called the boredom factor. As Jason Campbell once said, in Taylorsville, “you have nothing else to do but sit outside and throw a football at trees.
—Austin Kelley, WSJ.com

From Cycling Tips, “Over the winter my training has completely fallen off. All I’ve been doing is riding, not training. I need to do this once in a while in order to relax and refresh, however I’ve been riding inconsistently, picked up some some bad habits, and haven’t achieved any decent results this winter.

When I say “training”, I mean sitting down and figuring out what your goals are, working backwards to determine the timing of the different training blocks, detailing your workouts before you’ve even begun, and carrying it through. When you plan your training this way you’ll be able to see things from a 30,000ft view with some objectivity before you’re fully immersed in it. This is much different than saying to yourself ”Okay, I’m going to ride hard on Tuesday and Thursday, and do a long ride on Saturday, then race on Sunday.” This is what I’ve been doing for the past few months. If I keep down this track I’ll just continue to be packfill. Some talented cyclists can get away with this (damn you!), but I can’t.” READ MORE.

Get out there and ride.

Our boy over at VeloDramatic has posted his cycling tab. Yep. The money he has dropped on cycling in the past few years. Lads, check this out then have a sit down with your wife. Your gear needs an update. And no more pearl izumi. Time to grab some rapha, panache or assos.

From VeloDramatic. “No excuses, no apologies. It is what it is. There’s no denying I’ve spent a lot on cycling in the past few years (some of it is my wife’s gear) but I’ve got more enjoyment and payback out of this passion than can be accounted for in mere dollars and cents. There have been one or two purchases that didn’t work out, but almost everything in the closet has its place in the starting rotation, and all the bikes get ridden.

I doubt publishing the Tab will help any of you persuade your spouse your own gear habit is healthy, that’s a line of reasoning that never seems to work. It may point you in the direction of some good kit that you’ve missed though, and it beats gambling and drinking. And if it strikes you as lunacy, and that makes you feel good about yourself, that’s OK too. Enjoy.”

VeloDramatic.com Cycling Tab.

Every so often one comes across photography of epic proportions. Today is the day. VeloDramatic.

“Rapha was created to celebrate road riding and develop the best performing and most stylish cycling clothes and accessories in the world.

The first Rapha collection was launched in July 2004, at a month-long Rapha exhibition of cycling memorabilia and events called ‘Kings of Pain’. Since then, the Rapha product range has grown dramatically and the brand has become synonymous with the highest levels of quality, style and performance. Road racing is the toughest and most beautiful sport in the world and everything Rapha does is designed to celebrate the glory and suffering unique to road riders.

Road racing requires stamina, strength, focus and fortitude, yet the rewards can be huge – the more effort you put in the greater those rewards become. More and more men are discovering that riding a road bike can be the perfect counterpoint to the cosseted and quick-fix nature of modern life. In a society only too comfortable with instant gratification and sanitised pleasure, it has been forgotten that the greatest highs come from the deepest lows. Applying yourself totally can produce a sense of satisfaction that is impossible to replicate. From pain comes pleasure.”

A few years back we came across rapha. A site of pure inspiration. My last trip in to London didn’t provide the time to get over to the store but soon.

enjoy.

Pistard was born from the wish to create a high-quality collection of technical cycle wear, but comfortable and fashionable. The appeal of name “pistard” evokes elegance and at the same time the fastness of old fearless bikers, competing in velodromes where ramps got even 42° of slope, riding in competitions lasting more than one hour, where one lap was even 400 meters long.

But Pistard is more than this.

Cycling is a spot scarred by great enterprises, undertaken by intrepid men who have been worked hard to achieve them Reaching that goals took endurance and application and each day they was taken towards new challenges, along the routes of racing history.

Times changed but the challenge to outgo the limits remains the same.

What we are trying to do is to replicate somehow one of these great enterprises: starting from an MBA thesis, we reached to produce a sportswear collection entirely conceived, studied and manufactured in Italy.

Selected fabrics have been longer researched and studied; style and design are Made in Italy.

Sport experience is inside us: we are cyclists, snowboarders, runners, skiers, basket players, baseball players….sport is our lif and we try to put this passion in our products.. ..If you like them, we made a good job. If you don’t like them, give us your advice, we ‘ll use them to improve us!

To get a very high level of quality, we used all technologies we have and we test all products in every atmospheric and stress condition. We come from Milan, the city of fashion and design, but we can also look outwards, to find new ideas and inspirations.

Check them out.

The Saxo Bank team has prevented Andy Schleck and Stuart O’Grady from starting the 10th stage of the Vuelta a España on Tuesday, citing an unspecified “rules violation,” according to Danish news reports.

The sporten.dk website and TV 2 Sport reported that team boss Bjarne Riis took the action Tuesday morning in advance of the day’s stage.

The news reports mentioned violations of team rules, but were not clear as to which rules were allegedly broken. Speaking with reporters at the start in Tarragona, Riis wouldn’t elaborate, but said the violations did not involve doping allegations. Later reports suggest that the two may have violated a team ban on alcohol.

Luxembourg’s Schleck was a runner-up at the 2009 and 2010 Tour de France and the 2007 Giro d’Italia. O’Grady has three Tour de France stage wins, won Paris-Roubaix in in 2007 and Olympic Madison gold in 2004. Both are expected to leave the team at season’s end to join a new squad organized and sponsored by Luxembourg-based businesses.