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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/sports/cycling/09cycling.html?ref=sports
As a way to combat the doping scandals that were destroying its sport, the cycling union in 2008 started an antidoping effort called the biological passport program. Considered a pilot for other Olympic sports, the plan called for the cycling union to record the results of riders’ blood tests over time and track the changes of several key values, including hematocrit and reticulocyte levels.
An independent panel of scientists monitors the riders’ information for any extraordinary irregularities in those profiles. Any strange changes in blood values could mean a rider used the banned blood-booster EPO or underwent a forbidden blood transfusion.
Last year, the cycling union announced it was opening doping cases on five riders — including Caucchioli — whose biological passports suggested they were doping. They were the first riders to be caught under the program.
Caucchioli, who was initially barred from the sport for two years by the Italian Olympic Committee, was the first rider to appeal his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Carpani said. He lost that appeal.
The court, whose decision is final, said in a statement Tuesday that it had examined the cycling union’s biological passport program as a part of Caucchioli’s case and “found that the strict application of such program could be considered as a reliable means of detecting indirect doping methods.”
As a way to combat the doping scandals that were destroying its sport, the cycling union in 2008 started an antidoping effort called the biological passport program. Considered a pilot for other Olympic sports, the plan called for the cycling union to record the results of riders’ blood tests over time and track the changes of several key values, including hematocrit and reticulocyte levels.
An independent panel of scientists monitors the riders’ information for any extraordinary irregularities in those profiles. Any strange changes in blood values could mean a rider used the banned blood-booster EPO or underwent a forbidden blood transfusion.
Last year, the cycling union announced it was opening doping cases on five riders — including Caucchioli — whose biological passports suggested they were doping. They were the first riders to be caught under the program.
Caucchioli, who was initially barred from the sport for two years by the Italian Olympic Committee, was the first rider to appeal his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Carpani said. He lost that appeal.
The court, whose decision is final, said in a statement Tuesday that it had examined the cycling union’s biological passport program as a part of Caucchioli’s case and “found that the strict application of such program could be considered as a reliable means of detecting indirect doping methods.”
