The International Cycling Union (UCI) on Friday hit out at the leaking of a “secret” list of riders who warranted special attention from anti-doping controllers at last year’s Tour de France. L’Equipe newspaper on Friday said a “secret” list was created by the UCI after blood samples taken two days before last year’s race were compared with evidence already available on the riders’ biological passports.
The UCI created the list in a bid to ascertain which riders may or may not have been using banned substances or methods in the run-up to the three-week epic. And it appeared to suggest that around 40 of the 198-strong peloton may have been involved in doping practices in the run-up, with 27 showing “overwhelming” evidence of some kind of doping, according to L’Equipe.
The UCI said it would be investigating to find out the source of the leak, but said the riders mentioned in the report should not automatically be regarded as doping suspects. “First of all, the UCI regrets that this document has fallen into the hands of people external to the UCI as this list constitutes a mere working tool to be used by the anti-doping authorities in the course of their work at the Tour,” the UCI said late Thursday when it learned of the imminent publication of the report.
“We regard this leak as a serious affair and we will be doing everything to to determine how it came about.” The UCI added: “As regards the list, the UCI would like to highlight that the reading of this list should be done so with a very precise and provisional context. “The nature of the comments which appear on the list was to make sure we avoid any kind of under-estimation of the situation.” Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme insisted Friday that the list was merely a tool in the fight against doping.
“There is no secret file. There is a list made for one of the three international federations (the UCI), who have taken the biological passport, that is to say a tool, certainly a bonus in the fight against doping,” said Prudhomme. “Because cycling is a forerunner, with its international authorities that a list, not secret, but working, exists. “You musn’t turn things around and associate the word suspicion with a discipline which is fighting, precisely because it is fighting. Only those who have a biological passport can have such a list.”
Based on the comparison of the 198 blood samples taken on July 1, 2010 with blood parameters which go back several months, as far as 2008, the list put the entire Tour peloton into 11 categories, from zero to 10. Those in the five lower categories warranted barely any scrutiny — a total of 156 riders. The samples of the 15 riders in category five warranted “precise, and sometimes more affirmative commentary” from scientists, said the report, suggesting they may have been involved in some kind of manipulation.
The 42 riders in categories six and above (6-10) showed “overwhelming” evidence of some kind of doping, due to “recurring anomalies”, “enormous variations” in parameters, and even the “identifiction of doping products or methods”, according to L’Equipe. Russian Denis Menchov, a former Giro d’Italia winner who finished third overall in last year’s Tour de France, is the biggest name to appear in the top six categories.
The paper noted that the scores attributed to each rider “did not constitute proof” of any doping or wrongdoing.
Only one rider tested positive at last year’s race, yellow jersey champion Alberto Contador of Spain, who was ranked in category five. He tested positive for clenbuterol, which he blamed on contaminated meat which he ate. He was cleared by the Spanish authorities but is awaiting a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision which will decide his fate in June.
