UCI questioning a small number of riders on blood values

[Anonymous]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601077&sid=aONxiQFukhnw

“It’s encouraging,” McQuaid said. “There is a big drop in manipulating blood.”

A few sacrificial lambs in an attempt to make it look like the UCI is doing something useful? I bet the ones selected have never won anything between them.

 

[IntheMidwest]

My bet is on: No GC contenders for 2010 for any GT's.

 

[Berzin]

Will Armstrong be questioned? If not,then it's just more bullcrap from Fat Pat McQuaid.

 

[Oldman]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601077&sid=aONxiQFukhnw



A few sacrificial lambs in an attempt to make it look like the UCI is doing something useful? I bet the ones selected have never won anything between them.

The fact that it only shows up on Bloomberg and not other media services suggests the mass market isn't interested or isn't buying it. This may just be more backdrop to keeping AFLD from Tour testing but don't know.

 

[IntheMidwest]

Will Armstrong be questioned? If not,then it's just more bullcrap from Fat Pat McQuaid.

He'll never be questioned as long as McDoosh is running UCI.

 

[theswordsman]

I couldn't quickly locate the story, but wasn't there something earlier this year, maybe with Anne Gripper, where the UCI said they were going to start contacting riders and give them an amount of time to submit reasons why their values might be off?

Anyway, I agree that if LA isn't one of them based on his Tour versus Giro values, then the whole thing is a sham.

 

[blackcat]

why cannot you just provide Anne Gripper with a printout of the Livestrong numbers on StrongArm. Race Radio has the links and the record.

All you need to do, is printout a copy of StrongArm's passport, and say, since he is "clean" I can knock myself up with pipe cleaner liquid to my hearts content.

 

[theswordsman]

McQuaid was in London as part of "Tackling Doping In Sport"

http://www.sportbusiness.com/marketplace/conferences/tackling-doping-in-sport-2010-170914

 

[Kennf1]

Here is how the interrogation goes:

UCI: We were curious about this jump in your hematocrit in the middle of a three week Tour. Any explanation?

Rider: I was dehydrated.

UCI: Okay, good enough for us.

 

[luckyboy]

I'd laugh if they were actually questioning LA.

Though the tests on his site were under his own supervision, not the UCIs. Is that right? Therefore, we don't know how much the UCI tested him.

 

[BroDeal]

It looks like this will become a season tradition. Every year the UCI will trot out a handful of no-hopers who are on the verge of retirement, already embroiled in a doping scandal, still seeking a team, on the outs with their team, or general a-holes who no one likes to convince us that the bio passport is working fine.

 

[Ferminal]

Here is how the interrogation goes:

UCI: We were curious about this jump in your hematocrit in the middle of a three week Tour. Any explanation?

Rider: I was dehydrated.

UCI: Okay, good enough for us.

"I had the ****s"

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Remember, McQuaid and the UCI have repeated this nonsense about the peloton being clean or there being almost no doping now for several years. And every time they announce it, it doesn't take long before yet another scandal reveals widespread doping.

 

[Race Radio]

For some reason the most important quote was left out of this article. McQuaid actually said

"Cycling has a deeply entrenched culture of cheating,"

Of course when **** Pound said this a few years ago McQuaid and Verburggen cried like little kids.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

McQuaid was in London as part of "Tackling Doping In Sport"

http://www.sportbusiness.com/marketplace/conferences/tackling-doping-in-sport-2010-170914

London you say? I wonder who else was in London on the 24th?

Must have been paying their annual subscription.

 

[El Imbatido]

Got this from the first article that was posted:

The number of cyclists with a high level of reticulocytes, or immature red blood cells, fell since 2008, a sign that monitoring is acting as a deterrent, McQuaid said.

Shouldn't the UCI be asking these riders "what going on" if all these guys had a huge level of recticycles and then all of a sudden Baam......crap all recticycles and the same with immature red blood cells. Come on thats not sus at all. Or was there some sort of 'turn a blind eye till everyone has their levels in the zone' period??

 

[Mellow Velo]

London you say? I wonder who else was in London on the 24th?

Must have been paying their annual subscription.

Or handing over to Uncle Pat, his list of riders who's abnormal blood values get them taken down.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

"The sport is much cleaner today"

 

[dopingectomy]

"The sport is much cleaner today"

a striking similarity

 

[dopingectomy]

Got this from the first article that was posted:



Shouldn't the UCI be asking these riders "what going on" if all these guys had a huge level of recticycles and then all of a sudden Baam......crap all recticycles and the same with immature red blood cells. Come on thats not sus at all. Or was there some sort of 'turn a blind eye till everyone has their levels in the zone' period??

blood transfusions decrease reticulocytes

 

[Dr. Maserati]

a striking similarity

Actually I always thought he looked and had more in common with....

 

[Hugh Januss]

For some reason the most important quote was left out of this article. McQuaid actually said

"Cycling has a deeply entrenched culture of cheating,"

Of course when **** Pound said this a few years ago McQuaid and Verburggen cried like little kids.

Maybe they are genuinely so stupid that it took them this long to figure it out?

 

[Cerberus]

Got this from the first article that was posted:



Shouldn't the UCI be asking these riders "what going on" if all these guys had a huge level of recticycles and then all of a sudden Baam......crap all recticycles and the same with immature red blood cells. Come on thats not sus at all. Or was there some sort of 'turn a blind eye till everyone has their levels in the zone' period??

That's one interpretation, but another, more generous interpretation, is that the values weren't sufficiently anomalous to conclusively prove anything (at least according to the existing anti-doping rule set). You could tell that something was wrong because a lot of riders had anomalous blood values, but you couldn't prove that each individual was doping. Now I know it's not fashionable in the clinic to give UCI the benefit of the doubt, but it is a possible explanation.

Also IIRC reticulocytes=immature red blood cells.

 

[Oldman]

That's one interpretation, but another, more generous interpretation, is that the values weren't sufficiently anomalous to conclusively prove anything (at least according to the existing anti-doping rule set). You could tell that something was wrong because a lot of riders had anomalous blood values, but you couldn't prove that each individual was doping. Now I know it's not fashionable in the clinic to give UCI the benefit of the doubt, but it is a possible explanation.

Also IIRC reticulocytes=immature red blood cells.

Or that they are applying the time-honored tolerance for "topping off" like they did for hormones/steroids. As long as someone isn't doing anything the rest of them are; it is the standard of the peloton.

 

[Escarabajo]

That's one interpretation, but another, more generous interpretation, is that the values weren't sufficiently anomalous to conclusively prove anything (at least according to the existing anti-doping rule set). You could tell that something was wrong because a lot of riders had anomalous blood values, but you couldn't prove that each individual was doping. Now I know it's not fashionable in the clinic to give UCI the benefit of the doubt, but it is a possible explanation.

Also IIRC reticulocytes=immature red blood cells.

Possible = Less than 25% chance of happening.

The other reason for drops in Retics is just a shift from EPO use to blood transfusion use