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General Doping Thread.

Page 38 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Brilliant stuff from Vini founder Valentino Sciotti:
"At the moment, I haven't heard from anyone, neither Angelo [Citracca] nor Luca [Scinto]. I don't even know who this guy [Matteo De Bonis] is. All I can say is that I'm bitter and discouraged like few others. I think this guy has put us in serious difficulty [to race the Giro]. It's right that the UCI should do what it has to do, but the hope is that they understand that the fault is not ours alone. In fact, we are clearly the injured party. What bothers me is that these guys can't close the matter with a simple disqualification. We as a team are suffering unspeakable damage. They have to pay the team for the inconvenience they have caused. I hope that [Italian Federation president] Cordiano Dagnoni will be able to do something."
 
Police raided everyone on the team, it sounds like.

"One of the people – as yet unnamed – investigated by the Carabinieri has turned up in three past investigations by prosecutors in Pistoia, Florence and Massa, Corriere reported."

Well, only 3 people are investigated at, the ridet himself, Citracca and Scinto. Both of them have been leading figures of the team (in it's various incarnations) since the pre Di Luca andms Santambrogio days, so I'm not surprised at all that one of them has been involed in multiple investigations before...
Source: https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article...gelo-citracca-luca-scinto-matteo-de-bonis-nas
 
Well, only 3 people are investigated at, the ridet himself, Citracca and Scinto. Both of them have been leading figures of the team (in it's various incarnations) since the pre Di Luca andms Santambrogio days, so I'm not surprised at all that one of them has been involed in multiple investigations before...
Source: https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article...gelo-citracca-luca-scinto-matteo-de-bonis-nas
I assume that they cannot afford a better doping program! Getting busted continuously in a sport riddled with doping is something to consider!
 
I assume that they cannot afford a better doping program! Getting busted continuously in a sport riddled with doping is something to consider!
At this point I doubt that they have a team programm. They sign riders who have already been banned before and many guys who only get signed because they bring their own sponsor with them. There's probably lots of pressure to perform and Scinto seems to be a scummy guy who always blames riders if they don't get results and one thing leads to another...
 
Police raided everyone on the team, it sounds like.

"One of the people – as yet unnamed – investigated by the Carabinieri has turned up in three past investigations by prosecutors in Pistoia, Florence and Massa, Corriere reported."

Wildcard up for grabs!
 
A lower-tier rider getting four months on the naughty step is hardly the thing worthy of Clinic conversation, but the case of Delko's Atsushi Oka is actually kind of interesting, on several levels.

Yesterday we found out Oka's named had been quietly added to the list of sanctioned riders, an OOC test in December discovering the use of Acetazolamide, known to be used as a diuretic / masking agent and to be found on the WADA List as a specified substance.

Oka got four months and will eligible to re-join the pro peloton in May.

Today we got a Tweet from the rider in which he said it was a case of unintentional doping: he had eye surgery four days before his test and the medication prescribed by his doctor tripped the positive.

View: https://twitter.com/oka_atsushi0903/status/1387716588376264708


A longer, more detailed explanation is to be found on his blog. There we learn that, when Oka was informed he'd popped a positive, he contacted the hospital and found out that the drug used was Diamox.

He then sought a retrospective TUE: "I was told that the application would not be approved as it was not a life-threatening treatment."

Oka, ultimately, accepts responsibility for not checking things ahead of his surgery: "In the past, I have always made sure to check with the team doctor before using any medication that I ingest, but it was my fault that I went ahead with the surgery without checking with the specialist, and I deeply regret that it was something that could have been prevented beforehand."

He was, of course, having problems with the team back in December after Vaughters had nicked the team's sponsor, Nippo (in, sort of, a reverse of what happened when FDJ nicked Groupama from him, only he didn't actually have a contract with Groupama at that point and Delko did with Nippo) and that serves some mitigation. But, he's an athlete, he knows or ought to know the rules on strict liability and he knows or ought to know he should have check the meds against the List ahead of use and asked for an alternative medication to be used.

TUEs we know are problematic, most all of us accept this, and the rules need to be tight and strictly applied, especially so given how lax their application has been in the past. That this means riders like Oka will sometimes fail an IQ test ... is that a price worth paying?
 
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Vini Zabù - the Dublin-based Pro Conti squad with an unenviable doping record - want your money ... to crowdfund an internal anti-doping programme.
They're hoping to raise €500,000.

So far they've got €40 in the kitty.
Lol, who would donate some money to Scinto?
Now if Savio would launch a patreon account for his team with the slogan "you can help us to find the next ultramythical climber", that would be a different thing. Imagine various patreon tiers with the highest one being that your name appears as one of the +50 sponsors on the Androni jersey, that would be awesome!
 
A couple of months ago Delko's Atsushi Oka was refused a back-dated TUE as the OOC treatment he was claiming for was deemed not to have been life threatening. Today the Times has revealed that Sarah Storey - the paralympian Dame - was granted a back-dated TUE having tripped an AAF during the 2012 Jubilympics:
The Times revealed on Monday that Britain's most successful Paralympian had exceeded the limit for the asthma drug in a sample taken after she won the first of her four gold medals at her home Games in London. However, she was reportedly not informed of the finding until a week later, on September 7, by which point she had collected the other three titles. Storey then applied for a retroactive TUE through the British Paralympic Association (BPA), which was granted by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
WADA expressed concern but
According to The Times, Independent Observers for the World Anti Doping Agency raised concerns at the time, suggesting Storey should have been "requested to undergo a pharmacokinetic study to explain the AAF and therefore allow the IPC to properly close the case."
As in the Froome case, no such study was carried out.
 
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There's no such thing as a backdated TUE. ISTUE allows you 5 days after being notified of an AAF to apply for an rTUE. It depends when the courier delivered the AAF to her really and what TUE pool she was subject to. Typically included with the AAF notification are the requirements to apply for a retroactive TUE.
 
And the good news from the Times article:
The rules on retroactive TUEs have changed since 2012. Because there were concerns that international federations could abuse the system, Wada made an amendment to its latest 2021 code which means it is the only body that can grant a retroactive TUE.
But...
However the circumstances in which one can be granted have not changed, with the Wada code stating that the use of an otherwise prohibited, performance-enhancing substance such as salbutamol must be for "emergency treatment" or when "treatment of an acute medical condition was necessary". Wada justifies immediate administration when failure to do so "could significantly put the athlete's health at risk". Storey, who is 43 and was made a dame a few months after the London Games, has confirmed to The Times via her lawyer that a retroactive TUE was granted because she was "slightly above" the permitted limit for salbutamol. She stressed that she had been diagnosed with asthma as a child.
 

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