As reported in yesterday's Latest Cycling News the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) has completed re-testing samples taken during this year's Tour de France for CERA. This comes after the International Olympic Committee stated last week that it will retest samples from the Beijing Games for the presence of this latest doping agent.
AFLD boss Pierre Bordry has explained to AP that the laboratory will retain all samples until next year's race. "The IOC started the trend," said Bordry. "We are stopping the testing for EPO CERA. We consider it sufficient," he added. "I will keep the samples until the next Tour de France in case there are new [testing] procedures that are put into place," he added.
In total, 38 samples have been retested for CERA, with Bernard Kohl, Stefan Schumacher, Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli all testing positive for the latest generation of EPO. Each had their samples tested twice; before and during the Tour.
Bordry pointed out that samples from the 2007 edition could also be tested again, although that decision would ultimately be made by the UCI. During last year's Tour, the sport's governing body was responsible for testing while the AFLD took responsibility for the task. He explained that the 2007 samples were property of the UCI, and that, "It depends what condition they are in, if they have been stored properly. If they have been, it's possible [to retest them]."
