Spanish rider Roberto Heras, four-time winner of the Vuelta a Espana, has been suspended by his Liberty Seguros team following a non-negative A sample test for EPO from stage 20 of the the 2005 Vuelta.
The team’s management company Active Bay suspended Heras on October 27, but did not announce the action while it awaited results of the counter-analysis of the B-sample, the team said in a statement. However, the team said a leak to the press had forced it to reveal the case.
The team said it believes Heras is innocent of the charges, but affirmed its dedication to the fight against doping.
Doesn’t EPO only stay in the system for a very short while? If so it is hard to believe somebody of his stature would take EPO during the Vuelta? Either he is really stupid or the test may be bad, right?
Heras clinched the Vuelta on stage 15, Sunday Sept 11. The failure was 6 days later on stage 20. From what I understand, EPO doesn’t stay in the blood for even a week. It doesn’t make sense to take EPO some time that week, with the race in the bag. I’m thinking and hoping Heras is innocent.
Exogenous EPO is not detectable after a short amount of time but detectability is different from presence. Also, how long do the extra RBCs from the exogenous EPO use last?
Even if he walks the process might take a while. Look at Tyler Hamilton, who might still get off on the charges but only after a year and a half of arbitration.
I am not indicating it’s the same charge, only that the judicial process takes time, sometimes very long. How long was Beke unable to race before his ban was reversed?
Reports are that you can get your HC level up then use tiny regular doses to keep it up. The tiny doses aren’t detectable. He may have messed up the timing, the doses or the test may be gatting better. Or it could be a wrong test.
why would they use EPO when they seem to have figured out blood transfusion so much better?
Looking at Tyler Hamilton’s case, I would say that blood doping (transfusions) are now just as risky as using epo… as an aside, I wonder if any of these guys autotransfuse (donate and store their own blood to be given back to them right before races. This would not be detectible by the test that T.H. was positive for…)
At what race was Hamilton implicated in blood doping? Wasn’t it the Vuelta? I think it’s kind of odd that suddenly you have two different people at the same race, albiet two different years, claim that they were falsely accused of doping. Maybe something screwy is afoot.
But then again, Hera’s did suprisingly bad at TdF, and then became suddenly good at the Vuelta.
