News for June 6, 1997

New Tests Taking Effect

Some riders, hoping to emulate one of the great champions, took the maxim to the extreme, giving the sport its present drug-tarnished image.

Now at last the world's toughest endurance sport may be changing.

Doctors say blood tests, recently introduced into professional cycling at the riders' own request to clean a drug-tarnished image in sport, are already succeeding in driving out the dope cheats.

Eight riders have failed random tests this year, including four thrown out of the Giro d'Italia last week, and there are signs that use of the banned drug erythropoietin, or EPO, is waning.

``I am convinced that (the testing)...has been effective in substantially reducing the use of EPO,'' Giovanni Tredici, the Giro's course doctor, said when the Italian tour swept into the northwestern Italian town of Cuneo.

``I don't think it's been wiped out totally...but (testing) has clamped down on an ugly practice that was there.''

While the International Cycling Union (UCI) takes great pains to point out that the blood test is not an EPO test and that riders who fail are not automatically cheats, suspicions lingers.

EPO occurs naturally in the body and no test at present can pinpoint artificial use.

A shot-in-the-arm that mimics the beneficial effects of altitude training by boosting the red blood cells transporting oxygen around the body, EPO is considered one of the most dangerous drugs in sport and may have killed some athletes.

Riders whose blood has an oxygen-carrying capacity of above 50 percent are deemed unfit to race and are automatically suspended on health grounds because of the risk of clots or heart, brain and kidney damage caused by thickened blood.

Kross-Montanari team director Gianni Savio said hie squad had been decimated by the suspension of three riders from the Giro on May 28, but added his conscience was clean and he was sure his riders were not doped.

``I don't feel a sense of injustice, even if it has been against my interest,'' he said before his team, down to just four men after another rider retired, prepared for the first mountain stage.

``I am absolutely in favour of testing, and against all doping, even if I have had three riders kicked out...I don't think my riders could have been so mad as to have resorted to 'alchemy'...that would be suicide, crazy,'' he said.

Savio said his riders, Vladimir Poulnikov of the Ukraine and Italians Marco Gili and Roberto Moretti, had all tested only slightly over the 50 percent limit in the UCI control, but independent tests some hours later showed readings of below 50.

Riders, who lobbied for tough blood tests after concerns that drug abuse by some had given them all a bad name, forfeit their right to appeal or sue for loss of earnings if they fail the test, even if they have never touched a banned substance.

``We want to do everything we can to improve this sport but obviously it's upsetting if some people have to pay the price without being guilty,'' said Massimo Testa, who was the Motorola squad's team doctor until last year.

``I'm absolutely certain that the use of substances is on the wane,'' said Testa, who now represents team doctors on the UCI's safety commission. ``I'm seeing a truer cycling.''

Doctors concede the oxygen-carrying capacity level can shoot up if a rider is badly dehydrated, ill or out of condition, meaning that someone with a natural level in the high 40s has little leeway.

Testa said the Kross riders and Frenchman Thierry Laurent of Festina, who also failed, were tested after a rest day in the Giro, which could have contributed to a higher reading.

Italian cyclists led the drive for blood testing in their sport and it was riders themselves who insisted on a stricter limit of 50 percent, compared with the UCI's initial recommendation of 53 percent.

The normal level for most athletes is around 43-45 percent.

Other riders to fail blood tests this season are Italy's Claudio Chiappucci, Mauro Santaromita, Luca Colombo and Frenchman Erwan Mentheour.

Even though a banned rider is not officially accused of doping, his licence is still suspended for 15 days. ``He suffers the consequences, and he loses his image,'' Savio said.

Despite the problems -- Testa said readings can vary if different machines are used or if samples are taken at different times -- there is no alternative to blood testing for now.

The International Olympic Committee wants to develop a legally-binding urine test that distinguishes between internally-produced and artificial EPO.

The head of its medical commission, Prince Alexandre De Merode said in Rome last week, however, that it was still too early to say when a satisfactory test would be available.

But he said the UCI tests were a useful deterrent.

``There's no doubt that the tests used up to now have had results because performance is going down,'' De Merode said.