Les Surprises d'Octobre

This post is carried simultaneously at

WADAwatch.blogspot.com and crystelZENmud.blogspot.com

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What a week we'll be witnessing, from outside closed doors...

Conclusion? A Mirror...

In the heart of France, on the 22^nd and 23^rd of October, the French Minister for Sport and Youth, Madame-Docteur Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, is going to be cracking heads, or hearts, as she hosts within the walls of the French Committé Olympique, a closed-door 'High Level Summit on Doping in Cycling”.

As meager as the press coverage has been, attendance is apparently limited to officials representiing: WADA, cycling's three Grand Tours (Giro d'Italia, Tour de France (owned by the group ASO), Vuelta de Espagne), the French Cycling Federation, the Agence Française du Lutte contre le Dopage (AFLD), and 'others', perhaps of European governments, the IOC, etc. Some 150 total participants should be sipping Evian or a fine Bordeaux, while discussing the ramifications of certain contrasting actions that have been digested over this last amazing year of 2007.

A snapshot of noteworthy items would have to include:

a: the ASO-instigated fight against inclusion of the UCI ProTour team UNIBET.com in the lineup of teams competing in the spring race 'Paris-Nice';

b: the revelations produced in the Floyd Landis hearings, from his allegedly positive 2006 TdF test for testosterone use, which implicated the French testing lab LNDD for its multitudinous lapses, in the application of standard international rules defining sports-doping test procedures;

c: the pre-Tour de France exclusion of Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, as a result of lingering suspicions centered on the curious Operacion Puerto affair in Spain, and its attention on the career of Dr. Fuentes;

d: the tardy (yet hope-filled) confessions of Bjarne Riis and Erik Zabel, of their EPO use in 1996, while under the Deutsche Telekom team colors;

e: the near-daily revelations, during the second and third weeks of the 2007 Tour de France, of rider's pre-Tour infractions, such as Michael Rasmussen, the Danish racer who wore the Yellow Jersey, accused of missing mandated testing procedures by the infraction of not informing the Union Cycliste Internationale of his pre-Tour whereabouts, the properly-delayed but annoying (to Tour director Christian Prudhomme, and ASO president Patrice Clerc) announcement of German rider Patrik Sinkewitz' positive test for testosterone, another in-Tour test for blood transfusion, that was brought against Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov, then another positive test, which implicated an Italian rider for a French cycling team – Cristian Moreni – and for all of these envenomed the excruciating relations between the TdF/ASO and the UCI

f: recent news that the French Agency AFLD would reinstate its own litigation against Floyd Landis, creating an unprecedented and highly suspect 'double jeopardy' situation of two sports-arbitration cases for one test at one event under one set of (UCI) rules, due to the potentially- devastating news that the next year's Tour de France may not be run under the auspices of the UCI.

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So once again, this week?

Monday and Tuesday, the above-named players will be meeting for their closed-door session, in the midst of other unfolding news-items.

The biggest one on the sports-doping radar screen, come from the sour-grapes pronouncements of Jean-Pierre Lamour, who's anticipated reign as the Second 'Grand Inquisitor' of WADA (succeeding President Dick Pound of Canada) was nixed by a considerable candidate's presentation: former Australian government Minister John Fahey, whose candidature was abruptly promoted by a meeting of the WADA Executive Committee nearly a month ago.

Lamour will probably be there; whether Fahey is invited remains to be seen.

Monsieur Lamour, apparently as cocky as was Dick Pound during the greater part of his reign, let fly a few news-IED bombs as loud as the door he slammed against his own backside. Insinuations he offered included hints that WADA was taking a 'ten year leap backward', that 'WADA was about to open the door to greater 'flexibility' through its CODE revisions, and most importantly, that he would potentially become involved in a new, European-centered anti-doping agency that would not suffer the problems inherent in WADA.

Talk about the love of a minister scorned... remembering that it was J-F Lamour himself, that was the French Minister of Sport and Youth, whose Ministry oversaw the LNDD lab during both the unseemly 'Armstrong case' and the 'Affaire Landis', and whose Ministry was both antagonistic towards the UCI investigation of the Armstrong case, AND was under suspicion during and after these, as a source of the leaks to the journal l'Equipe regarding these and other leaks of 'A Sample' test results.

Other amazing moments came out in a recent (September 18, 2007) interview in Cyclingnews.com, where Patrice Clerc was all over the game board in discussing how offended was his company, the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), by the attitude and actions of the UCI, with whom the 'Grand Tours' have been battling all the issues surrounding the inception of the ProTour cycling concept, initiatives of the UCI (including this year's UNIBET.com French court case, their (above) exclusion from the Paris-Nice and Tour de France events, and the doping issues.

Unfortunately Monsieur Clerc has no memory, nor apparently any desire to discuss, those endless leaks of doping revelations that stem from the ASO-owned newspaper l'Equipe, the French national sporting journal. Had he been honest with himself and with Cyclingnews.com (who should themselves be hanging their heads for not asking about this issue), he might have addressed these constant leaking incidents, that undermine any Athletes' rights of privacy and process, specifically in the case where l'Equipe published its 2005 article, timed for two weeks after the end of the Tour de France, entitled 'Les Mensonges d'Armstrong', which insinuated that Lance was on EPO in 1999.

And as those leaks came from either the French Ministry (which controls the LNDD laboratory – thus whether that equates with one or two entities is a secondary thought), or WADA, both of whom are key players in the fight against doping in sport, to l'Equipe, there is ample grounds to suspect that there is a bit of 'cover-me, cover-you' corruption that belies the strident WADA message about 'harmonizing the battle against doping in sport': a foundation of the fundamental message found in the Introduction to the WADA CODE.

The practical substance of these revelations, including the great interactions with the French Ministry-sponsored conference, the AFLD second-spin Landis-doping case, the Lamour/Fahey/WADA dénouement, all creating an implosive whirlpool at the very heart, and future, of cycling itself.

But all of the outlined points, above steer us only to the early part of the week; later, on October 25^th, is the usual annual announcement of next year's 2008 Tour de France route. Reading Patrice Clerc's interview, with the discussions of the impossibility of working with the UCI, mentions of national teams and other doping agencies' involvement, leaves the average cycling fan whirling and wondering if all of it is worth the price of sustained interest by the sports-consumer?

Given what you've read above, the amalgam of these events symbolizes something that is bedrock-shattering. A point not to be missed in the evolution of this week is that, unlike many other sports, cycling has had a long history of 'airing its dirty laundry' in public, with every opportunity for the sporting press to make cycling into a laughing stock, while it could be presented legitimately as the one sport that is suffering the most, while undertaking the greatest effort to clean its own ranks.

Soon, members of these entities, present at these meetings, in Paris, Madrid and elsewhere, will have an opportunity to prove their love for cycling, or their love of their own inflated and destructive egos.

Whether they choose to do, that which the world could proudly remember them for their involvement, or that for which the world would sadly remember their involvement, remains to be seen, very soon.

Thus: A MIRROR...

... is the best thing that every participant to these 'Summit' meetings could bring to the table, to remind themselves:

“I am watching my own professional actions, as is the world, for whom I work at this table.”

Courage

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç

WADA do about ... Corrections!

Hi ZENguys, and ZENdears,

Some astute readers have commented on my last post of late August, and I want to correct the record as much as possible.

Thus, comments included that I didn't have anyone on the UCI on my list: I didn't, this is true, but I don't feel that the UCI per se, is to blame for anyone's problems as of this point.

Head of the USADA, is Travis Tygart, not TAGGART (my apologies, Travis: But that error kept me off your radar screen until this comes through - heh heh)

The Equipe, master of the universe as to leaked cycling information, did not exactly do so as is their usual nefarious modus-operandi: in the Floyd Landis case, news was released from the UCI (perhaps because they knew that the Equipe would do its naughty work in a matter of short hours?)...

Pierre Bordry, is either past president of the LNDD, or current president of the LNDD, or past Minister of Sport and Youth... the French government wouldn't want you to be clear on this, and I will try and determine which is paying him his overly-generous salary, sooner or (yawn....) later!

There are some FONT size problems: I try to fix them but there are risks to reopening and re-editing these posts: basta!

Thanks for your input, to my friends that read these...

Courage, mes amis, amies!

........................................................ ZENmud

Is USADA in Violation of WADA CODE Article 8?...

Has the USADA violated WADA CODE Article 8 (link to PDF for downloading) in its hearing against Floyd Landis?

“Busted” for a positive Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) from the 17^th Stage of the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd and concerned observers await the forthcoming decision to be announced by the panel of three Arbitrators that were mutually appointed, between Floyd and the United States Anti-doping Agency (USADA), to hear his case in May 2007.

This case, an international doping 'scandal' (in what sense we await to know...) is governed by USADA's status as a Signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA. Under the WADA CODE, Article 8, titled “RIGHT TO A FAIR HEARING”, it is stipulated that any Anti-Doping Organization shall...

SIDEBAR: the use of 'shall' in an English-language legal sense, creates a mandatory obligation, without derogation: 'shall' begets an undeniable duty on the party to whom the clause refers.

“I, NAME 1, shall pay you, NAME 2, the sum of $100.00, on Tuesday morning, the 3^rd of August 2007, at the xxx County Courthouse, between 10 and 11am.”

Such a sentence is legally unassailable (presuming the entirety of the agreement is a legally binding obligation).

... “shall provide a hearing process for any Person who is asserted to have committed an anti-doping rule violation.... The hearing process shall respect the following principles:”
[.....]
“a timely, written, reasoned decision.”

Hearings regarding Floyd Landis' alleged doping in the TdF 2006, were held from May 14 to 20, 2007. Initial indications were that the decision would be announced sometime prior to this year's Tour de France, which debarked on July 7^th of this year. The world waited as the decision was being addressed by the Arbitration Panel.

Now, in late August – three months later – no timely, written, reasoned decision has been pronounced. See Environmentalchemist for a good, timely, reasoned article...

Floyd, the USADA, WADA, and Amaury Sport Group (owners of the Tour de France (TdF)) are all waiting. As well, the French Anti-doping Agency (AFLD: link to a French-language page) also waits... they who had announced, no matter the outcome of the USADA case, would also be prosecuting Floyd for his offense as it occurred on French soil.

What's customary or standard, or is this case overly-delayed?

Is USADA, the ADO which brought the case against Floyd, in violation of Article 8?

To know this, we would have to know whether the Arbitrators have been interfered with by USADA pressures, or whether outside influences, from perhaps the French Ministry of Youth and Sport (which oversees the former LNDD, the French Anti-doping Laboratory), or WADA itself, have conducted unlawful ex parte sessions?

“The answer my friends, is blowing in the wind, the answer is..."

COURAGE, Floyd, as we stand with you, awaiting your Fate...

ç*”*”*””*ç”*”* ZENmud ”*””*ç*”*”*””*ç”

Tour de France syndrome 2007... part I

ZENers, my apologies for bein' damn silent. My apologies, I want to post this and will have to do the links later... (memory moment!)

My deepest regrets for not providing a nearly 'You were there' type of commentary on this year's Tour de France.

And 'chagrin total' that you are reading something different, perhaps negative, about this Tour, from ZENcentral.

It could have been different, this is true.
It could have been cleaner, also true.

But as far as we know today, of the 189 riders who were designated 'apt' to start their Tour, 2007, only //three// (watch this number change) were controlled 'positive' while on this Tour. Yet four riders left the race, ostensibly due to 'les affaires du dopage'.

One racer, Patrik Sinkowitz from the German T-Mobile team, was controlled positive in early June and announced positive July 18, 2007, was already sidelined from a post-race, severe collision with a spectator, was in the hospital and 'hors combat' before the news fell. T-Mobile stayed in the race.

Alexander Vinokourov, wearing the thorny crown of pre-race favorite, was victim of a fall, severely impairing his chances for “GC” (general category) victory, and, upon winning the Stage 12 time trial in Albi on Saturday, July 21, apparently was tested positive for homologous blood transfusions by the same laboratoire that impugned the 2006 Tour de France Champion, Floyd Landis, on his testosterone test.

//update: Iban Mayo controlled positive for EPO //

Astana, the team for whom “Vino” races, was requested to withdraw from the 2007 test, based on the information provided to it, and to the public by: L'Equipe. Astana did withdraw. Vinokourov is a man without a team.

L'Equipe: aka “The World Cycling PRESS Authorized Source of (Bona Fide) Test Result Leaks” is the national French daily sporting newspaper,. It alone provided the announcement of Vino's positive A Sample test result; this came prematurely, and illegally, on July 24, 2007, through L'Equipe. This came through the long-established fact that L'Equipe is without equal in having sources in at least the French national laboratory: the Laboratoire Nationale du dépistage du dopage, from which it culls and illegally publishes premature and unconfirmed A Sample test results.

That fact, combined with another fact, creates a huge Conflict of Interest. The other fact, is that the paper 'L'Equipe' is owned by Amaury Sport Group, owners/promoters of the Tour de France business.

The paper L'Equipe, being owned by the same group that owns the race, is perenially in violation of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) rules concerning 'Results Management' and their International Standards for Laboratories Appendix 'Code of Conduct'. Savour that thought-sequence, as we continue to surmise in the greatest French tradition of insinuation(s)...

Returning to our saga, Vino was the first of //three // controlled racers to be forced out of the competion, based on the positive results from A Sample tests; the second was Cristian Moreni, an Italian who rides for the French team COFIDIS. Third Mayo.

Also prematurely announced through the L'Equipe paper, from leaked, unconfirmed A Sample results, his test for testosterone 'revealed' him as being 'positive'.

COFIDIS happens to be a French team that has long pronounced itself in favor of draconian reprisals against teams that harbour dopers... it was obliged to withdraw based on its own damning attitude announced publically: that Astana should not stay in the Tour after Vino's 'positive'. Falling on its own sword, it nearly instantly announced its departure upon public disemination of this news.

Yet the pièce de resistance was the news-media-tornado that occurred when the Danish Cycling Federation announced, on July 19, 2007, that the current Maillot Jaune, Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen, had missed at least two unannounced doping controls, which resulted in two warnings (ed: a third warning in an 18-month period would have incurred the equivalent of a confirmed doping test violation: a two-year suspension).

The furor around this incident was inflamed by the constant inuendo and rumour-mongering of L'Equipe and French TV. Added to it were other factors that appeared to augment these charges.

The case was built on a factoid, that the Union de Cyclisme International (UCI) had not received the mandatory quarterly submission of Rasmussen's actual whereabouts; he, as a professional racer, must offer the UCI accurate data concerning his location, so that these unannounced controls are not wild-geese chases, depleting the valuable financial resources of the UCI in their quest for clean sport.

Problem was that his claim of being in Mexico, and being only guilty because the Italian Post system had 'lost his mail', was countered by the submission of Italian reporter Davide Cassani of RAI, that he'd seen Rasmussen in Italy at the same time that the team Rabobank cyclist announced he'd been in Mexico, with his Mexican wife and her family. Further insinuations published by the L'Equipe, proferred evidence that a US-based Mtn Bike racer, accused Rasmussen of requesting his aid in bringing 'doping substances' into Europe in his luggage, under the guise that the box contained some new 'cycling shoes'.

A rumour and a case of lost mail, some leaked A Sample results (actually two: one (Vinokourov: blood transfusions) was the same 'modus operandi' that effectively ended Tyler Hamilton's career; second (Moreni: Testosterone) was the same as Floyd Landis), and ONE verified result (Sinkewitz' June tests based on A Sample, and B Confirmation results), were the nexus for all four to exit the Tour via la petite porte. Two of the known best (Vinokourov and Rasmussen), and Moreni, one of the domestiques (the worker bees of the peleton, who support team leaders, sprinters and climbers with various talents they may bring to a cycling team), while Sinkewitz was reaping the 'joy' from his hospital bed.

Now don't come down on ZENcentral, yet: all ZENmud people are against “doping” by pro athletes for temporary physical and professional advantage (in quotes because the term has expanded from substances (amphetimines, cocaine, etc) to include hormones, steroids, and “blood-packing” (transfusions from one's own stored blood or, from compatible human sources).

What the greater picture of MACRO-ZENism reveals, is that somehow, a very secret link exists, between the French Government, which oversees le Ministèrie de la Santé de la Jeunesse et des Sports (Ministry of Health, Youth and Sport: thus also the Agence Française de la Lutte contre le dopage (AFLD), which directs the LNDD), and Le Tour de France, via the leaking tandem of source provider and reporter (Marc Ressiot of L'Equipe). This exposed link via leaks has direct bearing on the Tour and its outcome.

Stand by, however, because the end of the Tour came about with the succession of Alberto Contador, a young Spanish star who was recently drafted into the Discovery Channel team, and who quickly became the next victim of French insinuendo. Given that this team, directed by Belgian Johan Bruyneel, has won eight of the last nine Tours de France, flames the questions that arose from Contador's association with Manual Saiz, who was forced out of cycling from the esteemed 'Operacion Puerto' case that has cast an evil light on a large number of cyclists and other sporting individuals.

A 2007 Tour, which began with the promulgation and signing of the newly-drafted UCI Charter, and the requisite pre-Tour testing for all 189 riders (all tested negative), ended with the second-best mountain rider (as long as we saw Rasmussen besting most of Contador's efforts, as and when needed) being awarded the prize. A 24-year old vanquished a decimated field of predicted leaders, some who 'fell by the wayside' by injury, others staggering under the race's demands, by imperfect training, improper mental focus or tactical errors.

And veritable bombs were lobbed between the ASO company and the UCI Federation, that will assuredly become the focus of these next two months of ZENtalk. ASO described UCI directors as 'incompetent, or bent to destroy the Tour', while UCI vented about its rôle and its desire NOT to be a (paraphrased) “Dick Pound toy for political use and gain”.

If we are to be assured of a future of cycling, my ZENfriends, and we are talking about the cleanest sport in all sports (3 of 189 of the Best cyclists in the world, my friends: find me 189 tennis players, NFL, NBA, MLB, soccer, track and field, or swimming stars, and we'll compare notes!), what has to happen is a fantastic ZEN experience.

An Epiphany, between those who cry “SCANDAL”, those who promote events, and those who promote the racers themselves: they share a Golden Egg that only they can break.

A Concord, the ZEN Cycling Concorde, if you will, that stipulates in any order you wish, that:

Racers will be clean, through force or voluntary methodologies to be determined, improved or repaced;

The WADA Codes and other Rules documents will be re-drafted to represent the better and best use of financial resources, to increase the burden of proof by laboratories of their honest efforts in following the mandatory and efficient ISO and WADA Standards at all times, with severe institutional and personal penalties accruing to the dangerous aspect of false, or negligent results and results-management, as is required.

The UCI will continue to apply the pressure necessary to change the culture of cycling, offering in its rôle, support to the redrafting of WADA Codes and Rules, and increased vigilance within the 'family' of cycling, the rather in-bred group of former cyclists that create the mechanics, the coaches, the medical and therapeutic staffs, the directors sportif, media announcers and cycling products sponsors or sales.

The UCI will re-consider its ProTOUR concept, and refine and revise with current membership how to insure licensing fees and Team promotions are to be objectively reformed and reviewed, in liaison with...

The major and minor event sponsors, from the ASO to the other Grand Tour directors, who all must continue to prepare in harmony with the UCI the proper means of promoting the sport and the races that define who The Best of The Rest may be, from tomorrow and the tomorrows to come.

Little time remains, and ZEN is going to publish here, and wherever else he can, the ideas that spring from an 'outside the box' mentality, or maybe...

An OUTSIDE THE PIE point-of-view.

Because even as the World of Cycling exists in its glory and history, cyclists earn nearly minimum wage, unless they are an Undestroyed Hero in a cycling world gone mad.


COURAGE ...

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç

LNDD DEAD: END of an ERA???

ZENistas, Landistas, welcome...

As one of your European correspondents, semi-competent in the 'Language of Molière' (French), I have found what may be a MONUMENTAL decision for the French Government, and its management of sports-doping control/testing.

A ZENmud WORLD Exclusive Report

The LNDD may be (is?) DEAD.

Memory lane: in July and August of 2006, the French Laboratoire national du dépistage du dopage (LNDD: roughly the "National Laboratory for the detection of doping"), had found in the course of its testing of Tour de France samples, a 'positive' result for one of Floyd Landis' eight tests; that test happened to follow the most amazing comeback (and how I hate use of the superlative, but: I was there...) in the Tour's recent history. (PHOTO: Professeur De Ceaurriz and M. Lamour, Ministre de la Jeunesse et Sports, colleague unknown)

Structurally, the French laboratory was 'somehow' related to the Agence Française de lutte contre le dopage (AFLD).

I write 'somehow' because it has always been difficult to navigate the French ideas of governmental websites!

But your Humble Correspondent has uncovered a change, if I am correct, that abolishes the LNDD as it is named. The facts as I see them, are:
There is no current up-to-date LNDD website.

This link goes to a site - www.santesport.gouv.fr/ that has not apparently been updated since 2002 (or 2003).

If you see the URL, it carries the name -lndd- at the end of the string. If you search -LNDD- on the newer AFLD website ( www.afld.fr : search box in far upper right corner), you receive FIVE results: click on the second one "Missions de l'AFLD"... Read the second paragraph, headed by: Analyses

I hope you will trust my French translation skills, if yours are not as experienced. In French, the pertinent sentence reads:

"Le LNDD devenant un service de l’Agence en prenant le nom de Département des analyses, l’AFLD dispose de l’unique laboratoire accrédité en France auprès de l’Agence mondiale antidopage."

Can you believe?
Your eyes are clear, my friend(s)...

"The LNDD becoming a service of the Agency (ed: AFLD) in taking the name of 'Department of analyses', the AFLD offers the unique accredited laboratory in France in liaison with the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA)."

And if you search on the AFLD site, the 'Department of analyses', you will link to this page, which discusses how it follows ISO standards (ISO 17025) and is accredited by COFRAC (see ZENmud article discussing COFRAC here)

LNDD is DEAD.
LNDD has FAILED.
LNDD was RESTRUCTURED.

Or it seems so...

Because, friends, when you go to this page, at the AFLD website, you'll see the address for the:
Département des analyses
143, avenue Roger salengro
92290 Châtenay-Malabry (FR)

Floyd may not be pure, may not be innocent, and the sad thing is that WE do not, and never will know.

I've written about the perceived incompetence of LNDD in more than a dozen preceding blog-posts, some of which you could read through these links:

17 May 2007
FLOYDING FRENZY - Day 3 FLASH

Offering the FLASH that the ITF (Tennis Federation) had pulled its testing needs from the French Laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry...

02 May 2007
Que faire avec LNDD? // WADA do about LNDD???

Which, in French, discussed the situation concerning the lack of 'free press' coverage of the seemingly endless litany of errors at the LNDD...

or

24 April 2007
WADA do about L'EQUIPE?? BOYCOTT!!!

This article has a long list of prior links concerning Floyd, WADA and sports-doping problems; it also addresses the fact that the Equipe French sporting newspaper is owned by the Amaury Sport Group, owners of the Tour de France race-event-management firm...

Thank you for reading... I don't think we have yet seen this covered anywhere, but I hate to repeat that this may be...


A WORLD exclusive ZENmud report.

COURAGE ... to ethical Sports fans around the world!

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç