Beech Mtn said:
HOWEVER - I don't like the fact that only Alberto's plasticizer results have been leaked. There had to have been a lot of guys tested who had small transfusions too. Were they not tested? Was Alberto singled out once he popped positive for clen?
Either every sample needs to be checked for plasticizers and sanctioned the same, or it needs to be ignored for all, including Alberto. But AC does have to be held responsible for failing the clen test.
I had this discussion before, so instead of repeating it, let me ask a question:
Which test result was acknowledged by the UCI? Clen, platicizer or both? I think it was only clen. So, while the UCI may or may not have results of plasticizer tests for many riders, they have not made public any of them, not even Contador's. Probably because the test is not (yet) validated to give an AAF (which is a legal, not a scientific term; scientifically, the test is just fine).
The person who leaked the results to the press probably had in his possession only Contador's results. That's all he could leak. He couldn't leak Schleck's result, Cuddles results, Menchov's results, LA's results and so on, because he didn't have them (likely because all the samples are anonymous, except for Contador's which had to be decoded because of the clen positive and the breaking of the B sample.)
So, anyway, I think all the complaining about Contador being singled out by the plasticizer test is missing the point. There's no indication he ever was singled out.
Ok, with that said, one point on which the reports are conflicted (likely because the phthalate results were never acknowledged by the UCI or any official whatsoever), is on which day the suspect phthalate concentrations were measured. Some say the day before, some say the same day as the clen positive. But then, clen was found in two consecutive samples which just adds to the confusion.
In fact, we know the times at which residues of clen and phthalates end up in the urine are different. The former is in the order of 24-36 hours, the latter only 6-12 hours. So even if both chemicals were administered at the same time, one of them might show up earlier in tests.
So, I still believe in the 'transfusion theory' of how clen ended up in his system. A good point is made that Contador, just as Kohl, might have relied more on packed cells than on whole blood, which would shoot down the 'transfusion theory' because clen residues would be spun off with the plasma. But the source talks about whole blood, not packed RBCs. This could in fact make sense because of the short timeframe between extraction and re-injection which would make packing and freezing unnecessary (and it would also explain the phthalate concentrations, which apparently would be lower when transfusing packed RBCs, stored at freezing temperatures).
I think in this regard, the source adds a lot to the case because it tells us that whole blood, not packed RBCs were used. So far everything still fits very well together.