Torri suggests doping is rife in cycling
By: Stephen FarrandPublished: October 6, 10:51, Updated: October 6, 11:13
CONI prosecutor Ettore Torri delivers decision on Alejandro Valverde next week
Italian anti-doping prosecutor calls on Contador to prove his innocence
The Italian anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri has sparked controversy by claiming that doping is widespread in cycling and unlikely to ever be eradicated.
In an interview with the Associated Press news agency, Torri also suggested doping should be legalised if it didn’t harm the health of athletes. He also said that Alberto Contador can’t just blame his Clenbuterol positive on a contaminated steak but needs to prove it.
78-year-old Torri is the former head of the Rome public prosecutor’s office and has been in charge of investigating doping in sport since 2006. His investigations led to doping bans for Danilo Di Luca, Alessandro Petacchi, Riccardo Riccò and many others.
“The longer I’m involved in this the more I marvel at how widespread doping is,” Torri said. “And I don’t think it will be eradicated. Because it just evolves continuously. There are new substances coming out that can’t be tested for,” Torri told AP.
“I’m not the only one saying it.”
Torri suggested legalising doping as a possible solution to the problem if that didn’t harm the health of cyclists. He made the suggestion because only a small number of athletes are ever caught.
“It’s not fair when we single out one rider in a 100,” he said. “If the other 99 have doped too but are not prosecuted, it’s not fair.”
“As long as doping is a viable economic option it’s always going to exist. It needs to be made so that it’s no longer worth it economically.”
“Anti-doping is always behind the dopers. For example, anyone who used AICAR (a new performance boosting drug) until yesterday got off,” he said. “Every time we develop a test we’ve already lost 50 percent of those who have doped with a substance.”
“There are always ways to use micro dosages that are not discovered in tests. These trainers are really good at their jobs and they’re able to prescribe just enough of the drug that it remains under the banned levels.”
The first to attack the Spanish system, Torri was instrumental in using police evidence from Operacion Puerto to pursue riders and his investigative work, secondary testing and questioning lead to Alejandro Valverde and Ivan Basso being banned.
He is not directly involved in the Contador Clenbuterol case but Torri said the Italian Olympic Committee investigator's office “was the first to attack the Spanish system, which was an invulnerable tower.”
“He can blame it on a fillet he ate but that’s not enough,” Torri said of Contador “He needs to prove it.”
Torri is currently working with eight Italian police districts that are investigating doping cases and according to Gazzetta dello Sport, has recently been contacted by police about a ninth and much bigger investigation.
Torri also had some blunt words for Riccardo Riccò after 50 unidentified tablets were found in his home during a recent police search. Riccò has claimed the tablets were common use medicine and had nothing to do with doping. Italian police are still analysing the tablets.
Riccò came under suspicion again after the arrest of Enrico Rossi, a former teammate and the brother of his partner Last week the Italian Olympic Committee also banned Elisa Basso, the sister of Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso and the partner of former rider Eddy Mazzoleni, for four years for trafficking banned substances.
“It’s called family doping,” Torri said. “It’s unbelievable.”OK, there have been few cyclist that have broken the "omerta" (code of silence), but Bernard Kohl did, fairly recently, thereby confirming what has been suspected and rarely confessed...don't kid yourself to think this is not the standard protocol...
Kohl tells all about doping
By: Hedwig KrönerPublished: June 9, 2009, 13:24, Updated: June 13, 2009, 12:55
Former Tour de France podium finisher blasts the 'omerta'
Former Gerolsteiner rider and Tour de France podium finisher Bernhard Kohl is now an open book on doping practices in the peloton after he was caught for blood booster EPO-CERA in August last year and recently announced his retirement from the sport. In an exclusive interview with L'Equipe, the Austrian detailed how he "prepared" himself for last year's Tour and received blood transfusions from his manager during the event.
As he had already confessed earlier, Kohl had two litres of his own blood available for re-injection at the Tour, of which he used 1.5 litres. "Nothing else," he said. "Too many surprise controls. No testosterone patch, nothing, except caffeine, pseudo-ephedrine and some analgesics. EPO, growth hormone, insulin - I took that before [the Tour], not during the race."
The blood transfusions took place in the evenings at the team hotels. Kohl's manager, Stefan Matschiner, flew to France three times during the Tour to meet the cyclist and provide him with a pouch of 0.5 litres of blood. "He sent me an SMS: 'You can come to my room'. I disappeared for 20 minutes, nothing more. Nobody noticed anything," Kohl stated.
The rider continued by saying that the anti-doping controls taking place at 7AM on the mountain stages could be outsmarted. "By re-injecting half a litre of blood, the blood parameters are not subject to suspect variation. My manager also injected me with albumin to dilute my hematocrit. Moreover, I always practiced the transfusions 48 hours before the decisive stages: you're not at the top on the next day, you have to wait two days for the effects to be felt."
...and, the obvious...
Kohl: Not possible to win Tour de France without doping
By: Cycling NewsPublished: October 5, 14:35, Updated: October 5, 14:51Edition:First Edition Cycling News, Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Bernhard Kohl at his anti-doping hearing in 2009.
Suspended Austrian speaks at USADA science symposium - Bernhard Kohl has said that it is not possible to win the Tour de France without resorting to doping.
The Austrian appeared at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's annual science symposium on Monday in Leesburg, Va.
"People know in cycling that's it's not possible to win the Tour de France without it," Bernhard Kohl told the website FanHouse.com. "It's three weeks, 3,000 km and you climb (the equivalent of) Mount Everest four times. That's just not possible."
Kohl speaks from a position of considerable experience, having doped his way to a third-place finish in the 2008 race. He was subsequently revealed to have tested positive for CERA during the Tour and handed a two-year suspension. He has since retired from the sport.
While Kohl wouldn't directly speculate on whether Alberto Contador had used doping products or methods, he noted that the average speeds ridden at the Tour might cause one to think so.
"Floyd Landis won the Tour de France and his average speed was 40 kph," Kohl said. "This year it was Contador and it was also about 40. It was nearly the same average speed. Landis was doped. Maybe in 10 or 15 years, you can win (without drugs) if we work with the anti-doping movement."
Kohl described his personal doping schedule, and how it enabled him to pass multiple doping tests.
“I was tested 200 times during my career, and 100 times I had drugs in my body,” he said, according to the New York Times. “I was caught, but 99 other times, I wasn’t. Riders think they can get away with doping because most of the time they do. Even if there is a new test for blood doping, I’m not even sure it will scare riders into stopping. The problem is just that bad.”
"At a time when cycling is paying a very high price for its determined and constant commitment in the fight against doping, the allegations by the CONI (Italian Olympic Committee) prosecutor Ettore Torri can only spark a reaction of profound disappointment and dismay in all of those who practice and who love this sport,” the statement reads.
...as expected from the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) is blocking, running interference for the riders...attacking Torri...
McQuaid claimed the UCI has taken a lead in the fight against doping.
“The effectiveness of the action taken by the UCI to combat this real problem – which is common to all sports - has been repeatedly recognised by the most important institutions in sport, including the International Olympic Committee and World Anti-Doping Agency, who we co-operate with very closely.”
“If the complex anti-doping system in the world of sport today has reached its current levels of efficiency and reliability, it is thanks to the work done in cycling, which was the first sport to introduce a test for EPO and then the biological passport.”
The UCI President also said Torri’s accusations lacked objectivity and refuted the work of the current anti-doping measures used.
“Claiming that all cyclists dope not only launches a serious and even shameful accusation that is entirely devoid of any objective evidence but also refutes the validity of the anti-doping controls currently in force. Especially considering the painful, but absolutely transparency of the results obtained so far.”
“In recent years, the mentality and behavior of the vast majority of cyclists has undergone a profound change that everybody has been able to understand. Despite this, the problem of doping has not been completely eradicated, nor perhaps will ever be. However taking an incomprehensible and irresponsible position, without the needed objectivity and determination to fight the problem, such as Ettore Torri has done, with will not deter us from fighting, by every means and great honesty, any form of cheating in sport.”
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kohl-not-possible-to-win-tour-de-france-without-doping
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kohl-tells-all-about-doping-1
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/torri-suggests-doping-is-rife-in-cycling
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mcquaid-responds-to-torris-doping-accusations
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