Astarloza postive for EPO

The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced Friday that it is suspending Spaniard Mikel Astarloza for failing a doping control June 26, which was 25 days before he won the Tour de France's mountain stage to Bourg-Saint-Maurice.
His Euskaltel-Euskadi team stated emphatically that it had not seen any abnormalities in the team's internal controls. It said the rider will request the counter-analysis of the sample. Until then, the press release stated, he will be considered innocent until proven guilty.

On Friday, the UCI announced that Astarloza tested positive for recombinant EPO, a blood booster, in an out-of-competition control. He is the second rider from the Euskaltel-Euskadi team to return a positive doping control in June. Inigo Landaluze was suspended in July after twice testing positive for EPO CERA.
In the case of Landaluze, the team condemned the rider and he took full responsibility for his positive tests.

Astarloza's urine test was performed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and analysed in Madrid. The UCI received its results on Thursday.
The suspension is provisional until a Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) panel meets to examine the results. "The hearing panel will make a decision on an applicable sanction for Mr. Astarloza," read a UCI press release.
The failed doping test is the first related to a rider who participated in the 2009 Tour de France. There were eight riders who tested positive for doping in last year's race.

Nice to see those internal controls working!

Rider: Oh crap, got tested today!
DS: No problem, our internal controls show that the testing agents and lab won't find a thing.

If you think internal testing serves any other purpose, then you probably also believe that self-regulation of banks worked wonders.

what can you say? one day you're a star, the next a loza

it's still better to have the doping control officer from wada sit down for a nice cup of coffee for an hour's chinwag before getting down to the actual testing in addition to a team's internal programme.

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"Kick over the statues and the tyrants die. Wave bye bye to their heroes with a hammer."
--The Redskins, Kick Over the Statues

I'm surprised that Slovakguy could contain himself and wait for 4 posts before starting with the sly Armstrong jibes... LOL

I wonder if thats a record? 4 posts. Cant be on this forum.

what can i say? would have been here sooner, but work does interfere occasionally.

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"Kick over the statues and the tyrants die. Wave bye bye to their heroes with a hammer."
--The Redskins, Kick Over the Statues

That is a disappointing outcome to what had been a very very good stage win.

In fact, it was one of the more exciting stage wins of this years
Tour de France.

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it" - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

it's funny how they flipped the script on these internal controls.. teams always did them, so they'd know exactly when to tell riders when to get "sick" and take a trip somewhere. now the exact same controls that were used to ensure doped riders don't get caught are somehow proof that they are not doping. what a joke. don't get it twisted these control are what they always were insurance that your riders are doping properly.. not that they are not doping.

I can remember reading the details from the Tyler Hamilton case where his team got so pissed off by receive letters from WADA saying that their numbers were X when they thought they were X that they went out and bought the exact same machine as the lab so they would get the exact same values. Tyler was slicing it pretty thin though.. hematocrit 49.7 when the limit is 50.. so those decimal meant a lot to him. his hematocrit was around 37 in off season.. that's kinda weird eh? lol..

We can be sorry for Casar who deserved an other stage win.

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6 +2 (according Ashenden) samples with EPO should have banned Lance Armstrong to start next TDF !

Hamilton folly was in putting so much confidence in his own team's monitoring of his doping program. They had the balls to ignore multiple warnings to cut out the sh!t, and then he got popped for the transfusion after he screwed up his own blood supply and needed a new source.

It's one big, doping circus, and no one at the top is serious about fixing the issue. I say that we just let everyone dope out in the open.

LOL. I gotta borrow that (fully credited of course).

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I've defended Contador but I'm starting to be a little more suspicious of him. One of the main reasons Lance came back to the sport, in my view, was that he thought that the doping controls were so tight he could still win in a fair fight. So his remarks about Contador producing numbers that he never did, on the Swiss climb, after that stage, seem a rather coded attack. I think Armstrong may have a point.

Agreed, I enjoyed his performance this year.

If this result is for a test in June, I expect more Tour de France riders will be fingered before Autumn.

Very disappointing...

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Rebellion with no point or purpose is worse than conformity.