Damsgaard on Contador - and the future of Riis Cycling

Brief background: Bjarne Riis ('Mr 60%'), when a rider, doped. His blood figures were a matter of notoriety at the time, hence his nickname. He was not caught but has since admitted it; it is a matter of record.

Ivan Basso, when riding as Riis Cycling (then Team CSC) GC contender, and immediately after winning the Giro, had a bag of what is said to be his blood in a Dr Fuentes fridge. Basso was subsequently cleared of involvement by both the Italian and Spanish authorities, but has nevertheless served a two year ban and not complained about it. There is no evidence that Basso cheated, but there is evidence that he had made preparations to, and although he has not said so plainly, his behaviour implies to me that he accepts this.

Bjarne - obviously - claimed that he didn't know of Basso's alleged blood doping. His claim seems credible to me because of the way the two men have acted since. Basso has been apologetic and has expressed no anger at having been summarily sacked; Bjarne has clearly felt badly let down. However, all this left a cloud over Riis Cycing, which needed to be cleared up.

Bjarne hired Rasmus Damsgaard - Denmark's leading academic expert on doping - to regularly monitor all the cyclists on the team and to post the results of his analysis on the Web. Since then, no rider for Riis Cycling has been suspected of doping.

This summer, one of Riis Cycling's Directeurs Sportif (Brian Nygaard) and the team's two GC stars (the Schleck brothers) announced that for 2011 they would be forming a new team, based in Luxembourg. Specialized, who sponsor both Contador and Riis Cycling, brokered a deal under which Contador would move to Riis Cycling to replace the Schlecks. To support Contador, Bjarne hired eight other Spanish riders of Contador's choosing, and in the immediate aftermath of that, the remainder of Riis Cycling's 'old guard', with the solitary exception of Fabian Cancellara, announced they were leaving, mostly for the still-unnamed Luxembourg team.

So Bjarne has bet the shop on Contador.

Cycling News tells us what his own chosen anti-doping specialist, Rasmus Damsgaard, has to say:

"German journalist Hajo Seppellt accused the UCI of trying to hide the doping case by denying it when asked earlier this week, and raised the possibility on a German television program that the source was actually a contaminated transfusion.

Biological passport expert Rasmus Damsgaard, the man behind the independent testing program previously used by teams such as Saxo Bank, also offered up the same tainted transfusion theory in an SMS to Danish TV2 Sport."

I think - with great sadness - that this is probably the end of the road for Riis Cycling.

Is Contador guilty?

Contador rode for ONCE/Liberty Seguros, Doctor Fuentes team. He rode for Discovery Channel and later for Astana under Bruyneel.

That Fuentes was systematically involved with doping, everyone knows.

If we look at riders who rode for Bruyneel's 2004 US Postal squad, the following have subsequently been caught doping:

• Floyd Landis (Testosterone, 2006)
• Manuel Beltra¡n (EPO, 2008)

The following have not, as far as I'm aware:

• Lance Armstrong (disputed EPO result from 1999, when Bruyneel was already Directeur Sportif)
• Viatcheslav Ekimov (retired 2006)
• Jose Azevedo (previously rode for Fuentes)
• George Hincapie
• Benjamin Noval Gonzalez (later rode for Astana and is one of the Spaniards recruited by Riis to support Contador)
• Pavel Padrnos (retired 2007)
• Jose Luis Rubiera (later rode for Astana and is now with Radio Shack, still under Bruyneel)

However, the whole squad is now under investigation by the US Food and Drug Administration, and one of those not-yet-caught riders, not Armstrong and not Hincapie, has admitted to doping:

"A former US Postal Service team rider has spoken to federal investigators regarding doping practices in the squad, according to the New York Times. The unnamed rider admitted his own performance-enhancing drug use and alleged that systematic doping had taken place in the American squad... He never delivered a positive test during his career and he has not been called before the grand jury in Los Angeles that is investigating the case."

Meanwhile, the following Astana riders were caught doping:

• Matthias Kessler (testosterone, 2007)
• Eddy Mazzoleni (not specified, 2007)
• Alexander Vinokourov (homologous blood, 2007)
• Andrey Kashechkin (homologous blood, 2007)
• Jose Antonio Redondo (not specified, 2007)

So Contador certainly has a history of riding only for decidedly dubious teams. Contador was also - like Basso - implicated in Operacion Puerto and (unlike Basso) had actually ridden for Fuentes.

Draw your own conclusions - I certainly draw mine.