Another CERA positive: Kohl
Bernhard Kohl, of Gerolsteiner, was one of the breakthrough riders at the Tour de France, finishing as the King of the Mountains and standing with yellow jersey winner Carlos Sastre and Cadel Evans on the podium in Paris.
Now, he stands with Stefan Schumacher, Ricardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli as cyclists to come up positive in testing for the third generation of EPO — CERA
The French anti-doping agency announced the positive after conducting a test on Kohl’s blood samples from the Tour.
As a result, the Gerolsteiner team, which was folding after the season for lack of sponsorship, is going out of business immediately, and Kohl’s contract for next season with Silence-Lotto likely will be terminated if subsequent tests come up positive as well.
In total, that’s seven positives from the 2008 TdF — the four CERA boys, plus Manuel Beltran (EPO), Moises Duenas Nevado (EPO) and Dmitriy Fofonov (inadvertent stimulant).
On one hand, I applaud the labs for catching the drug cheats, but on the other, I’d feel a whole lot better if the anti-doping testing and protocols were subject to independent peer review. See, I’m still one who thinks Floyd Landis got Richard Kimbled, and it bugs me that Ricco had a total of four positives — two urine, two blood — when in fact, all his samples from the TdF should have been positive, which they didn’t, as he pointed out.
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It’s a shame that Gerolsteiner had to go out this way. Good thing they were caught though. If only American sports would follow the same drug testing requirements.
What I wonder is whether ASO intentionally withheld these recently-announced four positive tests back in July because it would have cause a disaster at the Tour. Ricco’s high-profile ejection was the low point. I understand now how the drug testers are much more aggressive and credit to the medical companies for creating markers to clearly ID doping cheats. But it amazes me how there is no rhyme or reason to how heavy or light the doping violation sentences are from the cyclists’ own national federations.
It has unfortunately become very difficult to take any incredible performance in pro cycling to be clean and true. And when you have more former champs admitting they too doped, it just further tarnishes the sport.
I agree about the peer-reviewing. I am very skeptical of “scientific testing” which cannot be independently confirmed. I almost feel like an industry of anti-doping has cropped up around cycling in particular, which relies on positive tests to remain relevant and profitable. I’m not saying that people aren’t cheating, but I honestly have no idea who to believe when a rider is “caught” - the scientists utilizing secretive and unproven tests or the rider adamantly protesting his innocence but performing suspiciously (e.g., Schumacher’s time trialing in the TdF). You have riders like Tyler Hamilton claiming there is a “mafia” among the administrators of pro cycling, and I admit that I half believe him when they suddenly pull out positive tests from a never-before-used testing procedure, or worse utilize tests that require subjective analysis of results. Instead of clearing the air of the proverbial cloud of doping, the lack of independent peer review of the testing procedure allows it to linger indefinitely.