Doge

Well of course she did it for the benefit - which was fine - it WAS legal. Just like taking coffee / caffeine tablets (unless they find athletes drinking coffee for other than the taste - so they should be banned). I don't know the drug, but why ban it if it isn't harmful?

It was reported today that she had been warned 5 times. Her handler should be fired if they missed this.
Nike, Tag H, and Porsche suspended sponsorship. She will likely not play again (mostly due to age - IMO). But @ $20M/year for most years she can survive.

So why the deliberation? Trying to figure out if she meant to do it?
Another example of why intent is should not enter the equation. It puts the power in the committee.

gsteinb

It's a masking agent.

Thus intent might be important in determining sentence. If she dropped the ball, took something unknowingly that just went on the list, should she serve two years and be lose all those sponsors? I don't know, but it sounds like a lot. If however she's using it to mask other drugs the answer might change.

Still, she's a tennis player? Cycling forum. Thread about the ride clean program. Le Sigh. Tom Simpson roils over in his grave.

shovelhd

It's not really a masking agent. It's somewhat like EPO, except instead of increasing red blood cell production, it increases blood flow to the heart. It's used for short periods of time for patients with heart problems, to help them heal. Does she have a chronic heart problem? I don't think so, but I'm not her doctor. If she had a chronic heart problem with a medical need to take this stuff for 10 years, then her stance is at least somewhat justifiable. If she doesn't, she's toast.

Ygduf

after years of abuse, maybe!

gsteinb

I did a quick search this morning and thought I saw some references to it being used as a masking agent. I could be wrong.

But. Tennis. FFS

Doge

Same organization over cycling - WADA and same guy in the USA for USADA - Mr. Taggart who seems to be quite interested in cycling.
List may be different from sport to sport but the same people...

Hermes

From Financial Times...

Today, meldonium is manufactured by Grindeks, a leading Latvian pharmaceutical company, and prescribed extensively in Russia and eastern Europe although it is not licensed in the US and western Europe.

The World Anti Doping Agency said it monitored meldonium on the basis of “evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance”. Wada decided to add the drug to its prohibited list of metabolic modulators in September and the ban came into effect on January 1 2016.

Grindeks says on its website that mildronate is “widely used for the treatment of different heart and vascular diseases, as well as for the improvement of work capacity of healthy people at physical and mental overloads”.

Researchers at Germany’s Centre for Preventive Doping Research in Cologne last year reported in the professional journal Drug Testing and Analysis that meldonium “demonstrates an increase in endurance performance of athletes, improved rehabilitation after exercise, protection against stress, and enhanced activations of central nervous system (CNS) functions”.

Racer Ex 

Why do I not want to look in your crawl space?

They found the drug in 700+ tests of Russian athletes last year, and WADA sent out a letter to the various federations that it was being banned. My take is Sharpie isn't:

"Sharapova says she has been taking the drug for 10 years after she was regularly falling ill. She had a magnesium deficiency and family history of diabetes"

She probably takes Loperamide for a headache.

In any case I'm shorting Grindeks stock.

shovelhd

Nah, she speedballs coke and heroin.

globecanvas

I think that's redundant.

shovelhd

Correct.

Doge

"On Thursday, CAS announced that it agreed and shortened Lea’s ban to six months." Bobby Lea?s Doping Ban Reduced | Bicycling Or just the off season.

Bobby Lea is looking for a spot for Redlands Classic. Composite Riders - Redlands Bicycle Classic - Redlands, CA

Hermes

More on Meldonium...Sounds more like a heavy metal. Sorry boys, you missed the last 40 years of legal use. I wonder if any pro cyclists took this. No way.

Or...this stuff does not do jack***** but will now get more sales.

From the WSJ Russia Sports Minister Accepts Some Responsibility for Meldonium Scandal - WSJ

Meldonium is sold over-the-counter in Russia under the name Mildronate. A package of the drug sells for about seven dollars in central Moscow. Nataliya Demidova, a Moscow pharmacist, said the elderly use it for heart conditions and that athletes have taken it for decades to help improve circulation.

“It helps oxygen get circulated through the body’s vascular system,” Ms. Demidova said. “People with heart conditions use it if they need to. Athletes use it, too.”

Latvian pharmacologist Ivars Kalvins, who developed the drug 40 years ago, said on Russian state TV that around two million people take the drug every year; many of them, he added, are not athletes.

Mr. Kalvins said the drug helps keep the heart healthy during exertion and shouldn’t be considered an illegal performance-enhancer. He speculated that the drug’s inclusion on the list of banned substances was political, due to the deterioration of ties between Moscow and the West.

Racer Ex 

If the UN banned Russians from spraying radioactive lead and pesticide laden sewage water over babies the Russians or their proxies would say it's political.

mattm

Btw NCNCA says WADA was at Chico Stage race.

Anyone get tested? Or hear about testing there?

Racer Ex 

I was tested on the climb after the gravel. Barely hung on.

Drug testing? No. They told us to check in after the RR at sign in. I did, asked if there was a list posted. I got a blank stare. "We don't have results yet". Huh?

Drug testing is supposed to be done immediately after the event. Results may show up hours after. OK. "Do I need to stay around?" That got another blank look. I left.

When we lined up for the crit they told us "no USADA".

That's helpful to know...

A Cat 5 on a one day license is supposed to adhere to a medical regimen that was designed for an Olympic athlete, while the testers are throwing out virtually every protocol used by the Olympic testers. The former is kinda ridiculous, the latter is inexcusable.

Doge

Drug testing needs to become like junior rollout and / or bike check.
Not that it is as important as having the wrong gear or being 2oz underweight or anything like that.

mattm

Sounds like some room for improvement!

hack

They were out there with the little tent setup and everything. We were in the morning wave and the signs by reg said the 55+ and women's 3/4 weren't getting tested, but nothing saying who was. I won my race, so I hung around to figure out what I needed to do, if anything. I asked a few people and there were some blank stares as noted above.

Ultimately, they just told my field to go home. Ok ... no clue if anyone did get tested, but they were setup to do so (couple of people with clipboards standing around idly).

Doge

Is it just me that thinks 55+ is field you want to test first?

Heathpack 

Last year, I volunteered to be a drug testing chaperone for the women's TT at the Tour of California. The way it worked was that each chaperone got randomly assigned a finish place and we were supposed to stick with that person from the time they crossed the finish line until they got to the doping tent to give their urine sample.

I was assigned the first place finisher and logistically it was impossible for me to do my assigned task. The competitors were not required to stay at the finish at the end of the race, they mostly headed right away to a behind-the-scenes green room. At the beginning, everyone who crossed the finish line was in first place. The problem was I wasn't at the finish, I was in the green room with the current leader. I couldn't even see the finish, so I had no idea who was in first place.

Mostly the leaders would come to the green room and I could just ask who was now in first place. But as bigger names took the lead, the lag times were greater because they'd inevitably run into friends/fans on the way back to where I was. My eventual winner didn't even make it to the green room, a friend of mine who was also volunteering told me we had a new leader and pointed her out to me, so I went out into the crowd to find her (meanwhile leaving the former leader unchaperoned, no idea when the second-place chaperone figured out she had a new person and how long it took for her to track her down).

Maybe none of that matters, I'm not sure how it works logistically once they get to doping control, my job ended at delivery. If they get privacy to produce their urine sample, though, they could easily have picked up a substitute sample from whoever they encountered before I caught up with the leader. The whole thing was very disorganized, the doping people and the race organization were not communicating very well.

So there's drug testing as one thing. But there's also the logistics of implementing the testing, lots of places for error to be introduced.

mattm

Surprised the process for the ToC was so unorganized!

Luckily none of these problems are impossible to solve.

Heathpack 

The part I left out is that it was a last-minute schedule change if you recall. The TT was supposed to be in Big Bear but there was a snow storm up there. However the doping people and the TOC folks were all non-locals, so I'm not sure if it made any difference.

The easy solution was to keep the competitors together at the finish until they fell out of top ten (that's who was getting tested). The big problem with that for the women is that they don't necessarily have teams of people to help them logistically post-race. For example, I had Evie Stevens in the end and it was just her and her future mother-in-law trying to fit the bike and wheels and schwag into an SUV. No team SUV, no soingeur, no masseuse. I felt badly not helping her with the stuff especially after she offered me a homemade cookie. But we weren't supposed to do anything beyond watch, so I stand there like a schmoe while they're struggling. It seemed borderline rude, lol.

Then to walk past the men's teams and their AstroTurf and trainers under awnings and packs of people helping them out: perfect picture of the world of cycling for men and women, the haves and the have-nots.

Racer Ex 

It was only the women. It's not like they are going to dope.

Racer Ex 

FWIW I sent a note to our local president after receiving one of those "come visit USAC's Ride Clean website so they can feed you pablum" emails. Pointed out the deficiencies and issues. FWIW this kind of stuff has been SOP for many years. 5 years ago at Nats a guy who won came back 3 hours later for his test. Another guy at track nats was up drinking beer in the stands; they posted the pee test note after the results were up.