Giro '08 Samples to be retested!!!

Yes! Finally! Now we'll see if Contador was on CERA.

RdBiker said:

Yes! Finally! Now we'll see if Contador was on CERA.

CERA or a bristish PED?🙄

I hope they will test blood samples because it's difficult to find CERA within urine, many tests were needed to catch Ricco.
How many times was Contador tested?

Contador was probably using transfusions and may not be caught for CERA.

I think that Pellizotti will get caught. He won a stage and was in pink for several stages.

If DiLuca was tested then he gets popped also.

Tinkoff had two stage winners. They are good candidates.

should any rider test positive, i don't care who it may be. i plan on laughing my ass off at the giro's chiefs and their callous rejection to re-test last summer. their cascade of excuses, recriminations and belly-aching should keep me amused for some time.

Bro Deal said:

Contador was probably using transfusions...

That would be my guess. If you have the resources why not still do blood doping? The USPS/Disco blood dope docs have never been busted, surely still in business. Didn't Astana also hire one of the Frieberg docs?

It would also explain how he could go from vacationing on the beech to winning the Giro. Blood transfusions offer instant boost in performance, EPO would take weeks to buildup oxygen carrying capacity.

Of course, would anyone really be surprised if he is found to have been doping with CERA?

Last year Contador could have used his TDF stored blood for Giro.

I don't know how often they can use blood transfusion... probably they are making stocks in winter.
How much can they pump without risk to be detected? or should they pump out small amount everyday or couple of days?

I'd be interested in the rate of false negatives of Cera testing. I assume it's pretty high since they needed quite a few samples to catch Piepoli and the Cobra.

If so, the whole thing might fizzle out. With a large rate of false negatives you'd need in average a lot of samples to bust a rider.

Cobblestones said:

I'd be interested in the rate of false negatives of Cera testing. I assume it's pretty high since they needed quite a few samples to catch Piepoli and the Cobra.

If so, the whole thing might fizzle out. With a large rate of false negatives you'd need in average a lot of samples to bust a rider.

CERA is a large molecule and is unlikely to pass in urine, just in case of big effort: Ricco was caught at ITT and at first medium mountain stage (if I recall it correctly) but not for the first flat stages.
Maybe they would test blood samples too, in that case the rate of true positive is extremely high. 😄

Cobblestones said:

I'd be interested in the rate of false negatives of Cera testing. I assume it's pretty high since they needed quite a few samples to catch Piepoli and the Cobra.

If so, the whole thing might fizzle out. With a large rate of false negatives you'd need in average a lot of samples to bust a rider.

given that the tdf's retests nabbed additional riders, i'm thinking that the test was refined over the intervening months. if the test's sensitivity can be "dialed up", they should be able to isolate the synthetics. additionally, the giro coming before the tdf, riders might have been careless using the undetectable new drug. just brainstorming this idea.

poulidor said:

CERA is a large molecule and is unlikely to pass in urine, just in case of big effort: Ricco was caught at ITT and at first medium mountain stage (if I recall it correctly) but not for the first flat stages.
Maybe they would test blood samples too, in that case the rate of true positive is extremely high. 😄

The fun thing is, if we knew the probability of false negatives and, say true positives (which should be available information, since this is vital for the design of the Cera test in the first place), and the number of independent tests which were conducted to bust the Cobra, Piepoli, and Potato Head, we could estimate how many riders are actually taking Cera.