Now you know...

**TNT1** · July 25th, 2007, 01:36 AM

... why this particular forum is not so active anymore.....

The Tour de France was rocked by news that Astana's battered team leader, Alexandre Vinokourov, tested positive for a homologous blood transfusion after Saturday's time trial in Albi. L'Equipe reported on Tuesday afternoon that the Kazakh's blood had shown evidence of a transfusion from another person with a compatible blood type in an analysis done in the Châtenay-Malabry laboratory. The positive test was later confirmed by the Astana team.

We're kinda embarrassed to be called cyclists...

**PythonPower** · July 25th, 2007, 01:55 AM

huh? so...blood transfusioin is bad?

**wildstang** · July 25th, 2007, 02:20 AM

kinda curious as to were your going with this blood transfusion........does that in some way help him?

**JoeBAR** · July 25th, 2007, 05:48 AM

From BBC website:

What is it?
Administration of red blood cells to increase the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity

How is it done?
Injection with someone else's red blood cells; removing own blood, storing it and returning it once body has replaced it

Why do it?
The better the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity, the greater one's endurance

Side effects:
Blood clots, overload of circulatory system, kidney damage, transmission of infectious diseases such as HIV

Chances of being caught:
Test can only detect it if the blood comes from a donor

**pliny_2001** · July 25th, 2007, 09:57 AM

It started in East Germany in the 1960/70's, when athletes would simply have extra blood added, though this ended up being a bad idea when the extra blood volume, and attendant elevated blood pressures, ended up causing a number of strokes in the athetes.

The next variation was harvesting out red blood cells - all the benefits of extra oxygen capacity without the stroke downside. It's not that hard to test for, though - if you use your own blood (take it out a few months in advance, filter and freeze it, wait for your own body to replenish it's supply, and then transfuse the frozen blood), the chemicals added to keep the frozen blood cells viable are very easy to find in a blood test. So people would just use a transfusion of recently removed blood from a compatible donor.

The best solution was EPO, a drug originally developed for cancer patients. EPO tells your body to produce more of it's own red blood cells, and - until a few years ago - there was no anti-doping test for it. Now, though, it can be detected in fresh blood/urine samples, so riders can't use it and have instead - apparently - gone back to the compatible donor technique.

And it's disgusting. Assuming that the laboratories are being honest (a big assumption, once you see how bad their protocols are) you're left with seeing a sport that seems to be trying to clean itself up, but is so thoroughly riddled with cheaters that it may be impossible.

**wildstang** · July 25th, 2007, 03:23 PM

i had a feeling it was something along that line.....but wasn't gonna jump to any conclusions without researching it. but thats what our top dogs are there for....quite knowledgable. keep it up.

gg3 · July 25th, 2007, 06:56 PM

Good info blood doping is scary and requires doctors but they took thier EPO away so they went old school LOL.

By the way TNT if you think other sports don't have the same problem with drugs you are sadly mistaken. Cycling is the only sport trying to clean itself up. (Not going to happen in any pro sport if you ask me) The testing that is done in the big 3 (Football, Basketball, Baseball) is a joke. A huge percentage of them take it. That's why the speeds keep increasing and records keep getting shattered.

Before you start trashing a sport know your facts and start trashing all the rest because a massive amount of them do take it. So don't give us that "holier than thou" stuff.

Personally I think that's the way the game is played and drugs are needed to get to that level in any sport. So you have 2 choices play the game and win or not and get beat by all the guys who do take drugs. I don't think people should be so hard on these guys if they aren't going to REALLY stop everyone. The fans get what they want and so do the owners.

Either they implement real doping controls or not. One week to 24 hour notice in the big 3 is of a test is not even worth doing. With the right tools all you need is 8 hours to flush or mask.

So go ahead and keep thinking it's just cycling and have fun watching Hank's record get broken. The ball should fetch a mint on eBay.

jorcaryvan · July 25th, 2007, 07:09 PM

Rasmussen kicked out of the Tour for lying about some random tests. The winner of today's stage and overall first place. You couldn't make it up.

**Brock Samson** · July 27th, 2007, 08:41 PM

This has been a very exciting/dissapointing tour. Bittersweet to say the least. Maybe Cadel Evans can pull off an amazing TT tomorrow and put an Aussie on the top of the podium on sunday for the first time. Sure Wangle it would love that!!!

**TNT1** · July 31st, 2007, 03:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gg3

By the way TNT if you think other sports don't have the same problem with drugs you are sadly mistaken. Cycling is the only sport trying to clean itself up. (Not going to happen in any pro sport if you ask me) The testing that is done in the big 3 (Football, Basketball, Baseball) is a joke. A huge percentage of them take it. That's why the speeds keep increasing and records keep getting shattered.

Before you start trashing a sport know your facts and start trashing all the rest because a massive amount of them do take it. So don't give us that "holier than thou" stuff.

.....

So go ahead and keep thinking it's just cycling and have fun watching Hank's record get broken. The ball should fetch a mint on eBay.

Ok, first of all, I don't think that cycling is the only sport to have these issues to contend with. As Christian Prudhomme (TDF Director) said, and I mis-quote (but you get the idea), " if people played tiddlywinks professionally, with money and medals at stake for the win, they would be taking dope too".

I wasn't starting this thread to "trash" the sport. I have been riding a bike for the last 18 years, and for more than half of that made my living on the bike. So I guess that I am just frustrated at what is happening so publicly to a sport that I love and that has given me so much.

I think that attempting to clean the sport up is noble, but doomed, and all this public airing of the dirty laundry makes me feel personally degraded as a cyclist.