Road Bike Racing - Garzelli's B samples positive

I just read on cyclingnews that Garzelli's b sample was
also positive for Probenicid. Looks like he will have to
retire from Giro.
Interestingly enough his samples from the 2nd and
3rd stages(stage after positives were taken)
were negative. No word on his samples for stage 1.

Sad day once again at the Giro.

Marty

I can't believe garzelli would be that stupid. Why would he risk it with the tight doping controls and the strict italian laws? It just doesn't make sense that he'd risk the giro.

Squinzi and his team managers had everyone on his Mapei team tested on Saturday night. The thought is that milk served at their hotel was contaminated. I would not put it past some of the characters associated with the sport these days to have done that.

In fact, a policeman in Italy has been suspended for providing drugs to three riders. Two of those are the Panaria guys who have been arrested.

Losing Squinzi as a sponsor would be a large blow to the sport, profi level and otherwise. and he is considering just that. Truly unfortunate.

Cheers...Gary

It only gets worse,
Simoni tested postitive for Cocaine
albet after a dental appointment
(what dentist uses coke for anesthesia?)
which was not reported to the appropriate
sports dept. Now his participation in
TdF is questionable.
Marty

A couple of thoughts on the latest Giro drug stories...

1. This is a good thing. The anti-doping people are on the ball and it's getting very hard for racers to cheat. Garzelli's levels were trace as were Simoni's. The fact that they're catching racers with such miniscule levels is an indication that the problem of doping is probably not anywhere near as bad in cycling as it was, or as bad as it is in other sports. Racers are getting caught in dribs and drabs now, I take that as a sign that the systematic doping of the Festina era is a thing of the past.

2. I think the anti-doping guys may be getting just a little overzealous here. Probenecid is banned in all levels, despite the fact that it has many legitimate therapeutic applications. [Why has Garzelli not defended himself more vocally? Maybe he doesn't want to admit that he had chlamydia.] In fact, from everything I've read, it's (a) not a performance enhancer and (b) a really, really bad choice for a masking agent since it well-known, easy to test for and is, itself a banned substance. I think Garzelli got the shaft and that the anti-doping guys may be pushing things juat a little too far.

I think of rower Silken Laumann's DQ for testing positive for a sinus decongestant...

Marty:

Simoni didn't test positive for cocaine, but for metabolites of cocaine. The levels are consistent with the therapeutic application of cocaine derivatives and synthetics [like novocaine] used as local anaesthetics.

Velocipedio,

we're both right, according to Procycling:


However, Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport presented evidence relating to the Simoni cocaine case to a respected pharmacologist, Dr. Silvio Garattini, Director of the Mario Negri Institute. Garattini’s reaction puts Simoni’s alibi in serious doubt.

Garattini was informed that World Anti-Doping Agency testers in Lausanne had found the metabolites benzoilecgonine and metalicgonine, as well as unmetabolised traces of cocaine. He concluded: "Benzoilecgonine is the classic metabolite of cocaine, used for the analysis of habitual consumers. Carbocaine, the substance administered by Simoni’s dentist, has quite different metabolites. Garattini considers that there can be no confusing it with cocaine. "These are two completely different chemical structures. The structure of carbocaine is monocyclic, whereas cocaine is bicyclic." How appropriate.

So, different metabolites, unmetabolized cocaine, sounds
like suspension time to me.

Marty

Originally posted by lotek
we're both right, according to Procycling:

So, different metabolites, unmetabolized cocaine, sounds
like suspension time to me.
On the other hand, Carbocaine, as I understand it, is often used with Eucaine, which is a synthetic cocaine with a near-identical chemical structure. It defies the imagination that Simoni would use cocaine as a performance-enhancer, and I personally find it unlikely that he would use it recreationally during the season. If he was an addict, he wouldn't be able to stay off it for a three week tour, and if he was using during a three-week tour, he'd probably be dead.

If you look hard enough for cheats, you'll find them, whether they're there or not. Cycling has a bee up its ass over drugs and tends to over-react, IMO. I'm sure Jonathan Vaughters would agree with me there...

From what I've read UCI will now allow
steroid use if medically warranted
(as in the case of Vaughters).
Yeah one can always find cheats, but
what the hell was Simoni thinking? one
would think he has enough sense to at least
ask dentist what he was given.
I don't believe he was cheating or using
recreationally.
However given his remarks about Garzelli,
its funny the shoe is now on the other foot.
Mapei in Belgium is in trouble also.

Marty