Was curious, so I Googled and found the following article. Reading through the article, apparently the athletes had their blood withdrawn, altered through some process and then injected back into them prior to a race ... ugh!

A process such as that make the agony of defeat appealing.

anti-doping investigation

Liberty Seguros ends sponsorship of cycling team

05/25/2006

Liberty Seguros announced Thursday it is ending its sponsorship of theteam, saying the arrest of Saiz hurts "our name and the name of cycling."

Manuel Saiz

Liberty Seguros has withdrawn its sponsorship of the professional cycling team of the same name, it said in a statement on Thursday.

The insurance company cited the detention of the team's sporting director Manolo Saiz in a doping investigation in Spain as the reason for its decision.

"As sponsors, Liberty Seguros have always wanted to promote a culture of fair play and zero tolerance with respect to doping," read the statement. "In November 2005 after the suspension of a rider (Roberto Heras) for doping we made our contract one of the most rigorous with regard to this subject.

"The implications and consequences of the detention of Manolo Saiz are highly worrying; they damage our name and the name of cycling." "We have cancelled our agreement with the owners of the team (Active Bay) and will respect outstanding financial obligations." Spanish television reported the contract was worth 8 million euros ($10.2 million).

Saiz was detained this week with doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who has collaborated with a number of cycling teams in recent years, and three others in what Spanish media have described as the country's biggest anti-doping investigation.

The investigation

Police probing a drug scandal in Spanish cycling found lists with the names of more than 100 top-level athletes who allegedly used the services of doctors offering doping procedures, authorities said Thursday.

Civil Guard spokesman Jose Manuel Gallego would not confirm or deny a report in the newspaper El Pais that the names of elite foreign cyclists, not just Spaniards, were on the lists. Five people were arrested in this week's raids.

Police also filmed athletes arriving at a Madrid apartment building apparently to have blood extracted for doping purposes or to pick up performance-enhancing drugs. "They are high-level athletes. The lesser ones don't do this because it is expensive," Gallego told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, adding the probe continues and more arrests are possible.

Police seized large amounts of steroids, hormones and the endurance-boosting substance EPO, as well as 100 bags of frozen blood and equipment for treating blood, the Civil Guard said in a statement. They also found documents on doping procedures performed on cyclists, it said.

The investigation began in February. Police acting with a court order set up a secret camera at the door of a Madrid apartment building where athletes showed up for treatment, Gallego said.

Blood doping is a procedure in which blood is extracted from an athlete, centrifuged to extract a concentration of oxygen-rich red blood cells and then injected back into the athlete before competition to boost performance.

http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/noticia/en/sports/anti-doping-investigation-liberty-seguros-ends-sponsorship-of-cyc?itemId=D33286&cl=%2Feitb24%2Fdeportes&idioma=en

CoJ often scares me ... I did however check out the Lance Armstrong thread, I believe the latest post is extolling the virtues of Birkenstocks.

I bet that the investigating attorney leaked the findings to the press b/c he knew that the UCI would kowtow to the Tour de France, Dick Pound and the others who are bent on not letting the facts get in their way.

I am within 10 pages of finishing the biography "Lance Armstrong's War", Daniel Coyle.  There is an interesting tidbit in the book that states that a standard clause in Lance Armstrong's endorsement contracts state that they would be nullified and there would be monetary damage if Lance were found guilty of doping. 

His bonus pay out for the sixth TdF title was $10m. That alone is a pretty solid economic reason not to use EPO or other performance enhancing drugs.

Here is a copy of the story in today's Cycling News for folks that want to read it:

First Edition Cycling News for June 1, 2006

Edited by Jeff Jones and Anthony Tan

UCI, WADA and Armstrong react to Vrijman's report

By Jeff Jones

There has been a slew of press releases issued on Wednesday afternoon in the wake of the leaking of Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman's 132-page report on the 1999 Tour de France urine sample case. Ironically, Mr. Vrijman's report found its way into the Dutch press before the UCI or WADA saw it - much to the annoyance of both sporting bodies.

The report recommended that Armstrong should be cleared of any suspicion surrounding the retrospective testing of his blood samples from the 1999 Tour de France, where were claimed by L'Equipe to have contained EPO. It denounced the manner in which the doping laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry carried out its research, as well as questioning the ethics of World Anti-Doping Agency chairman, Dick Pound.

The UCI's response was tinged with more than a little frustration, as it had appointed Mr. Vrijman to do the investigation in the first place. "The International Cycling Union has learned with great surprise the declarations conveyed to the Dutch press by Mr. Emile Vrijman, independent investigator within the context of the urine sample analysis during the 1999 Tour de France case," the statement read.

"The UCI firmly deplores the behaviour of Mr. Vrijman, who has prematurely voiced, offending the agreements that foresaw that all parties implied would be informed before any public comment on the report content would be done. Still waiting the receive the definite version of the said report written by Mr. Vrijman, the UCI underlines its deep displeasure with regards to the regrettable development of this case."

The UCI finished by stating that it will study the contents of the report in detail before publishing it in full.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) statement was similarly disapproving, most of all at the fact that the report criticised WADA's ethics in the case. "The World Anti-Doping Agency expresses grave concern and strong disappointment following media reports in which Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman, who was appointed by the International Cycling Union (UCI) to investigate urine samples collected from the 1999 Tour de France, criticises anti-doping authorities," read WADA's statement.

"WADA is not in a position to comment at this time other than to state that elementary courtesy and professionalism would have dictated that WADA should have been provided with a copy of the report before interviews were given to the media.

"WADA continues to stress its concern that an investigation into the matter must consider all aspects - not limited to how the damaging information regarding athletes' urine samples became public, but also addressing the question of whether anti-doping rules were violated by athletes. WADA will respond in due course once it has fully reviewed the report."

In addition, WADA president Dick Pound was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "It's clearly everything we feared. There was no interest in determining whether the samples Armstrong provided were positive or not. We were afraid of that from the very beginning."

The only party who was happy with the report was Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner who was implicated by the L'Equipe article. In his statement, Armstrong thanked Mr Vrijman and his staff for their "hard work and diligence in this process. I have not had an opportunity to study the report yet, but I wanted to let you know my preliminary reactions to the report," said Armstrong.

"Although I am not surprised by the report’s findings, I am pleased that they confirm what I have been saying since this witch-hunt began: Dick Pound, WADA, the French laboratory, the French Ministry of Sport, L’Equipe, and the Tour de France organizers (ASO) have been out to discredit and target me without any basis and falsely accused me of taking performance enhancing drugs in 1999. Today’s comprehensive report makes it clear that there is no truth to that accusation.

"The report confirms my innocence, but also finds that Mr. Pound along with the French lab and the French ministry have ignored the rules and broken the law. They have also refused to cooperate with the investigation in an effort to conceal the full scope of their wrongdoing. I have now retired, but for the sake of all athletes still competing who deserve a level playing field and a fair system of drug testing, the time has come to take action against these kinds of attacks before they destroy the credibility of WADA and, in turn, the international anti-doping system."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/jun06/jun01news