Doping at the Tour de France

Doping at the Tour de France refers to the use of illegal drugs in the annual road bicycle race, the Tour de France. There have been allegations of doping in the Tour de France since 1903. Early Tour riders were said to have consumed alcohol and used ether, among other substances, as a means of dulling the pain of competing in endurance cycling. ^[1] As time went by, riders began using substances as a means of increasing performance rather than dulling the senses, and organizing bodies such as the Tour and the International Cycling Union (UCI), as well as government bodies, enacted policies to combat the practice.

History

One of the first famous doping scandals occurred on July 13, 1967. British cyclist Tom Simpson died climbing Mont Ventoux following usage of amphetamines,. The amphetamines allowed Simpson to pass his level of endurance and succumb to excessive exhaustion.^[2] This occurred before official anti-doping tests, which promptly started the following year.^[3]

Festina scandal

The 1998 Tour de France, dubbed the "Tour of Shame", is considered the most scandal-ridden modern Tour. On July 8, 1998, a major scandal erupted after French Customs arrested Willy Voet, one of the seigneurs for the Festina cycling team, for the possession of illegal prescription drugs, including narcotics, erythropoietin (EPO), growth hormones, testosterone, and amphetamines. (Voet later described many common doping practices in his book, Massacre à la Chaîne^[4].) Two weeks later, on July 23, 1998, French police raided several teams in their hotels and found doping products in the possession of the TVM team. Further raids were threatened. As news of the police action spread among the riders during the seventeenth stage of the Tour, they staged a "sit-down strike" and refused to continue. After mediation by Jean-Marie Leblanc, the Director of the Tour, police agreed to limit the most heavy-handed tactics and the riders agreed to continue. Many riders and teams had already abandoned, however, and only 111 riders completed the stage, riding without race numbers and at a leisurely pace. In a 2000 criminal trial, it became clear that the management and health officials of the Festina team had deliberately organized doping within the team. Richard Virenque, a top Festina rider, finally confessed at the trial after being ridiculed for maintaining that if he was doping he was somehow not consciously aware of it ("à l'insu de mon plein gré")

In the years following the Festina scandal, anti-doping measures were put into effect by race organizers and the UCI, including more frequent testing of riders and new tests for blood doping (transfusions and EPO use). The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was also created to help aid governments in anti-doping.

Evidence of doping persisted, however, and in 2004 a new wave of credible doping allegations came forth. In January, Philippe Gaumont, a rider with the Cofidis team, told investigators and the press that doping with steroids, human growth hormone, EPO, and amphetamines was endemic to the team. In June, British cyclist David Millar, also of Cofidis, and reigning time trial World Champion at the time, was detained by French police. His apartment was searched and two used EPO syringes were found. Finally, Jesus Manzano, a Spanish rider then recently dismissed by the Kelme team, told Madrid sports newspaper AS in bitter tones and lurid detail how he had been forced by his former team to take banned substances and how they had taught him to evade detection. The Kelme team itself was ultimately a casualty of the disclosures, which Manzano judged to be “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”^[5]

Lance Armstrong accusations

Doping controversy has surrounded seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong for some time, although there has never been evidence sufficient for him to be sanctioned by any sports authority. In part, the suspicion has arisen from his association with Italian physician Michele Ferrari, who has confessed to prescribing doping agents to athletes. There have also been allegations by former assistant, Mike Anderson, that Armstrong used Androstenine. This resulted in a law suit against Anderson and a counter suit against Armstrong. ^[6] In late August 2005, one month after Lance Armstrong's seventh consecutive Tour victory, the French sports newspaper ‘’L'Equipe’’ claimed to have uncovered evidence that Armstrong had used EPO in the 1999 Tour de France.^[7] The claim was based on testing of archived urine samples by the French National Laboratory for Doping Detection (LNDD) for research purposes. Armstrong denied using EPO, and the UCI did not sanction him because of the lack of a duplicate sample. The UCI has confirmed that it was its own lead doctor Mario Zorzoli who in fact leaked the 15 forms tying Armstrong to the positive tests to L'equipe. In the same year, Armstrong tested positive for a glucocorticosteroid hormone. Armstrong explained he had used an external "cortisone" ointment in order to treat a saddle sore, and produced a prescription for it. The amount detected was well below the "positive" threshold and was consistent with the amount that would be used for a topical skin cream, but UCI rules require that prescriptions be shown to sports authorities in advance of use.

Operacion Puerto investigation

In 2006, several riders, including Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, were barred from competing on the eve of the race amid allegations made by the Spanish police as a result of their Operacion Puerto investigation.^[8] In total 17 riders have been excluded in the scandal.

Teams and members include:

• Astana-Würth:
  •  Michele Scarponi
  •  Marcos Antonio Serrano
  •  David Etxebarria
  •  Joseba Beloki, cleared by Spanish courts of any wrongdoing on July 26, 2006^[9].
  •  Angel Vicioso
  •  Isidro Nozal, cleared by Spanish courts of any wrongdoing on July 26, 2006^[9].
  •  Unai Osa
  •  Jörg Jaksche
  •  Giampaolo Caruso

• CSC:
  •  Ivan Basso

• Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears:
  •  Constantino Zaballa

• Saunier Duval-Prodir:
  •  Carlos Zarate

• AG2R Prévoyance:
  •  Francisco Mancebo

• T-Mobile Team:
  •  Jan Ullrich
  •  Oscar Sevilla

• Phonak:
  •  José Enrique Gutierrez
  •  José Ignacio Gutierrez^[10]

Floyd Landis accusation

On July 27, 2006 the Phonak Cycling Team announced that Floyd Landis, the declared winner of the 2006 Tour, tested positive in a drug test given to him after Stage 17, as part of the Tour's standard doping precautions. He tested positive for an abnormally high ratio of the hormone testosterone to epitestosterone during Stage 17 of the race. On the same day the allegations were made public, Landis denied doping in order to win the 2006 Tour de France.

Doping agents used

Many different doping agents have been used to enhance performance in the Tour de France. Recently the most common used has been erythropoietin, or EPO. It is a red blood cell stimulating hormone that is virtually undetectable a few days after injection, while its effects last for several weeks. EPO doping is believed by many to be almost universal among Tour riders, and the UCI has been criticized—by WADA among others—for not taking stronger action to detect EPO use. Scientific experts have cautioned, however, that technical flaws in the current urine test for EPO may be resulting in false positive results.^[11]

References

1. ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/187085/202-7384003-1751816As History, Drugs and the Tour de France by Tim Moore
2. ^ http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=2494 The Daily Peloton December 8, 2002
3. ^ http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/cycling/article/0,1713,BDC_2409_4821238,00.html
4. ^ Voet, Willy (1999). Massacre à la Chaîne ISBN 2290300624. Translated as “Breaking the Chain”, ISBN 0224060562
5. ^ “Ex-Kelme rider promises doping revelations” Velo News, March 20, 2004.
6. ^ MSNBC article on allegations
7. ^ “L’Equipe alleges Armstrong samples show EPO use in 99 Tour” Velo News, August 23, 2005.
8. ^ "Tour elite thrown out as Ullrich and Basso caught up in drug crackdown" Guardian, 1st July 2006
9. ^ ^a b "Wednesday's EuroFile: Astana 5' cleared by Spanish courts; Landis sets post-Tour schedule", Velo News, 2006-07-126.
10. ^ [1] CBS
11. ^ “Serious concerns over urinary EPO test” Cycling News, September 23, 2005.