Alberto Contador Fails Drug Test

[guru]

Blames "contaminated food".

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/alberto ... lenbuterol

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/39429816/ ... er_sports/

[Marlow]

Blames "contaminated food".

Like a clenbuterol sandwich?

[guru]

Timing is everything.

The doping control in question was carried on July 21 during the second rest of the Tour in Pau, in the Pyrenees. The day after, Contador set up overall victory by finishing in the same time as Schleck at the summit of the Col du Tourmalet.

[jazzcyclist]

Why did it take so long? When Floyd Landis flunked his test on his epic day in 2006, the announcement was made less than a week later and two days after the Tour ended.

[jeremyp]

Would love to be a fly on the wall of the Shleck home!!!

[Pego]

Why would clenbuterol be on the Index is beyond me.

[dukehjsteve]

I always like to avoid a Rush To Judgement, but as has been true so many times in the past.....

[guru]

Doesn't look like Contador is going to get very far with the "contaminated food" cover.

WADA director general David Howman told The Associated Press on Thursday, "The issue is the lab has detected this. They have the responsibility for pursuing. There is no such thing as a limit where you don't have to prosecute cases. This is not a substance that has a threshold," said Howman, reached by telephone as he was changing planes in Dubai on his way to the Commonwealth Games in India.

"Once the lab records an adverse finding, it's an adverse finding and it has to be followed up."

"Clenbuterol is a substance that has been used for over 20 to 30 years," he added. "It is not anything new. Nobody has ever suggested it is something you can take inadvertently."

[gh]

Why would clenbuterol be on the Index is beyond me.

If for no other reason than because it's considered a masking agent.

[Marlow]

Why would clenbuterol be on the Index is beyond me.

If for no other reason than because it's considered a masking agent.

oh, I thought it was this (from wiki):

It causes an increase in aerobic capacity

[jhc68]

I like this quote: " Alberto Contador alleged food contamination as the only possible explanation of what happened..."
That should put an end to further speculation!

[Marlow]

I like this quote: " Alberto Contador alleged food contamination as the only possible explanation of what happened..."
That should put an end to further speculation!

Not as imaginative as the
a. toothpaste
b. too much sex
or
c. massage gel

explanations.

[guru]

One small kink in his story - why didn't the whole team come up positive?

Contador said the beef was brought by a Spanish cycling organizer, Jose Luis Lopez Cerron. Cerron said earlier Thursday on Spanish radio that he was a friend of the team chef, who had complained of poor quality meat at the hotel where the team was staying.

Lopez Cerron said he bought filet mignon for the team in the Spanish border town of Irun on his way to Pau, France, to watch a few stages of the tour.

[jazzcyclist]

One small kink in his story - why didn't the whole team come up positive?

Not that I'm buying his story, but the Tour doesn't test the entire peleton every day of the race, only a handfull, including the stage winner and the yellow jersey.

[jazzcyclist]

I like this quote: " Alberto Contador alleged food contamination as the only possible explanation of what happened..."
That should put an end to further speculation!

Not as imaginative as the
a. toothpaste
b. too much sex
or
c. massage gel

explanations.

My alltime favorite is Dennis Mitchell's beer and sex defense because the USATF actually bought it!

[jhc68]

Probably Contador has a more efficient metabolic process than his cohorts and he digested the digested the chemical while the others did not.
That ought to put an end to further speculation.
By the way, I always thought that Spanish beef had a hint of clenbuterol flavor.

[guru]

One small kink in his story - why didn't the whole team come up positive?

Not that I'm buying his story, but the Tour doesn't test the entire peleton every day of the race, only a handfull, including the stage winner and the yellow jersey.

Well clenbuterol has a half-life of 36 hours, so it would have been detectable for several days.

[tandfman]

The plot thickens?

http://www.universalsports.com/news/art ... 94315.html

[IanS_Liv]

Not long ago we had a British athlete test positive for clenbuterol and he claimed food contamination (after a different defence was first put forward). No idea how that case is progressing.

The test was done in South Africa, but people discussing it on AW said that Clenbuterol wasn't used in South Africa on cattle. Another drug from the same family as clenbuterol was used in certain areas, but not in South Africa. Is it common practice to do this in Spain?

I didn't think that the EU permitted its member countries to use clenbuterol to enhance muscle growth in cattle. Although what they say in Brussels and what actually happens on farms can quite often be two very different things.

[Pego]

Why would clenbuterol be on the Index is beyond me.

If for no other reason than because it's considered a masking agent.

Is there any evidence that it is? What might be its pharmacological basis?

[Pego]

Why would clenbuterol be on the Index is beyond me.

If for no other reason than because it's considered a masking agent.

oh, I thought it was this (from wiki):

It causes an increase in aerobic capacity

All bronchodilators do.

[gh]

Why would clenbuterol be on the Index is beyond me.

If for no other reason than because it's considered a masking agent.

Is there any evidence that it is? What might be its pharmacological basis?

I've long "known" it was a masker, but a quick google doesn't do much to back me up on it, other than this non-scientific article (from back in the dark ages of doping knowledge):

<<Pat Butcher
Saturday, 3 August 1996.....
New Olympics, new drug! The race between the dope takers and the dope testers continues apace. Seoul was stanozolol, Barcelona was clenbuterol, Atlanta, it seems, is bromantan. The progression is impressive.

Stanozolol was, if not the Dark Ages of drug-taking, then a fairly humble anabolic steroid. Clenbuterol was rather more sophisticated, in that it was used as a masking agent for other "harder" drugs....>>

[Cooter Brown]

I like the timely ad on the left that states "discover the science behind legendary performance" and has a pic of Lance Armstrong. Nice.

[tjallen]

Here's my favorite line, from the NYTimes article,
Contador says: "I won’t tolerate any sanction."

I think it's out of your hands, buddy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/sports/cycling/01cycling.html?hpw

[26mi235]

The 'excuse' is not in the same class with those listed for others, that had major levels in their tests. This is a case were on Day 1 there was no trace, on Day 2 no trace, on Day 3 0.025, Day 4 0.005, Day 6 no trace. Here the quantities have been normalized so that that 1 equates to the level that WADA-approved labs must be able to detect this drug, with the implication that normal doping amounts would be several times above this level at the very least. The French normal lab that would have been used under normal conditions cannot detect anything at the levels shown here. That lab was not used because of a spat between the UCI (cycling's governing body) and the French doping group; instead Cologne was used and is the only lab that would have picked up the drug at these levels. Furthermore, in such minute amounts, the drug would not provide 'masking' for anything I can conceive of.

Thus, a transitory, minuscule amount turns up in a chemical analysis and no one knows how common this is at this level of detection. It is almost certain that at these level there is no PEDs effects, and the temporal profile shows that it was not a case of detecting what was a PED dose taken some while before. Furthermore, if WADA 'convicts' on this they several things will likely happen. First, no sports league is going to turn over regulation of their franchise to WADA (and they risk being seen as the lunatic fringe). They will almost certainly be sued; in the US I cannot see a court jury doing anything else but repudiating WADA (no that this scenario can take place). The damages that Contador could claim would be substantial enough to cause real damage.

I am definitely not a big Contador fan, but I see no reason that this even made it to outside sources given what I have seen so far. I would be interested in the opinions of jasscyclist and those knowledgeable on doping issues.

[CookyMonzta]

Doesn't look like Contador is going to get very far with the "contaminated food" cover.

Bad steak, he says.

Coward.

At least LaShawn Merritt acknowledged he didn't read the ingredients in ExtenZe, and took his punishment like a man.

[CookyMonzta]

One small kink in his story - why didn't the whole team come up positive?

Not that I'm buying his story, but the Tour doesn't test the entire peleton every day of the race, only a handfull, including the stage winner and the yellow jersey.

They do have a rest day, don't they? Test them all before day 1, then test everyone remaining in the Tour on rest day. Then test everyone who finished on the last day. And yes, I assume they test the stage winners (along with 2nd and 3rd) and the guys with the yellow, green and polka-dot jerseys every day.

[guru]

NOW we're getting somewhere - Was Contador's positive a product of a blood reinfusion?

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5846/ ... sions.aspx

...A more explosive claim relates to another matter. Contador held a press conference today and said that the most likely source for the Clenbuterol traces found in his urine sample was from a piece of tainted meat someone brought across the border from Spain.

ARD’s contention is that the traces could be in blood that was taken out of the rider during a non-competitive period, then reinfused back in around the time of the second rest day, when the urine sample in question was taken. The inference is that not enough care was taken to ensure that Contador was clear of the substance when the blood was taken out.

Even if this was checked in a laboratory, the Cologne lab used for analysing Tour samples has far more sensitive equipment when it comes to looking for substances such as Clenbuterol.

“ARD has obtained the exact values from Spain. This shows that it is not very likely that we are dealing with contaminated foods, especially in light of the fact that in Europe, it is highly unlikely that foods, such as meat, are contaminated with clenbuterol. It happens in Asian countries, but it is strictly prohibited in Europe. Also, there were no other positive test cases with contaminated meat, so the statement from Contador is not credible.

“There are other, very, very incriminating suspicious facts against Contador. Other values have appeared that are ten times over the higher value from so-called plasticizers [such as di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) – ed.] which are used in blood bags. These values were measured one day before the positive dope control. These blood bag softener values could indicate that autologous blood doping may have been performed."

[dukehjsteve]

My dog ate my homework !

[26mi235]

NOW we're getting somewhere - Was Contador's positive a product of a blood reinfusion?

This does fit as a possible doping situation that fits the facts of 0, 0, very small, even smaller, 0, 0. (where 0 is just too small to detect). In this case the concentration in the added blood could be ten times higher or more (e.g., re-inject blood to increase volume by 10%) while still being low enough that when they tested the blood themselves they did not find traces (because their test was less than one-tenth as good at detecting the drug).

[26mi235]

L’Équipe raises new doubts over Contador
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lequipe-raises-new-doubts-over-contador

They report traces of the plastic used in blood bags was detected in the sample.


Meanwhile, another piece from Cyclingnews has:

Sympathy for Contador's current plight was in short supply in the French camp. Chavanel's countryman Yoann Offredo (FDJ) ... was not surprised by the news.

“It’s a story that we’ve been expecting,” Offredo said to RMC.fr.

“Right now, amongst the riders, I can tell you that we’re not that shocked.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/chavanel-says-contador-must-prove-his-innocence

[gh]

NOW we're getting somewhere - Was Contador's positive a product of a blood reinfusion?...

I'm reading it the other way; his positive for such a teeny-tiny concentration might indicate that he had dirty blood and they attempted to flush it out and replace with new, but a few molecules of the bad juice hung around.

In a normal (less sensitive) lab, nothing would have showed after the reinfusion.

All speculation of course.

[26mi235]

NOW we're getting somewhere - Was Contador's positive a product of a blood reinfusion?...

I'm reading it the other way; his positive for such a teeny-tiny concentration might indicate that he had dirty blood and they attempted to flush it out and replace with new, but a few molecules of the bad juice hung around.

In a normal (less sensitive) lab, nothing would have showed after the re-infusion.

All speculation of course.

Re-infusing blood that had a trace seems to fit better. They did not detect a 1 part in 100 arbitrary units because the value was 1 in 50. Now this new blood increases volume by 20% and leads to 1 part in 250. However the test can detect to 1 in 1000 so picks it up. Both would be consistent with blood bag residue.

[guru]

26 is correct gh.

The German investigation indicated that the blood that was reinfused into Contador on the offday contained the Clenbuterol, thereby causing the positive on the more sensitive Tour testing equipment. It likely slipped by the less sensitive lab that Contador's medical staff used when they took the blood out.

Also 26 - the German report I posted yesterday(prior to the l'Equipe story) noted the plastcizers in the blood as a key piece of their evidence.

[DrJay]

By the way, I always thought that Spanish beef had a hint of clenbuterol flavor.

TAFNY for best deadpan one-liner.