Aug
14
Another one bites the dust
Filed Under Current Issues, News, Sports
It was announced yesterday that the organizers of the Vuelta a España are withdrawing the invitation of the Astana team. The team was thrown out of the Tour de France last month for doping after team leader Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ) tested positive for two types of red blood cells. Team members Andrey Kashechkin (KAZ) and Matthias Kessler (GER) have also both had recent run-ins with doping. Kashechkin tested positive, last week, for the same test as Vinokourov and Kessler tested positive for testosterone before the start of the Tour. Kashechkin is awaiting the return of his B sample, though it rarely shows anything different from the first. This is yet another blow to a sport recently plagued with problems.
Last year, 17 cyclists were alleged to be doping just before the start of the Tour de France. Jan Ullrich (GER) and Ivan Basso (ITA), both favorites, were caught up in the scandal. This, however, was sidelined when, four days after the race ended in Paris, it was reported that Floyd Landis (USA), the third American to win the race, tested positive for a testosterone imbalance in his A sample following his stage 17 win.
These, however, are not the only recent cases of drug use at the Tour. This year, Cristian Moreni (ITA) tested positive for testosterone, prompting his entire Cofidis team to pull out of the Tour on 25 July. Then, just four days before Paris, Michael Rasmussen (DEN) was fired from the Rabobank team while wearing the maillot jaune for “violating internal team rules” by missing random drug tests in May and June. Initially, Rasmussen claimed to have been in Mexico with family and was disciplined internally, but an Italian journalist, Davide Cassani, claimed on Danish television that he had seen Rasmussen training in Italy during that time.
And while these scandals have only recently come to light, it is obvious that it is really nothing new to the sport of cycling. Earlier this year, Erik Zabel (GER) admitted to using EPO in 1996 during the first week of the Tour, the same year he won the maillot vert, before asking other cyclists to confess to using drugs. The next day, Bjarne Riis (DEN) admitted to using EPO regularly from 1993 to 1998, including 1996, the year he won the Tour de France. This catches the top 3 finishes of the 1996 Tour in doping allegations. (Richard Virenque (FRE) was caught up in a doping scandal in 1998 when Willy Voet, the team health assistant, was arrested with large quantities of prescription and illegal drugs used for doping. Virenque has denied any intentional involvement. Only Riis and Zabel have admitted to using drugs.) But Riis is not the first Tour winner to admit to using drugs, Bernard Thevenet (FRE), Tour winner in 1975 and 1977, has also admitted using drugs.
Cycling is an honorable sport but it must clean up its act and doing so must start with the athletes themselves. Though not the only sport to be caught in drug scandals recently, it is the only one to fall victim to this degree, with countless heroes and greats falling from their podiums.
~cv
[...] Another one bites the dust [...]