Big surprise: AMGEN Tour of California didn't test for EPO last year



Status
Not open for further replies.

tcklyde

New Member
Dec 17, 2003
1,437
0
0
47
Stop the presses and someone stick a valium hypodermic in FF's tuschy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/sports/othersports/17cycling.html

And now, organizers of the Tour of California, who boasted after last year’s race that no riders tested positive for banned substances, have acknowledged that riders were not tested for what has become the sport’s most abused drug — the blood booster known as EPO.

That failure is more surprising because the lead sponsor of the Tour of California is Amgen, the California biotechnology company that produces the genetically engineered version of EPO, which is sold primarily to help cancer and dialysis patients battle anemia.
 
No EPO tests in 2006 Tour of California
By Susan Westemeyer & Tim Maloney

Riders were not tested for performance-enhancing EPO last year at the Tour of California - a race whose main sponsor is Amgen, a company which manufactures the drug used in cancer treatment. And that did not make the company happy.

"Our understanding going into the race was that the test would be included," Amgen spokeswoman Mary Klem told the New York Times. "And we were told afterwards that no rider tested positive for EPO or for any banned substance." According to the newspaper, company executives were angry and surprised when they heard that EPO testing was not actually carried out.

"We made it clear that if Amgen was going to continue as sponsor of the race, it needed to be a clean race and EPO had to be tested for," Klem said. "If somebody's using EPO in this race, we want to know about it. At least we know going into this year's race that we will."

This year, EPO testing will be part of the anti-doping measures conducted at the race. Amgen chose to sponsor the race as a way to educate the public against improper use of its drug, which is sold primarily to help cancer and dialysis patients fight anaemia.

The process for including EPO testing involves several parties. If Amgen had wanted to have EPO testing included in the standard medical control protocol at the 2006 Tour of California, they would have asked event owner AEG, who would then have asked their event technical contractor Medalist Sports to request this of USA Cycling. Medalist Sports organizes other pro races like the Tour de Georgia and US Championship races.

Once USA Cycling received the request, they would have asked the UCI to include the race's medical control protocol as an addition to standard protocol. The UCI then would have assigned a certified medical official to manage the on-site race medical control protocol process for the EPO testing.

AEG spokesman Michael Roth told the NY Times that "AEG did not know that EPO was not part of the standard test" in 2006, but that the company asked for it to be included this year's Tour of California.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/feb07/feb18news
 
Flyer's.Finale! said:
Too funny. But another red herring.

Especially---when the EPO tests seldon detects araNeso when daily micro dosing ois the Gold standard now.

EPO testing is a joke.

They all inject EPO daily and yet NEVER get caught.
Nor did the EPO TOC test for ANY doping products.

JJ Haedo went from his victory launches, towel off, to podium, to his car and directly to his CSC hotel.

No DOPE CONTROL, no tests, no pissing, no false positives.

CSC, Discovery and EPO/Amgen all wanted it that way!

Levi too!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

T
Replies
6
Views
639
J