Professional Cycling For the Fans - What is with all the headline grabbing and smearing?

I see that someone else has already posted a thread about FS "positive" for a diuretic that isn't even on the banned substance list (according to what I have read). This is another in a line of arrests and accusations leveled against riders in the TdF as well as the upcoming Olympics.

What reason would these "governing bodies" of the sport be so interested in destroying itself from within like this?
Is there some good reason to drag all this dirty laundry out right now other than sensationalist headline grabbing?

I think upon further reading it is a banned substance, and it is a known masking agent. What are they to do with a positive result? They have to call the rider out.

"Xipamide, the substance found in Schleck's urine, is not specifically mentioned on WADA's prohibited substance list."

From http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-announces-adverse-analytical-finding-for-frank-schleck-at-tour-de-france
(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-announces-adverse-analytical-finding-for-frank-schleck-at-tour-de-france)

Not even specifically this event, it is just the most recent example. IDK how to express the regret that I feel that this happened at all, but at the same time...there has to be a more tactful way of dealing with this

http://www.usada.org/prohibited-list/athlete-guide/

"S5. Diuretics and Other Masking Agent
Masking agents are prohibited, to include diuretics and plasma expanders."

Ah, so in essence it is more of a not specifically named but blanket ruling?

From Velo...http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/07/news/uci-announces-positive-doping-test-for-frank-schleck-2_230302?utm_medium=whats-hot
The Substance Xipamide is a prescription-only, orally administered diuretic drug. It is also knows as Diurexan, the brand name under which it may be found in a pharmacy. A doctor typically prescribes the drug, in tablet form, to a patient dealing with high blood pressure. In these cases, high blood pressure is caused not by arterial fat buildup, but by high sodium levels in the blood. Since water follows solutes (solid matter), high levels of sodium in the blood will cause increased water retention in the bloodstream as well, putting excess strain on the heart as it tries to move the extra fluid.


Diuretics are typically used in sport as masking agents. Although that term is a misnomer, as diuretics don’t actually mask anything, they conceal the presence of a drug by helping to flush it from the body through increased urination. Using this effect, an athlete could use Xipamide to help remove traces of banned substances prior to a doping control.

It would seem to me that using a diuretic and becoming dehydrated would be more counterproductive to an athlete in an event like this.

Aside from this incident, like the news last week where the hotel rooms were stormed in the middle of the night, etc. There has to be a better way of dealing with this than smearing the sport across the news this way.

He hasn't got a leg to stand on.....there is only one reason a rider would take a diuretic; to mask steroid use. He has no fall back alibi because his team doesn't carry that drug so it has to be self-administered.

This is what a sport that actually care about doping looks like. It just seems odd because it's the only one, apparently.

And Frank's now playing the "poisoned" card. Who the hell poisons people with diuretics?

Who the hell poisons people with diuretics?

Maybe Nick Roche?




12
Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan
0:09:45



13
Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
0:10:49