Van Dooren retires after EPO positive <br />Dutch mountain biker Bas van Dooren has put an end to his career, following a positive test for EPO at the World Mountain Bike Championships in Kaprun in August. Although he could theoretically resume racing after serving a one year suspension, the 29 year old has decided to end it once and for all, so to speak. <br /><br />"I must leave it at the World Championships, shot through my head," he said in an interview with Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. "There a top performance was necessary if I wanted to continue my sporting career. With a good result there would have been team managers interested in me. But I knew on the parcours in Kaprun I would come up too short. And yes of course I knew of the stories about EPO. The men who used it, flew. Maybe it would work for me also." <br /><br />Van Dooren finished 11th in the mud fest that was the men's cross country race on September 1, 10'25 behind the winner Roland Green. After that, he doubted that he would stay in mountain biking, due to the financial problems that the still young sport is wrestling with. After his year and a half contract with Specialized (January 2001-June 2002), he attempted to make it as a road rider with BankGiroLoterij, signing at the beginning of this season but quitting halfway. Nothing succeeded for him and he was already looking at retiring from cycling. <br /><br />"On the internet you can find all sorts of information," he told AD. "Doctors prescriptions? Well in Germany you can get them easily from a chemist. And Germany is close by. I read several articles that the drug can only be traced between three and five days after an injection. The Bo Hamburger affair reminded me that he eventually got away free. I thought then that I could get away with it too. I gambled." <br /><br />Van Dooren said that he bought some EPO for 400 euros, and injected it on August 26, six days before the race on Sunday. "However the inspectors were at my door on Friday. I gambled and lost." <br /><br />Van Dooren's hematocrit was measured at 50 percent on that day, enough to make the UCI suspicious. They returned the next day and asked him to submit a urine sample, five days after Van Dooren had injected EPO. The results of his A sample were known on September 20. "Of course they were positive," said Van Dooren. <br /><br />On October 17, the Dutch Olympic Committee and Dutch Sports Federation (NOC*NSF) issued a report stating that Van Dooren had resorted to the use of EPO out of desperation, and voted to ban him for a year starting February 1, 2003, as well as handing him a SF 2000 fine. However, Van Dooren knew that it was over by then. "I had little interest in the penalty, because I had already decided to stop," he said. <br /><br />Van Dooren finished by criticising the KNWU (Dutch Federation) for using him as an example to show how hard it treats dopers. "Riders from Festina who talked a lot after using EPO walked away with sentences of six or a few more months. In fact I will have to stand on the sidelines for 15 months because the KNWU doesn't count winter periods. That means that I can ride all types of cyclo-cross races. Perhaps I'll do that, to show how negligently the KNWU deals with such affairs!" <br /><br />"I felt as though the federation wanted to prevent me from winning the Olympics in Athens. No, they have nothing to fear. I'm busy in a job as a representative. They won't see me again in mountain bike races." <br />
