Louis
02-11-2009, 05:03 PM
Link (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/sports/othersports/12cycling.html?_r=1&hp)
February 12, 2009
Armstrong’s Testing Plan Ends Before it Begins
By JULIET MACUR
Nearly five months after Lance Armstrong announced with great fanfare that he was returning to cycling and would subject himself to a strict and transparent anti-doping program, that program has been abandoned without ever really beginning.
Don Catlin, the prominent anti-doping scientist who was supposed to run Armstrong’s program, said Wednesday that they had decided earlier in the day to part ways, without Catlin’s ever obtaining a single full blood and urine sample from Armstrong. The program was simply too complex and too costly to implement, Catlin said, and the decision to terminate the program was mutual.
“In the real world, when you try to implement a program as grandiose as what you had in mind, it just becomes so complicated that it’s better not to try,” Catlin said, adding that a contract with Armstrong had never been signed. “We’re all disappointed, but it’s just not going to be possible.”
Neither Armstrong nor Mark Higgins, Armstrong’s manager, immediately returned e-mail and phone messages Wednesday.
Armstrong is still subjected to testing by other anti-doping entities, like the International Cycling Union and the United States Anti-Doping Agency. His professional cycling team, Astana, also has an internal anti-doping program.
Still, Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner who has been dogged by doping allegations throughout his career, made his private anti-doping program one of the cornerstones of his comeback to cycling, after he took three years off. He will begin racing Saturday at the Tour of California, which will be his first major cycling race in the United States since he said he would retire in 2005.
Before the Tour Down Under in Australia last month, Armstrong said that his customized anti-doping program was under way, but he began to back off of his initial announcement to publish all of his biological data online. A news release by Astana on Jan. 18, the first day of the race, said Armstrong would be tested about every three days by Catlin’s program. At that point, Catlin said, Astana had paid Catlin a “small contribution” to begin taking samples.
When asked about the program’s details, Armstrong said Catlin would answer all the questions. Catlin, the former chief of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory, is now running the Anti-Doping Sciences Institute, a for-profit research and analytical laboratory based near Los Angeles.
Details of the program remained a mystery, sparking criticism. Dick Pound, former chief of the World Anti-Doping Agency, last week said: “Armstrong made all the big announcements and the testing has dropped right off the radar. No sign that anything is actually getting done.”
Since September, when Catlin accompanied Armstrong at news conferences announcing his return to cycling, Catlin had not returned more than a dozen e-mail messages and phone calls — until Wednesday.
Catlin said he and Armstrong’s representatives had been trying to come to an agreement to implement the program, but the closer the season came, the harder it was to solidify the details. Slowly, the comprehensive program — which Armstrong had touted as “the most advanced anti-doping program in the world” — was being watered down because of logistical problems and cost restrictions.
Armstrong had promised that all of the biological data gleaned by Catlin would be posted on the Internet, a move that Catlin said was necessary to make the program completely transparent. But at the Tour Down Under, Armstrong’s first race out of retirement, he said he was worried that publishing all of his biological data would prompt unfair questions about him from the public. A layman would likely not be able to understand complex information, he said, adding that there are natural fluctuations in some blood levels when a rider travels to a high altitude.
“Not everyone in this room is going to say that means I must have cheated,” he said in a news conference. “But a few of you say it was suspicious.”
In September, Catlin said: “The key is to have the information out there for the public to see and to analyze because it shows you have nothing to hide.”
In recent months, Catlin’s and Armstrong’s representatives discussed limiting the biological information that would be made available to the public. “When you start reducing that kind of program and limiting what you put on the Web, it was difficult to figure out how to accomplish it without running into enormous legal and media issues,” Catlin said.
Catlin said he was still running the internal anti-doping programs of two professional cycling teams, Team Columbia and Garmin-Slipstream. He said those programs were going well and were easier to handle because they are not the comprehensive doping program of a single athlete, Armstrong, who had at first agreed to be tested at any time.
But as of Feb. 4, according to his Twitter page, Armstrong had been tested 16 times, which may or may not have included the aborted collection done by Catlin’s team at the Tour Down Under.
Those collections — and a battery of testing — were done by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the International Cycling Union, which use laboratories accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Catlin said his testers were constantly bumping elbows with other testers.
“There are so many people lining up to test cyclists right now,” Catlin said. “We tried to do one sample in Australia, but we didn’t even get that done because it was so hectic. There are practical issues, but I think someday that will change.”
Testing in all sports — not just cycling — has increased since Armstrong retired in 2005, changing the landscape for athletes hoping to prove they are clean. The cycling union, for example, has a program that collects biological information on each rider and uses it to gauge whether any rider is doping.
Armstrong has been in the out-of-competition testing pool for about six months since deciding to return to competition. According to Erin Hannan, the spokeswoman for Usada, some American athletes were tested as many as 15 to 20 times out of competition in about a six-month time frame last year.
Some athletes, including the swimmer Natalie Coughlin and the decathlete Bryan Clay, were part of a trial program with the agency that set out to prove they were clean. They were also part of their regular out-of-competition testing pool conducted by their respective international federations. It took about four to six blood and urine tests to create an initial baseline for the athletes’ biological profiles, Hannan said.
February 12, 2009
Armstrong’s Testing Plan Ends Before it Begins
By JULIET MACUR
Nearly five months after Lance Armstrong announced with great fanfare that he was returning to cycling and would subject himself to a strict and transparent anti-doping program, that program has been abandoned without ever really beginning.
Don Catlin, the prominent anti-doping scientist who was supposed to run Armstrong’s program, said Wednesday that they had decided earlier in the day to part ways, without Catlin’s ever obtaining a single full blood and urine sample from Armstrong. The program was simply too complex and too costly to implement, Catlin said, and the decision to terminate the program was mutual.
“In the real world, when you try to implement a program as grandiose as what you had in mind, it just becomes so complicated that it’s better not to try,” Catlin said, adding that a contract with Armstrong had never been signed. “We’re all disappointed, but it’s just not going to be possible.”
Neither Armstrong nor Mark Higgins, Armstrong’s manager, immediately returned e-mail and phone messages Wednesday.
Armstrong is still subjected to testing by other anti-doping entities, like the International Cycling Union and the United States Anti-Doping Agency. His professional cycling team, Astana, also has an internal anti-doping program.
Still, Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner who has been dogged by doping allegations throughout his career, made his private anti-doping program one of the cornerstones of his comeback to cycling, after he took three years off. He will begin racing Saturday at the Tour of California, which will be his first major cycling race in the United States since he said he would retire in 2005.
Before the Tour Down Under in Australia last month, Armstrong said that his customized anti-doping program was under way, but he began to back off of his initial announcement to publish all of his biological data online. A news release by Astana on Jan. 18, the first day of the race, said Armstrong would be tested about every three days by Catlin’s program. At that point, Catlin said, Astana had paid Catlin a “small contribution” to begin taking samples.
When asked about the program’s details, Armstrong said Catlin would answer all the questions. Catlin, the former chief of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory, is now running the Anti-Doping Sciences Institute, a for-profit research and analytical laboratory based near Los Angeles.
Details of the program remained a mystery, sparking criticism. Dick Pound, former chief of the World Anti-Doping Agency, last week said: “Armstrong made all the big announcements and the testing has dropped right off the radar. No sign that anything is actually getting done.”
Since September, when Catlin accompanied Armstrong at news conferences announcing his return to cycling, Catlin had not returned more than a dozen e-mail messages and phone calls — until Wednesday.
Catlin said he and Armstrong’s representatives had been trying to come to an agreement to implement the program, but the closer the season came, the harder it was to solidify the details. Slowly, the comprehensive program — which Armstrong had touted as “the most advanced anti-doping program in the world” — was being watered down because of logistical problems and cost restrictions.
Armstrong had promised that all of the biological data gleaned by Catlin would be posted on the Internet, a move that Catlin said was necessary to make the program completely transparent. But at the Tour Down Under, Armstrong’s first race out of retirement, he said he was worried that publishing all of his biological data would prompt unfair questions about him from the public. A layman would likely not be able to understand complex information, he said, adding that there are natural fluctuations in some blood levels when a rider travels to a high altitude.
“Not everyone in this room is going to say that means I must have cheated,” he said in a news conference. “But a few of you say it was suspicious.”
In September, Catlin said: “The key is to have the information out there for the public to see and to analyze because it shows you have nothing to hide.”
In recent months, Catlin’s and Armstrong’s representatives discussed limiting the biological information that would be made available to the public. “When you start reducing that kind of program and limiting what you put on the Web, it was difficult to figure out how to accomplish it without running into enormous legal and media issues,” Catlin said.
Catlin said he was still running the internal anti-doping programs of two professional cycling teams, Team Columbia and Garmin-Slipstream. He said those programs were going well and were easier to handle because they are not the comprehensive doping program of a single athlete, Armstrong, who had at first agreed to be tested at any time.
But as of Feb. 4, according to his Twitter page, Armstrong had been tested 16 times, which may or may not have included the aborted collection done by Catlin’s team at the Tour Down Under.
Those collections — and a battery of testing — were done by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the International Cycling Union, which use laboratories accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Catlin said his testers were constantly bumping elbows with other testers.
“There are so many people lining up to test cyclists right now,” Catlin said. “We tried to do one sample in Australia, but we didn’t even get that done because it was so hectic. There are practical issues, but I think someday that will change.”
Testing in all sports — not just cycling — has increased since Armstrong retired in 2005, changing the landscape for athletes hoping to prove they are clean. The cycling union, for example, has a program that collects biological information on each rider and uses it to gauge whether any rider is doping.
Armstrong has been in the out-of-competition testing pool for about six months since deciding to return to competition. According to Erin Hannan, the spokeswoman for Usada, some American athletes were tested as many as 15 to 20 times out of competition in about a six-month time frame last year.
Some athletes, including the swimmer Natalie Coughlin and the decathlete Bryan Clay, were part of a trial program with the agency that set out to prove they were clean. They were also part of their regular out-of-competition testing pool conducted by their respective international federations. It took about four to six blood and urine tests to create an initial baseline for the athletes’ biological profiles, Hannan said.