The French Anti-Doping agency has completed retesting samples for the blood-booster CERA at the Tour de France, and AFLD chief Pierre Bordry said his laboratory will keep all the samples until next year’s race.
Bernhard Kohl of Austria became the fourth rider on Monday to test positive for CERA — an advanced form of EPO that increases a rider’s stamina for a long endurance race — and the seventh positive test from this year’s Tour overall.
“We are stopping the testing for EPO CERA. We consider it sufficient,” Bordry said by telephone on Tuesday. “I will keep the samples until the next Tour de France in case there are new [testing] procedures that are put into place.”
PHOTO: AP
Bordry said 38 samples in total had been retested for CERA, concerning “about 30 riders” some of whom had “more than one sample” tested.
Kohl, Stefan Schumacher of Germany and Italy’s Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli — all of whom also tested positive for CERA — had their samples tested twice, once before and once during the showcase race.
Schumacher and Ricco each won two stages — both for Schumacher in the time trials and both for Ricco in the mountains. Piepoli won his first ever Tour stage at 36, up the Hautacam pass, after Ricco had set a tremendous pace.
Bordry also said samples from last year’s edition — won by Alberto Contador of Spain — could also be re-examined, but that would be up to cycling’s governing body as it was responsible for testing on that Tour. The AFLD was solely responsible for testing at this year’s Tour, where several more riders were caught than last year.
“[The 2007 Tour samples] belong to the UCI,” Bordry said. “It depends what condition they are in, if they have been stored properly. If they have been, it’s possible [to retest them].”
Last week, the International Olympic Committee said it will retest samples from the Beijing Games to search for CERA.
“The IOC started the trend” to retest the samples from Beijing, Bordry said.
At this year’s Tour, Spain’s Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado also tested positive for EPO — an older form of CERA — while Dmitri Fofonov of Kazakhstan tested positive for a banned stimulant.
Kohl finished in third place at the Tour and also took the jersey for best climber, becoming the highest placed finisher to test positive since US rider Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 title for synthetic testosterone.
Race leader Michael Rasmussen was kicked out near the end of last year’s Tour for lying about his whereabouts when he went missing for pre-race drug tests, but he never tested positive for anything.
Kohl and Schumacher both raced for Gerolsteiner at this year’s Tour. Gerolsteiner had already announced it would withdraw from cycling sponsorship earlier this year.
Kohl had been set to join the Silence-Lotto team on a three-year deal, but the team said in a statement on Tuesday that it would take “the necessary legal steps to immediately stop the cooperation with Kohl.”
The 26-year-old Kohl risks a two-year suspension and could lose his podium spot to fourth-place Denis Menchov of Russia.
Carlos Sastre of Spain won this year’s Tour, with Australia’s Cadel Evans in second place in a close finish.
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