Rebellin in trouble

Diarmuid

Hardly a surprise:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2009-04-28-3171542760_x.htm

Junior

Two cyclists have been named in new doping positives which have come out of retroactive testing of samples from last year's Beijing Games. The Associated Press reported that two cyclists, three track and field athletes and one weightlifter are the six Olympians who the International Olympic Committee announced Tuesday tested positive for the EPO variant CERA.

La Gazzetta dello Sport has reported that one of the positive cyclists is Davide Rebellin, who took second in the road race in Beijing.The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has confirmed only that one of the athletes is from Italy, but has not given a name.

AP reports also that two of the six were medalists, one in cycling, the other a gold-medal winning track and field athlete.The IOC began performing retroactive testing on the Beijing Olympic Game samples in January using a newly developed test for the recently introduced EPO drug Mircera. Several riders tested positive for the same drug during the 2008 Tour de France.

Seven samples of 847 total tested from the Olympic Games turned up positive for CERA. Two of the positives were from the same athlete.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/apr09/apr29news

Dura Ace

It's especially disappointing that the news is coming out so late, as Rebellin wouldn't have featured in the Ardennes races if he had been banned earlier.

ba

so did the Newspaper name Rebellin or the Italian Anti-Doping committee? all i'm saying is newspapers say a lot of things.

Diarmuid

Dura Ace wrote: »

It's especially disappointing that the news is coming out so late, as Rebellin wouldn't have featured in the Ardennes races if he had been banned earlier.

I guess but does it make a difference? It's not like he wasn't suspect for years

so did the Newspaper name Rebellin or the Italian Anti-Doping committee? all i'm saying is newspapers say a lot of things.

Probably a leak (from CONI to La Gazetto) but from the sounds of it, it's all but confirmed.

Chips Lovell

Not a surprise, given Oil for Drugs, but they took their time about it.

Junior

ba wrote: »

so did the Newspaper name Rebellin or the Italian Anti-Doping committee? all i'm saying is newspapers say a lot of things.

Newspaper named him..

TinyExplosions

Gotta love the American papers:

The 37-year-old Rebellin, who took second in the Olympic road race, also won the Walloon Arrow cycling classic in Belgium for the third time last week.

Are they trying to prove they have a translator over there, or just to stubborn to keep it as Fleche Wallone?

Oh, and what's the bet that one of the medalling Track and Field athletes was Usain Bolt....

Raam

So yet another season of the same old stories.
Reminds me of a quote from David Millar when Beltran tested positive...

"It makes me f***ing pissed off that anyone's surprised we've had a positive test," said a fizzing Millar.

"We've been decades to get to this point, and if anybody's naive and foolish enough to think that we're never going to have a positive control again then you may as well go home and not cover this race. The media has a responsibility to understand that this is no way going to be the last positive test we're going to have; it's going to go on for years.

"That's professional sport -- as long as there are doping controls, there will be positives."

I'm not saying that anyone here is surprised by this news, just that it all seems so... inevitable

Junior

It also seems sh*tty that of the 7, only the cyclist is named, and it's taken 8 months on to have the result released. Plus there's the fact the B sample hasn't been tested.

Now I'm not adovcating drugs, but Cycling just keeps getting kicked over this stuff time and time again. And Newspapers seem to take glee in leaking reports about this sort of stuff before due process has been completed.

Chips Lovell

Most dope tests in cycling (and in a lot of other sports) leak to the press before the B sample is tested.

Cycling isn't getting kicked around. It's kicking itself around.

scottreynolds

el tonto wrote: »

Most dope tests in cycling (and in a lot of other sports) leak to the press before the B sample is tested.

Cycling isn't getting kicked around. It's kicking itself around.

From the report each National olympic committee was notified so I presume they were the leak.

RobFowl

Give him the benefit of the doubt until he admits it or the B test is also positive



Then crucify him !

smithslist

Its said that "two cyclists, three track and field athletes and one weightlifter are the six Olympians tested positive for the EPO variant CERA."

according to CN:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/apr09/apr29news

TinyExplosions

When I first read this thread I got as far as "three track", and my heart sank thinking Hoy or someone had been a silly billy... was mighty glad to see the ".. and field"!

Diarmuid

el tonto wrote: »

Cycling isn't getting kicked around. It's kicking itself around.

Exactly: (this was linked on BikeRadar but it's worth highlighting)
"From the UCI's point of view, we prefer to look forward rather than look backward," McQuaid said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday. "To randomly say 'OK, let's take all the samples from 2007 from the Tour de France and put them all through testing processes' ... it's futile, it's expensive and it's not going to serve the purpose in the anti-doping fight of today. If we're going to start rejigging the podium of every major international race over the past two or three years, by finding new tests for new products, and going back to the organizer and saying 'you've got to rejig your podium' .. it makes a complete mockery of sport."
Pat McQuaid

The sooner he gets the bullet the better for cycling

Chips Lovell

As if having known dopers on the podium makes any less of a mockery of the sport. The decision not to retest last year's Giro samples when it was obvious to anyone with eyes in their head that CERA was being used there was a disgrace.

TinyExplosions

el tonto wrote: »

As if having known dopers on the podium makes any less of a mockery of the sport. The decision not to retest last year's Giro samples when it was obvious to anyone with eyes in their head that CERA was being used there was a disgrace.

While I agree with the annoyance of re-jigging the podium with retrospective tests, I still think that it's a good idea. The IOC's view of "we keep your samples for 8 years, and will examine them as and when new tests come out" is a great idea, as it might make you think twice about trying the new "undetectable" variant of whatever your particular poison is.

The only way to cut down on drug cheats is to keep testing and keep implementing bans for failed tests

Hermy

TinyExplosions wrote: »

The only way to cut down on drug cheats is to keep testing and keep implementing bans for failed tests

Spot on!

Chips Lovell

Quelle surprise. Schumacher is the second positive.

Given that he's consistantly denied doping, he's going to have a hard time explaining why he keeps testing positive.

Chips Lovell

TinyExplosions wrote: »

While I agree with the annoyance of re-jigging the podium with retrospective tests, I still think that it's a good idea. The IOC's view of "we keep your samples for 8 years, and will examine them as and when new tests come out" is a great idea, as it might make you think twice about trying the new "undetectable" variant of whatever your particular poison is.

The only way to cut down on drug cheats is to keep testing and keep implementing bans for failed tests

Yep, the threat of not only testing positive at the event, but maybe being caught several years down the line may deter some people.

If Rebellin is suspended, I guarantee you he won't give much of a toss. Sure he'll lose his Olympic medal, but he was probably going to retire at the end of this season or next anyway and none of his career earnings and other wins will really be affected by this.

Caroline_ie

el tonto wrote: »

If Rebellin is suspended, I guarantee you he won't give much of a toss. Sure he'll lose his Olympic medal, but he was probably going to retire at the end of this season or next anyway and none of his career earnings and other wins will really be affected by this.

Mmm who else is retiring at the end of the season ...? :pac:

RobFowl

Caroline_ie wrote: »

Mmm who else is retiring at the end of the season ...? :pac:

Hope Gilberto Simoni doesn't eat any more of his aunts cough sweets

Chips Lovell

RobFowl wrote: »

Hope Gilberto Simoni doesn't eat any more of his aunts cough sweets

God bless me, but I actually believe Simoni on that one.

TinyExplosions

Caroline_ie wrote: »

Mmm who else is retiring at the end of the season ...? :pac:

Better stay away from the steroid cream... and maybe not shower for a while

Raam

el tonto wrote: »

God bless me, but I actually believe Simoni on that one.

what's that one all about?

TinyExplosions

Raam wrote: »

what's that one all about?

The Saeco rider was suspended from the Giro d'Italia and his Saeco team thrown out of the Tour de France after he twice tested positive for cocaine earlier this year.

But he was eventually cleared of doping by the Italian Cycling Federation, who accepted his explanations - a dentists injection and contaminated cough sweets.

Chips Lovell

Raam wrote: »

what's that one all about?

He was kicked out of the 2002 Giro after testing positive for cocaine. His explanation was that there must have been traces of it in sweets his aunt brought back from Peru. The sweets were tested and found to contain cocaine. I believed him because of that and the fact that no one would take coke as a PED.

TinyExplosions

el tonto wrote: »

He was kicked out of the 2002 Giro after testing positive for cocaine. His explanation was that there must have been traces of it in sweets his aunt brought back from Peru. The sweets were tested and found to contain cocaine. I believed him because of that and the fact that no one would take coke as a PED.

Apart from Boonen.... oh no, wait, that was for party time

Chips Lovell

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Apart from Boonen.... oh no, wait, that was for party time

Tom getting ready for party time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYGyhe3OBik