Banned Blood Booster Poses a Challenge for Anti-Doping Authorities, According to Expert

 

A top Swiss expert stated on Thursday that an anti-anaemia drug is making the fight against doping more challenging, though he emphasized that there is currently no miraculous solution on the radar of testers.

Raphael Faiss, the Research Manager at the Centre for Research and Expertise in Anti-Doping Sciences at the University of Lausanne, expressed that the banned drug roxadustat poses a significant challenge for anti-doping authorities.

"(Roxadustat) is not new; it has been available in the market only in Asia since the early 2010s," Faiss told Reuters. "It stimulates the body as if it were at high altitude and boosts the production of red blood cells, promoting endogenous erythropoietin (EPO)."

Roxadustat, detectable since 2017, has an elimination half-life of 10-16 hours, making it difficult for anti-doping controllers to catch potential cheaters.

Former Wimbledon and French Open tennis champion Simona Halep has been provisionally suspended since October 2022 after testing positive for roxadustat at the U.S. Open the previous year. Halep has vehemently denied knowingly taking the banned substance.

Faiss explained that athletes who repeatedly train in altitude camps for only a few days raise suspicions as they are challenging to test.

Under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) whereabouts rules, athletes must provide a 60-minute time slot each day when they will be available and accessible for testing, and they are liable for potential 'missed tests.' They also have to provide their home address and the location and time of their training activities to anti-doping authorities.

"It is difficult to test athletes when they train at high altitudes because they may only be accessible by cable cars, which may not operate at night," Faiss said.

The International Testing Agency (ITA), responsible for anti-doping tests in cycling since 2021, has 60 testers dedicated to the sport, working year-round on a pool of about 1,000 riders. During the Tour de France, they have been working around the clock. The overall leader, Jonas Vingegaard, has faced questions about trust in cycling due to the sport's history of doping scandals following some outstanding performances in the race.

Vingegaard stated that he welcomes the scrutiny and has never used any banned substances.

OLIVIER BANULS TARGETING VINGEGAARD:

Olivier Banuls, head of the Cycling Unit at the ITA, mentioned that performance is one of the criteria used to target athletes for testing. "We use various criteria, and performance is one of them. Obviously, Vingegaard's performance is one of the factors for us, so he is specifically targeted," Banuls said.

"There are other criteria for riders, such as biological passports or information we obtain from our Intelligence and Investigation Unit," he added.

Banuls further revealed that Vingegaard has been tested 18 times during the Tour, with 14 of those tests being non-random as the yellow jersey holder is tested once a day. Additionally, Vingegaard underwent eight tests in June, both in and out of competition.

"We manage to test 95-96% of the riders we've scheduled to control," Banuls said.

If an athlete is not available during their allocated 60-minute timeframe, they would not automatically be reported for a 'no show,' but the International Cycling Union's legal department will be informed, according to Banuls. "We receive a notification and provide the athlete with an opportunity to explain and provide evidence of their whereabouts, such as a restaurant receipt, for example," explained Simon Geinoz, legal advisor at the UCI.

"If we are not satisfied with the explanation, it will be registered as a 'whereabouts failure'."

Three whereabouts failures in a rolling 12-month period would result in an anti-doping violation and a potential two-year suspension.