Recently Austria’s cyclist Bernhard Kohl admitted to taking Cera during this year’s Tour de France. CERA is a similiar blood booster compared to EPO, which helps athletes to take in more oxygen. Germany’s Stefan Schumacher, Leonardo Piepoli and Riccardo Ricco have also failed Cera tests.

These doping cases have had its impact on cycling scene. For example next year’s Tour of Germany is cancelled because companies are not interested sponsoring the event.

“Due to the current developments in professional cycling we are no longer in a position to successfully finance and market the event,” said a statement from Tour of Germany organisers. “The value of the broadcast has similarly decreased.”

The International Cycling Union said Wednesday that it would double doping bans to four years in serious doping cases. This way, however, it may be hard to judge between deliberate and accidental cheating. Former Tour champion Alberto Contador commented Thursday:

“Imagine today I take some medicine for, I don’t know, a flu or a headache and I test positive and my career is done,” he said. “I think these actions are well-intended but you have to be able to distinguish between the cases.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 9:42 am and is filed under Doping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.