Pereiro’s Positive Tests During 2006 Tour

No Comments | January 19th, 2007 | Trackback

oscar

Because I can’t bear to write posts about each aspect of this story - I’m sick to death of doping being headline news - here’s the latest on Oscar Pereiro:

Pereiro apparently tested positive for a banned substance during last year’s Tour de France, not once but a few times, on his way to his 2nd place finish. Pereiro then goes from being potentially named the race’s winner (if Floyd Landis is stripped of his title) to having his future as a cyclist questioned. The rest of the story? Pereiro was taking the banned drug (salbutamol) for asthma, and had gotten a waiver in order to be allowed to use it.

The release of Pereiro’s test results calls into question - yet again - the confidentiality of the whole enforcement process. Not only that, the UCI had granted the Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) for the drug, and it’s now the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) that’s arguing he didn’t present the proper paperwork.

Pereiro is saying he’s guilty only of “carelessness” in not sending the required documents to the AFLD, that the UCI has approved his use of the asthma drug. “I will send a fax with the required documentation to the French anti-doping agency, and later a registered letter. Once all this is clarified,” Pereiro said, “I hope they will beg my pardon.”

Something tells me Oscar will be waiting a long time before any anti-doping agency resorts to begging. They all seem kind of full of themselves right now.