PARIS — Riders could face a nervous wait over the next two weeks as the French Anti-Doping Agency retests blood samples from this year’s Tour de France in a bid to catch more cyclists using the banned blood booster EPO.
More than six weeks after the doping- marred Tour ended, AFLD chief Pierre Bordry announced his lab is retesting blood samples from cyclists they suspect may have used CERA — a third-generation form of EPO — during the showcase event.
Bordry said Wednesday the testing concerns several riders who were already under scrutiny for having suspicious urine samples that hinted strongly at EPO usage. The original urine tests, carried out in a Switzerland-based laboratory, had cast a shadow of doubt over several riders but proved inconclusive.
“I have decided that we will retest — with blood testing — all those who showed up as suspicious during the urine samples,” Bordry said. “When we did the urine samples of those athletes, we had a serious suspicion that there was CERA. The laboratory could not say definitively. The same analysis will be done, but in the blood samples.”
Bordry ordered the blood samples to be sent back to France for analysis. The tests will be done at the lab that snared Floyd Landis for testosterone after the 2006 Tour.
“All the blood tests have been repatriated to France,” Bordry said, adding that testing began Monday.
Bordry declined to name the cyclists concerned, adding that the AFLD must first inform the riders if they are positive before making any news official.
However, Bordry said the testing will take “10 days, 15 days maximum.”
That makes it possible that a rider could be informed during the UCI world championships in Varese, Italy, starting Tuesday and ending Sept. 28.
Italian rider Riccardo Ricco already tested positive for CERA during the Tour.
Contador leads Vuelta
VALLADOLID, Spain — Alberto Contador of Spain maintained the overall lead at the Spanish Vuelta and Wouter Weylandt won the 17th stage.
Contador, aiming to complete a sweep of the three major cycling crowns after winning the 2007 Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia this year, leads with an overall time of 69 hours, 53 minutes, 52 seconds.
Weylandt, of QuickStep, won the 92.1-mile leg from Zamora in 3:18:48.
Contador placed 42nd in the same time as Weylandt to keep his 1:17 advantage over Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer. Reigning Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre of Team CSC remained 3:41 behind the leader in third. The race ends Sunday in Madrid.
The Associated Press
