merlinextraligh

I mean the comments to which I responded which indicate a belief that this is likely the result of food posioning are extremely naive.

marcosbullock

Food contamination? Personally, I've never seen a person grab an Albuterol brownie in the middle of an asthmatic episode.

Oh yeah and ...

Mr IGH

As if most of the pro cycling field isn't doping. I'm embarassed to have paticipated in this sport. I raced Juniors 77-79, was at the OTC Christmas of 78 with all the top Juniors. Look at the differences in times between 78 and 79 25 mile Jr TT Nationals. It's clear to me that doping was going on then.

Tell me how Floyd's a liar and Lance is Snow White, I need a fairy tale...Oh, yeah, Andy and Greg were clean too...sure, where's the tooth fairy?

Devil

Very weird: https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-...-investigation

From the UCI: “The concentration found by the laboratory was estimated at 50 picograms (or 0.00000000005 grams per ml) which is 400 time less than what the antidoping laboratories accredited by WADA must be able to detect.”

Hezz

Levels this low could have been gotten anywhere. There are toxic chemicals and drugs in all waters and places of the world in much higher concentrations than this. In all likelihood, levels this low would probably not be from intentional ingestion. There is a point where you cannot separate unnatural substances in the body out of the noise of pollution in the world. And in the modern world everyone's body is full of pollution.

Quel

And from Lance's Twitter on August 24th.
Man, that guy holds a grudge and doesn't forgive/forget. I can't believe he held it in and just posted some cryptic message on twiter.
:

StanSeven

I think it's because the presense of clenbuterol is related to other substances

daytonian

Somewhere in Europe Andy Schleck is saying "WTF" is a picogram

daytonian

Wasn't that in response to Floyd filing "whistle blower lawsuit" against Lance?

HardyWeinberg

No he knows metric

rffffffff

I just HATE when clenbuteral gets in my food. This one time, I even had testosterone drip right off a sweaty guy into my diet coke and I got a positive test that way too. One other time, I got **** on by a super fast pigeon and they nailed me for epo. Like I would ever take that stuff! I swear, it was the pigeon.

retrofit

And this:

Hezz

Malloric

Apparently it's also used as a weight loss drug in the 50-200 mcg dosage range. So the detected amount was pretty low; 50 nanograms/liter and say 5 liters of blood means 250 nanograms ~ 1/2000th of a dose. Of course that could mean nothing depending on where in the body it accumulates and how long it remains. Contador could have been using it to cut weight leading up to the tour figuring that by the time he would be tested it would be long gone from his system. And then to his surprise the test was able to detect it in a concentration 1/400th of the standard.

LOL @ Lance's twitter. How did you even remember that?

OrionKhan

Can't say I'm surprised, upset, or disappointed. Frankly, I just don't care anymore. I've become de-sensitized to being upset about athletes getting busted for anything. I'm just moving on to the next race.

Quel

Saw it on another site (Slowtwitch). Though I find it hard to believe Lance could keep his big mouth shut on the topic for an entire month considering their feud. May just be a coincidence.

aham23

its crazy that LA never got busted. he will take it to his grave, but man o man what a story he could tell about his lies and deceptions and doping. carry on. later.

TechKnowGN

I do not buy the food contamination, but here's how it COULD easily have happened:

Outside of the USA, Clenbutoral is used to increase the lean meat yield in some animals. It's rest day, the team cook is shopping at some local market that sells "organic, supplement free meat". Some farmer, trying to make ends meet, has his vet treat all his animals, not just the ones going to regular stores, in order to get more out of the years slaughter. The amounts used are enough to make a difference, but not enough to be detected by the stores testing (if there even is any) before they slap the "hormone free" label on.

Could be completely easy to see how it would happen, but I dont buy it. He was microdosing, because he knew he had a fight on his hand with a younger stronger rider.

OrionKhan

I've always thought it was interesting the number of riders that tested positive after leaving Johan Bruyneel run teams. But I don't recall any testing positive while on the team.

Hezz

The odd thing is that if this were the case you would expect all of his samples taken during the tour to have tested positive, I'm not an expert but I'm thinking that a dose this small could have been breathed second hand. If you were standing next to a friend or family member who used his/her inhaler several times and got a small smell of it. It could be enough to show up at this level. Does this drug work as a masking agent at this level for other drugs.

This substance is also a common contaminant in supplements. From Cycling news:

Cyclingnews spoke with expert Dr. Don Catlin of Anti-Doping Research, Inc. to find out.

"Without knowing what the level [of clenbuterol] in his sample is, it's impossible to say," Catlin said. His laboratory works with supplement makers to detect drug contaminants, and Catlin said that clenbuterol is one of the more common contaminats found in supplements.

Hezz

In my opinion, that's because Johan and Lance are the best there are at doping. They also have left no stone unturned in maximizing performance and being careful. In this regards, Lance and Johan have no peers.

OrionKhan

Yes, its very strange that such a small dose would have been detected in the middle of the race. But I'm not an expert on testing by any means, it just seems odd. But this wouldn't be the first odd looking positive test out there.

Yes. Clearly the best doctors in the business.

Hezz

It is certain that this is not an ordinary cut and dry doping violation. Look how long it took UCI and WADA to decide to announce the finding as positive. Even WADA and UCI claim that the investigation is ongoing because the levels are so low that accidental ingestion cannot be ruled out.

mcoomer

OK...if it's a positive test that occurred during the TdF then does he get the Landis treatment? Is he the 3-time TdF champion with an asterisk beside his name?

bellweatherman

No. I think the organizers would outright strip him of the title and give it to Schlek than mess around with asteriks.