Lab staff 'helped Kohl cheat'
Eurosport - Fri, 14 Aug 22:52:00 2009
Disgraced Tour de France cyclist Bernard Kohl said scientists working in laboratories accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency were bribed by his former manager, the alleged head of a doping network.
Austrian Stefan Matschiner, who managed the careers of several top Austrian athletes including Kohl, is accused of organising an elaborate doping network which helped top athletes in Europe to cheat by using performance-enhancing drugs and methods.
Former Gerolsteiner rider Kohl was revealed as a drugs cheat and banned for two years shortly after his astonishing third-place finish in last year's Tour de France where he also won the coveted climbers' prize of the polka dot jersey.
Matschiner, who has already admitted to performing irregular blood transfusions for Kohl, claimed in a recent interview with German television ARD that he was able to corrupt employees at several WADA-accredited laboratories based in central Europe.
The public prosecutor's office in Vienna responded by demanding he be brought to a new hearing.
Now retired from the sport, Kohl appeared to back up those revelations when he said Matschiner paid between 150 and 500 euros a time to laboratory employees for the testing of samples so that his athletes could avoid being caught by anti-doping tests.
"Matschiner would have our samples analysed so we could find out exactly how far we could go (with drugs) without being caught," Kohl told the Kurier newspaper.
Kohl said he personally benefited from two tests, one following his use of the blood booster EPO and another for testosterone - both banned products.
"That way you find out exactly how much you could take at night to avoid being detected the next day," added the Austrian, who was caught for using a later generation of EPO called CERA which was previously thought undetectable.
Matschiner, who was arrested in March but later released, is seen as a key figure in a doping affair which has taken on immense proportions in Austria.
He reportedly had close ties with former Nordic skiing coach Walter Mayer, who was involved in the 2006 Turin Olympics doping scandal, and the Viennese laboratory Humanplasma, which has repeatedly come under scrutiny for irregular practices.
Austria embarked on a major anti-doping clean-up in March with a series of arrests, including that of Mayer, cyclist Christof Kerschbaum and a Vienna pharmacist and doctor believed to have supplied banned substances to athletes.
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Comment 8 - 27 of 27
What did the author of this article mean by "bribe"? Did Kohl's manager bribe lab employees to change the results of anti-doping tests? What I think Kohl said was that his manager paid lab employees to test samples so that his athletes could avoid being caught by anti-doping tests. Don't think that's bribery. But were the lab people aware or even suspected that they were a part of some elaborate process to hoodwink cycling officials by helping Matschiner test unofficial samples? Any idiot would have put two and two together. Surely they must have known and this therefore makes them co-conspirators in this illegal scheme to cheat.
Ah what a lovely bit of gray for an otherwise black and white world! I'm just glad some of this dirt is seeing the light of day.
Maax92...So corrupt lab techs are faking American dope tests? Get a life! Landis cheated and he was caught..simple. As someone else said, there is a world of a difference between checking unofficial samples handed to one by a manager and adulterating official samples. I suppose the other Armstrong never landed on the moon and that Elvis is living somewhere with Shergar!
Kohl's testimony shows how relevant the subject of doping is even in the age of "transparency" And the biological passport.
No it's not because the tests are blind, in other words lab staff don't know who's samples they are dealing with. I think dopers should get a 4 year ban if they cooperate like Kohl has is this instance or lifetime if they don't. You have to give something for cooperation.
As I said, if 500 Euro's helps a rider set doping levels to pass drug tests, How much does 10000 Euro's do? I don't think anyone's missing the point. A drug testing facility that assists riders in doping and passes out confidential results to their favorite reporters is capable of doing much more. We're not missing the point. The integrity of WADA's test facilities is under serious question.
A lot of people seem to have missed the point of the article. The labs were NOT bribed to change the results of official tests from positive to negative. The labs were paid to analyze extra tests so the riders could experiment with how much doping they could do without being detected. It seems anybody with enough money could set up their own lab equipment and do this. It was just much cheaper to pay an existing lab to do it.
good riddance to any cyclist who takes performance-enhancing drugs - the sport of cycling will continue to get a bad press while cheats take part in cycling. We should develop a new sport called 'Clean cycling' - which is, maybe naive, but makes the point forcibly!
Very good tips thank you Mr. Kohl, I 'll try that..so what come and get I use it all CERA, EPO, MonkyBlood, Rats salvation Blood, and I still clean, Thanks again mate.
After so many leaks of results to the press, contrary to regulations, and proof that anonymity of samples is regularly compromised I think the testing should be more circumspect and never be left to only one lab in any instance. I really feel that situations that dragged on for too long, like Landis' appeals would be less likely with at least 2 independent and separate labs in two different countries running tests on each sample. The results are not instantaneous as it is and despite the longer time for results i think it would further deter cheating. I find it more than a little odd that Riis for example was returned to the record books as winning the tour, but Landis was stripped of his title. I do not think they took all of Virenque's polka dot jerseys from him after his confessions either, but doping is a fact of the sport that i hope the sport's authorities will continue fighting at all levels. But enough of all these results being left in the care of only one lab with employees who apparently take bribes.
The French hated Armstrong in his hey day. They would have made up anything to "prove" he doped. So why didnt they? Only reason I can see is that he was always clean. Get over it.
The same old people spouting off about Lance Armstrong again. Change the record will you, it's getting a bit tiresome.
There is no such things as a "pocket centrifuge... to determine... whether their blood levels [are] too elevated...". Centrifuges are used to separate materials, not to measure anything. They may theoretically be used to separate blood cells from plasma, so you could prepare an infusion of blood cells into your body, without necessarily adding more plasma volume.
Oh dear,it just gets worse.
Now,the're claiming the lab staff take bribes!
Who the hell do you believe?
The whole sport is sinking in the mire.
The UCI,yes,you,Patrick,has got to act,and act now!
After all,where do you draw the line?
Going up to the very top level,does the UCI take bribes?
And if not,why not?
After all,there's a lorra,lorra cash out there.
The general public,ie,me,is totally sickened,year by year,as yet more comes out.
How many heroes do we have left in the greatest sport there is?
Answer--hopefully the Brits--please God--how,otherwise can I convince my grandson to take up a sport he has become hooked on--he's 6 years old,by the way,and adores Chris,Brad and co.
How do you tell a wee boy that they all cheat!
i agree with shambles ! i sure tha armstrong was doped and he still is !!!
@#$% Pound
'
Heh! true Maxx.
@#$%
That's funny. I can type @$$, but when I type Richard Pound's first name, yahoo scrambles it. For that man, I think it is totally appropriate.
j.t. - If 500 euros was enough to get a lab to help with cheating, put 5000 euros or 20000 euros in front of a tech and see what they'll do. You already have techs giving out confidential test results to reporters. For what? Free lunch or drinks on Friday at the local bar? It wouldn't take that much to get one to spike a sample. Floyd was either a) a complete idiot; or b) screwed. This was the same lab that was working with L'Equipe to discredit Armstrong. They should have had their credentials revoked. Instead that major @$$ @#$% Pound jumped on their bandwagon in an effort to bring down cycling. The guy spent about 5 minutes on other sports. The rest of his career was aimed at Cycling, like it was the only sport that had dopers.
shambles, you are an idiot. Everybody is cheating except the English. You're such a noob. There were tiny Colombians with 50 kilos that couldn't climb like him. Does that tell you something?
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