Paula’s Stigmata wrote:Spain has a bit of a PR problem, which they’ve tried to lessen in recent years by way of a few low level busts of obscure cycling PED suppliers. The recent court decision not to destroy the Fuentes blood bags may be an interesting weather vane. But this recent Aden bust is a bit of a surprise – probably an opportunity for some good old pre-Olympic anti-doping PR, as it involves some non-Spaniards for a change.
I’ll try to answer those questions, although I’m talking out of my ass a bit as I haven’t thought about some of these details for years. For basic answers about PED concepts, it helps to look to the world of cycling – not because they are or were any dirtier than track, but simply because they got caught red-handed ten years earlier. Cycling has been the whipping boy of endurance sports (or the “beard†by which all the others were able to maintain the illusion of “cleansâ€) but now it is all coming home to roost for track and others.
It used to be open season for PEDS in Europe. Then one of the team cars during the Tour was caught at the border with a trunk load of PEDS (the 1998 Festina scandal). This was a major embarrassment for France and they were the first to pass laws. (This resulted in all the French teams going through a decade of self-flagellation [cf., “cleansâ€] during which their results were crap.) Armstrong and most other teams immediately moved their training bases from France to Girona, Spain, where the laws were slack.
Italy got into the act next. It was obvious to all that Armstrong was doping heavily, but he was impossible to catch, probably due to collusion of the UCI (sound familiar?). The Italians went after Armstrong’s personal physician, Ferrari, and busted him, although he eventually evaded jail through delay, ineptitude, and statute of limitations (ca 2004-2006). Italy was also embarrassed by this and other scandals (Conconi, Padua, etc), and passed laws.
Spain, meanwhile, did nothing. They had their own scandal (the Puerto or Fuentes blood bags scandal – from 2006 ongoing to the present day), but for reasons of graft and incompetence, the DNA identities of the bags have not been revealed or acted upon after all these years. It is widely understood or believed that Fuentes’ clients included Spain’s top tennis players and two largest football teams, resulting in political influence being exerted on the judge. Meanwhile, Italy, having been humiliated themselves, were somewhat infuriated by all this, so the next time the Tour dipped into Italy for one day, they took the opportunity to test Valverde (Spain’s leading rider at the time), match his DNA and ban him for two years. Spain itself remained a safe haven.
Literally all top level cycling teams train in Spain. I’m not aware that Spain has passed any laws making PED use illegal, although it may now be illegal to supply. I think they nailed Fuentes for something lame like unsafe public health issues. Nevertheless, the pro move in cycling is to take the training camps off the mainland to Tenerife and Majorca or else to Andalucia, or that mythical place known as “Altitudeâ€, (far away from testers, same as in Track). Hotels are used a lot, often in the off-season. Maybe they are cheap enough, or there might be a move away from permanent bases and apartments, not sure, maybe it makes it harder to pin the tail on the donkey from a testing standpoint.
Cycling has by now served its ten years of hand-wringing and gets to pretend again that it is now PED free. Hahahahahaha! And now track is reading from seemingly the same script, so we can expect the same political obfuscation and play-book. [Don't get me wrong, both are great sports, just a little bemused by the lack of progress on the ped front.]
I loved the post. You know your stuff. I'd love to bounce ideas of your head in the future. Emai me if you want to do this