Plasticizer: The larger sporting community had never heard of it before this week’s accusations against Alberto Contador. We welcome its arrival to our vocabulary but not the method which it arrived. Spaniard Dr. Jordi Segura, the head of the IOC-accredited laboratory in Barcelona, refined the test for the substance, (which has been used in the consumer food industry for years*) to weed out athletes who blood dope.
Plasticizers are additives, that give hard plastics like PVC the desired flexibility and durability. They are essential in the production of IV bags. If certain Plasticizers were found to be present, at high levels in an athletes sample, to attain these particular plasticizer properties within red blood cells- it would indicate the blood was stored in an IV bag, – indisputable evidence that an illegal blood transfusion** had taken place.
Identifying if blood doping had occurred in a single, definitive test would be a fantastic weapon in the fight to clean up sport and fortify the UCI’s passport program. The bio passport program can indicate suspicious blood levels returned by a rider form a ‘normal’ average; but prove nothing on their own. Dr. Jordi Segura test will not only discover dishonest riders, but remove much of the litigation and court time associated with the passport.
This accompanied with the recent Gene doping Test Breakthrough means the medical and scientific communities are helping protect the future of our sport.
More accusations have surfaced today against Contador, from a source within his Team Astana. If cycling’s image didn’t need another battering- the team member alleges that the TDF winner was micro dosing. Not as usually known by injecting smaller amounts of the blood booster EPO*** but employing the same methods, with blood transfusions:- small quantities- more frequently.
Dishonest athletes have been long suspected of placing smaller quantities of their own red blood cells back into the system to avoid detection. It was commonly practiced among cheating riders to replace 500cc of their own concentrated, frozen red blood cells into their body, before a large single day event or on the rest day of a stage race. This recovery manoeuvre would boost both the haemoglobin concentration and restore hematocrit to efficient levels, which normally deteriorate, due to fatigue in long events.
It is known that riders may now replace only 100-200cc, but do it more frequently. This newer method avoids larger elevated parameters in their blood profiles and the duration of the homologous transfusion is reduced, assisting with the avoidance in detection.
Hopefully science and sport will win true.
*(ASTM D3367 – 09 Standard Test Method for Plasticizer Sorption of Poly(Vinyl Chloride) Resins Under Applied Centrifugal Force)
**Blood doping is the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells. Commonly, the removal of blood from a rested athlete and stored to be replaced during an endurance event. This artificially aids recovery and ability with reinforced oxygen transportation levels.
*** Micro Dosing EPO: to gain an advantage yet prevent detectable spikes in blood profiles, a dose of approx 10-20% of the initial therapeutic doses, every 2-3 days.
Comments
Fred Hussy 15.10.2010 at 10:57pm
"We can't link content in urine to performance, because we don't know the time, the mode of administration or the dose," she said. "If this case is lost because they're concluding the amount is too small, that would be a major problem. It's not the end of the world, but if competent arbitrators decide that, my heart would break. More dopers would go through the net."
BikePure NY 09.10.2010 at 09:13am
I just don't get the steak thing and am trying my best not to judge Alberto. The UCI favoritism offered to him is a disgrace but regardless of the amount in his blood- it is a breach of the code and he must be handed a period of ineligibility to keep parity with other judgments. 2 cases I have found where injestion of Clenbuterol could have been accidental were both given a one year ban.
Mark Thombs 09.10.2010 at 09:06am
Due to the riders abusing IVs- all are banned Tod.
Todd 09.10.2010 at 01:57am
Since this was announced, I've wondered whether plasticizers could also appear in a rider's sample (blood or urine, I suppose) from him having used an IV drip for post-stage rehydration, which is, I believe, both common and legal (as "unnatural" as it may seem). Any info on that? Thanks in advance.
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