Dec 19, 2005
Saiz: If there is Justice, Heras will ride again
Sounding a bit like Tonto talking about the Lone Ranger, Manolo Saiz believes in Roberto Heras. Heras, as you know is now serving a two year ban after tests taken during the Vuelta show that he was on the EPO juice. Saiz does not believe the tests were done accurately and that if there is justice, that we should see Heras riding again in February.
I am very sure that there are irregularities in the testing procedure for EPO. If the judicial process can look at the evidence of these errors, then we will see Roberto Heras riding again in February
This is only hurting the sport more. When guilty riders start questioning the process, it makes the whole sport look “un-organized”.
Mags
http://roadrace1.blogspot.com/
True, but the same could be said about making the tests more accurate. When a test is rushed to production use and there are many false positives, it just puts the testing process in jeopardy.
The Heras case just doesn’t make sense to me simply because of the timing of the positive test. Suppose that Heras has been systematically doping for most of his career. He already won three Vueltas without getting caught. The riders are well aware of how EPO works and when to take it so as not to get a positive test. A rider of Heras’ calibre would be very dumb to take an extra shot of EPO at the wrong time. At the very least he would take something else that would not be so easy to detect but still give a performance boost.
I just think that if he were to get caught it would be at a different time or place. The positive test result coming out when Heras’ Vuelta lead was already substantial makes no sense. So in this respect I simply doubt that he would do it. It just does not seem logical. Maybe he was doping and he got caught, but it seems so wreckless and irresponsible to take EPO when he did knowing full well that he would get caught.
Volochimp,
I’m surprised that people who are so familiar with cycling continue to question the Heras the verdict. I mean, there was definitely EPO in his urine – they found it in both the A&B sample, and they used 3 different labs, in different countries, under incredible scrutiny, to substantiate the test. When the test failed in the past, it was performed by a local lab that didn’t perform the test correctly and didn’t consult the French lab that perfected the test.
It seems pretty clear cut to me, but hey, I’m just a fan. It goes to show how successful the defendants have been at casting doubt on the whole system.
DP
Hey DP,
I think it is hard for many to accept that Heras was doping. Combine Heras with Hamilton and you have a disturbing ring of dopers that surround the now retired Tour champ Lance Armstrong. That is probably more incriminating than any L’Equipe investigative storys.
To me it seems that if Heras was doping all along, then he would at least employ more sophisticated methods that would not be detectable. But then again the test result is there and it says he was doping, so it is hard to argue for false positives.
I’ll be interested to see how this plays out in the courts. If Heras’ lawyers manage to get him out of the suspension it could cause some serious issues with the EPO test reliability. Other doping tests (as far as I know) have been more reliable. This EPO test was pushed out to production use very quickly to give the doping controllers a weapon against EPO.