Tondo tips off police in Girona doping investigation

Xavier Tondo of Movistar has been identified as the pro cyclist who filed the complaint which resulted in the busting of a doping ring in Girona, Spain. Police in Catalonia arrested seven people this week in connection with the internet sale of performance-enhancing products.

According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Tondo received an email last December, which offered several doping products including EPO, human growth hormone, Nandrolone and Clenbuterol, all at special low prices. Tondo passed it along to the police.

According to inspector Jordi Domenach, most of the targeted consumers were amateurs or young people. One customer who testified before the police is a minor who said he used the products on the advice of his trainer, Jordi Riera. Riera is a former pro who rode the Giro d'Italia in 2003. He tested positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol and human chorionic gonadotrophin at the Volta a Catalunya in 2006, and was suspended for two years.

Riera declared his innocence in the recent case and said that the possessed drugs for which he was arrested were for an illness from which he suffers.

The doping products were offered over the internet. The EPO was allegedly stolen from a hospital in Barcelona, with other products being smuggled in from Portugal.

Tondo, 32, turned pro in 2003 and rode with a variety of Spanish and Portuguese teams before signing with Cervelo TestTeam in 2010. He finished sixth overall in the Vuelta a Espana last year, and this year won the time trial at the Tour de San Luis in Argentina.