Tour de France Teams Become a Tour de Force in the Fight Against Doping

I am a Tour de France fanatic. I think it started back in 1986 when Greg LeMond became the first American to win le Tour. I've watched it since then and my passion has increased in the last ten years. However, I am not immune to the doping scandals that have almost brought the cycling world to its knees in recent years. I find myself skeptical when it comes to my favorite athletes in the sport (yes, I do mean Lance Armstrong).

This year, thankfully, there are some teams fighting the doping status quo. There are two American teams in this year's Tour. This alone is feat. However, what is more, these teams are ramping up the doping testing in order to return the event to a clean one.

Both Team Garmin-Chipotle (Slipstream) and Team Columbia (Highroad) have signed on to this radical notion. Both teams are now under their own testing parameters monitored by the Agency for Cycling Ethics (ACE). The concept behind the testing done by ACE is both revolutionary and simplistic. Rather than simply testing an athlete after the race or on a few random occasions throughout the year, ACE is recreating the entire notion of doping testing:

Each Slipstream rider is tested not for the illegal substances, but for the body’s reactions to doping. To do that, riders are blood-tested 50 times a year, at least five times more than usual. In the program, they are also urine-tested 50 times a year

In Slipstream’s program, each rider’s blood and urine samples would be tested by an outside lab, then sent to an independent agency to be analyzed. That agency would then compile a biological record of each rider, including his levels of hemoglobin, naturally occurring steroids and red blood cell count. Over time, the information gathered would show what was normal for each individual. Team management has asked WADA to audit those results.

If any part of a rider’s biological record changes markedly — for example, if his natural steroid level skyrockets — it could be an indication of doping, or of a drug for which there is not yet a test. In that case, the athlete has agreed to sit out for two weeks to undergo further drug testing to see what caused the anomaly.

This means that there is a physiological profile for each rider on the team. Use a substance, your body reacts to it in many a subtle way. By monitoring not only the presence of the illegal substance, but also the body's natural, and unnatural, reaction to its presence a doper can be caught almost immediately.

A person can figure out how to fool a drug screen. It is almost impossible to fool the body. Even if you think you have, the body knows. This is what ACE is testing. Brilliant!