Sunday 24 January 2010

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword...


Cher Pierre, on va te faire prendre ta retraite ?


Dear Pierre, are they going to make you retire?


The decision is made, as of Friday 23 January, 2010. Pat McQuaid has announced, following the AFLD debacle of October, and the UCI reply that closed out that eventful month, that the AFLD will not be any part of the doping control for the 2010 Tour de France.

Imagine the chagrin now gnawing on naughty Pierre's psyche, and reputation, shot down by transparency and objective neutrality. No longer, will Tour Riders suffer to have their blood drawn by a French psychiatrist. The unconscionable actions of Plucky Pierre Bordry have met their just rewards.

News of this comes from The Independent Online website, Friday. We offer some of their quotations from Pat McQuaid, who was interviewed at the Tour Down Under (TDU):

"Next July, the UCI will carry out the tests and we are in discussion with WADA so that it sends its observers to supervise the UCI's work during the race... The Tour de France is the biggest cycling event in the world and we want to preserve it."



Hardly mentioned, it would seem natural that the UCI actually award the analysis of their riders' Samples to the Swiss Laboratoire, which had been involved in the 2009 TdF, for the analyses of all Samples sanguins.


This update will be revisited in a short while... it's noon in Switzerland, but only 04h20 here... in Denver Colorado (Home to Richard Young, neighbours with USADA).


Congratulations, riders on the Tour... you won't be kicked around by Plucky Pierre Bordry anymore!


And your rights will be protected, if not at all levels of the System, then...


..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure

copyright 2010 Ww


.

Thursday 21 January 2010

WADAwatch: blatant self-promotion...


Is there a lighter side to the anti-doping world? WADAwatch believes there is, and without further ado, we add to the range of "WADAwatch" items now available to you, the discerning anti-doping specialist.


WADAwatch, a "100 per cent PURE" blog, which writes for expert and Spectator alike, has 'your mind in mind' for the assortment of items available for purchase via our 'partner' Café Press.


From mugs to Sigg (TM) bottles, T-shirts or hooded sweatshirts, beer steins or tote bags, you can visit our series of 'stores' to visualize each of our designs. NB: due to the structuring of Cafe Press, we have had to concede to that, by putting together pages featuring one design per color...
(B
lack and White, in honour of President the Honourable John Fahey's prioritizing remark). Note also that not all designs are available on an identical range of products.


WADAwatch is also not in a position to guarantee: a) general availability; b) size availability; or, c) delivery times. Cafe Press is a well-established web-site for on-demand purchasing, and we researched their system before agreeing to have them do our on-demand supply processing.


inventory




The LOGO of WADAwatch... is now available in a range of black or white long sleeve T-shirts (Shown in Black: $36.99), as well as in a Ceramic travel mug, large coffee mug or SIGG (TM) bottle.



You'll look good near any finish line!




Our first three 'designs' are of course, The WADAwatch LOGO, our '100 per cent PURE' design, and one of our upcoming humourous captions w/ Logo "Doping should be restricted to experienced, professional and medically-certified SPECTATORS!"


Now is the 'lighten up!' moment; if you've not experienced camping among our beloved Belgian, Dutch, German, English or French (mais bien sûr les français!) friends-of-cycling on the hillsides of the Tour de France (you have no idea how many hundreds of glasses of wine I've refused, on Col des Mosses, or de la Faucille, in Avoriaz one FATE-filled day, etc, by generous c
ycling fanatics, because I knew I had a screamin' downhill "human Slalom" to win, followed by a homeward leg of some 30-100km of pre-sunset dehydrated riding to perform...), they (many) are 'three sheets into the wind' as one HS teacher used to lament... some even before the Crack of Noon Club awakes...


So keep Sport clean by supporting WADAwatch! Enjoy our 'inventory' below, which will be exp
anded in coming weeks.


Remember: our list of products, distributed through Café Press, are organized through their 'one design' option, so you may have several links to enter, to get into each range of available, high quality items.


For WADAwatch LOGO items, visit the WADAwatch SWAGshop ; and then you can use the
following links for our other four lines:



For the selection of "100 per cent PURE" items (see graphic above; Black);

For the "100 per cent PURE" (White) selection;







To become a WADAwatch Official Spectator (Black);

Or as for the Official Spectator range of
White products.


As this re-orientation of a global viewpoint adjusts to this new centralized
location in Colorado, we enjoy your continued support! Send your favourite Athlete, Anti-doping Agency or Laboratory a small momento that announces you are thinking about them...



What are friends for? :-)


..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure

copyright 2010 Ww




Tuesday 19 January 2010

L'identité nationale et l'AFLD


Are you privy to the grand "Débate nationale" in France, about their "national identity" or... what it means to be French? This pre-election strategy, spawned by Minister of the Interior Eric Besson (a former 'Gauchiste' turned Sarkozyste, whom some observers have implied is merely gauging the times and shifting his alliances to selfishly further his political career opportunities), has become a national embarrassment to Nico, as their webpages devoted to the debate tend to have a high percentage of 'xenophobique' or 'raciste' commentaries that have been censored.


You may ask what any of this has to do with WADA, and doping in Sport?


Well, a recent article (today! In fact) in l'Equipe, discusses WADA's viewpoint of the efficiency and results accorded to the UCI's passport program. President the Honourable John Fahey, is quoted as saying "The results of last year speak for themselves," and "I believe - but I don't believe in a blind fashion - that the very solid program which had priorly been put into place (Ww: before the Tour), particularly the biological passport, has brought us maybe towards this that we observed."


Very interesting observation, because as we left the Old Continent for Colorado, shuttle diplomacy by Fahey was precisely our prediction, following the AFLD's scathing anonymous report and low-handed leaking of that into Le Monde's reputable (otherwise) newspaper (not to mention the UCI reply). See our October/November archives (to right), or our 2009 summary at this link, which contains links to most of those vital posts.


Now trust Ww, for the paper, l'Equipe, made a rare concession in the final paragraph in this article (when Floyd Landis expressed similar disparaging comments about the French lab, they were rarely reported, and if so, never analyzed properly), by expressing the UCI's charges concerning the "lack of professionalism" exhibited at multiple occasions. In light of the importance of collaborations between the UCI and the AFLD, Director General David Howman is quoted as stating that "they'd talked with both entities about these affairs", adding that the French Agency "would abstain from any further commentary (about the 'affair')."


Let us be lucid, in reflection now upon 'l'Identité nationale', as one may surmise it from Plucky Pierre Bordry, our esteemed French Directeur of the AFLD. Would he be inclined to add to the national debate, that 'Being French, iz to geeve uz zee right to accuze our parteenaires ov zee total favoritisme ov zees team Astana, ov Armstrong, ov Contador! And, after we accuze ze UCI, we have zee right to refuse all furzer commentary on zees now-embarrazzing issue!


Folks, if the legal theory of 'guilt by association' exists, there seems to be in this case (if we repeat ourselves, it's only because it seems 'vital to the cause'!) a case to be made for 'guilt by refusal to debate.' IOW: You have 'flaming accusations' by a French Anti-doping lab that will not publish those concerns directly, but WILL allow insinuations to be published by Le Monde and its shrill, obedient reporter Stephane Mandard. You have a follow-up report, within a delay of only 3 weeks and a few odd days, which is a) available worldwide; and, b) damning in its counter-accusations (A shrink drawing blood; accusations about 'Barcelona' that, though 'scrupulously reported', contained the Wrong Date, and of course, leaks to the press)


And now we glean from L'Equipe that, apparently, the predicted shuttle diplomacy is going on between AFLD and UCI, at the behest of WADA.


Our only question then, would be this: Is WADA using its 'best offices' activity, in resolving this issue, *with* Pierre Bordry, or with his boss(es)? In the 'Official Ww Playbook', all legitimacy falls on the side of the UCI, and hardly anything can be deemed credible from the nefarious, unpublished AFLD 'J'Accuse!' pseudo-report. Plucky Pierre should be given a 'demotion' from serving in a governmental function to which he has brought excessively-publicized dishonour.


A final note: remember we'd mentioned that the AFLD département des analyses had been responsible solely for the urine sampling of Tour cyclists, and that all blood analyses were performed by the Swiss lab, directed by Martial Saugy? One wonders how the UCI can ever trust Bordry's lab (now under interim direction by Mme la Docteur Lasne), with any urine samples?

The l'Equipe article had mentioned this:

"The former Australian Finance Minister also praised not only the biological passport, which permits detection eventual anomolies in following the blood profiles of racers, but also the new analyses made upon the Samples from the 2008 Tour, which had permitted to catch certain racers with a new test for CERA, a 3rd generation EPO."



Interestingly, l'Equipe makes no mention of the 'pagaille' (which we've previously, in good faith, and humour, translated as 'clusterfççk') concerning Stefan Schumacher's CERA case, which normally would have reached a decision months ago, and which we discussed in our post of 15 January (scroll down or 'find' "Schumacher"), seems to be heading for another weak, "Floyd-ish" decision (or acquittal, as Schumacher observed).


Our point is this: proclaiming a 'test' is 'valid' in a newspaper, is easy, swift and unjust. Awaiting the legal decisions, that of course weigh in on the validity of that test in quasi-legal formalities, with quasi-legal weight, and some form of precedent-setting continuity.


As writer for our sister-blog crystelZENmud, this question was
contemplated, for the French 'national identity debate':

How insecure does a nation have to be, to initiate a 'debate' on 'national identity'...? One could well imagine such a debate in Iraq, or Somalia, or Haiti, where discomfort, trauma and unrest outweigh the status quo of a prospering Western nation...



Silence from the AFLD, from Plucky Pierre Bordry, harkens from the similar events between Eric Besson and himself, each of whom launched, with ZERO Consequence Analysis, a report or a debate that are huge embarrassments for Nicolas Sarkozy. The French 'omniprésident' (as nicknamed by favoured paper Le Canard Enchainé), has not flown to Montréal yet, to promise millions if only WADA could help Bordry escape from the pain-in-the-morass in which he finds himself.


If you read WADAwatch because you 'have to', thank you anyway; if you read it because we're ramblingly legal, thorough and with unique insights, thank you even more... this author is suffering from the mother-of-all-headcolds, after transplant surgery (a life in Switzerland was extracted, and flown to Denver, Colorado, for reinsertion into a previously living organism). Your cards and letters, or upcoming purchases from the fine line of WADAwatch accessories (to be rapidly expanded from now until February), are very much appreciated...

..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure

copyright 2010 Ww


Friday 15 January 2010

Interim Directeur named for AFLD-Département des analyses


[See below this story for some other items,
treated as 'updates' as our time commitments
lay elsewhere...]


Greetings from LandBase1... apologies to our faithful family of readers, for having taken a long week to migrate across the Atlantic Ocean, to the land of liberty, 24/7 Terror newscasting, and the USADA headquarters. Flights were smoother than the skin on these wretched fingers, damaged (and in need of a damn-good Denver manicure) by a series of sub-zero (C°) moving days, cardboard cuts and general abusive heavy-lifting practices. But force of habit exists: the news of this last week requires instant updating.


And many sad thoughts for the people in poor, abused, neglected, shaken Haiti. (A personal, ten-minute YouTube témoignage in French, from the Swiss TSR).. crises such as we have seen demands re-thinking US Foreign policy, driven by Pentagoniacal manias for wars, occupations and 'liberationizing'. This US Citizen would bring 130,000 US troops out of both Iraq and Afghanistan, and have that force available to Save Lives...


Diversions aside, the mourning over the abrupt death of Jacques de Ceaurriz on 5 January has not prevented the AFLD from naming an interim Directeur to run the laboratoire formally known as LNDD. The AFLD 'département des analyses' produced a document eight days ago, naming Madame la Docteur Françoise Lasne to the post. This news, which apparently has not even made the pages of the former 'AFLD press office', as we've annointed French sporting daily, l'Equipe in times past, has been officialized in the translated document below. Our photo of Dr. Lasne comes from the web site SCIENCE ACTUALITÉS.


Interestingly, the Ministry under Rosalyne Bachelot has not even issued any remembrance for the long-standing Directeur that passed away; this link (page in FR) shows all current January press announcements: the death of Philip Séguin is well-documented (an icon in French politics, for whom the word 'irascible' may well apply; most eulogies noted his acerbic wit and force, as well as a love of soccer), but not the loss of the eminent Dr de Ceaurriz.


A Ww service/translation of these
complete, formal French legalities:


Deliberation n° 142 of 7 January 2010
bringing designation of the Director par interim
of the Department of analyses of the French
Anti-doping Agency (AFLD)



The French Agency for the fight against doping,


In view of legislation of the Code of sport, notably its articles L. 232-8 and L. 232-18,


In view of regulations of the Code of sport, notably its articles R. 232-14 and R. 232-18,


In view of the deliberation n 4 of 5 October 2006 concerning designation of the Directeur of the Department of Analyses of the Agency,


In view of the deliberation n. 133 of 18 June 2009 bringing new prorogation of the deliberation n° 4 of 5 October 2006 on designation of the Directeur of the Department of Analyses of the Agency,


In view of the decease of Professeur Jacques de CEAURRIZ,


On the proposition of the President of the Agency,


Decides:


Article 1st
: The nomination of Docteur Françoise LASNE in the functions of Directeur par interim of the Department of Analyses of the Agency is pronounced counting from the 7th January until the nomination of the next directeur.


Article 2nd
: This deliberation will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic and on the internet web site of the Agency.


The present decision was deliberated the 7 January 2010 with the participation of M. Pierre Bordry, President and Mssrs. Jean-François BLOCH-LAINE, Claude BOUDENE, Jean-Michel BRUN, Laurent DAVENAS, Guy JOLY, Jean-Pierre GOULLE, members.

President
Pierre Bordry

{sig.}

[Ww: italics added // published 15 January 2010]


Dr Lasne's name should be known to the avid followers of the eternal pathos between the French Agency and the cycling world, as she is listed as co-author for nearly every scientific journal article on which Jacques de Ceaurriz' name was found. WADAwatch retains the full hope that new objectivity will come forth with Madame la Docteur's interim nomination.


Our last article, which briefly announced the news of the passing of Dr de Ceaurriz, did not include one thought, which came upon this author through this last week. It is truly sad that Dr. de Ceaurriz will be more widely remembered for positions taken against Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis, as trumpeted by l'Equipe... those shots 'heard around the world' through certain sports journalists' scorn-filled amplifications, rather than for the hundreds of scientific articles that he generated, with their scientific validities in Black and White.


Dr Lasne's long-standing role in the hierarchy of the LNDD/Département des analyses offers mysteries and hopes: will AFLD honour her position by removing its 'interim' aspects? When?


Will 'Science' take ascendance over 'Agenda' and 'Suspicion'?


+ + + + + + + + +



Laurent Fignon has gone through two chemotherapy sessions since last year's Tour de France, where this author was nearly in tears when he burst out sobbing himself, taking the entire squad of France 2/3 personalities with him, as the realization (we presume, with sensitivity and compassion) that he could be very well participating, as announcer, at the last Tour de France he would ever see. It was sad: more than one can describe.

In an article in l'Equipe, they excerpted an interview from magazine Paris-Match, regarding his medical treatments, his outlook on 'success' of those, and some personal reflections. Quick ly summarized, his first treatment was basically ineffective, necessitating a second process, which reduced his tumours "17 per cent", yet Laurent couldn't handle the physical effects of one of two medications that produced that good result: and it was the better of the two! Since recent scans revealed increasing growth, Laurent became philosophic, and we honour his courage by offering you his words, in French, and translated for his many English-language fans:

«J'espère que ce prochain traitement marchera, a-t-il déclaré. Quelles que soient ma bonne volonté et la force de me battre, si l'on ne trouve pas le bon médicament, il y a un moment où ça va m'emmener et je vais y passer. Je n'ai pas envie de mourir à 50 ans, mais si c'est incurable, qu'est-ce que j'y peux ? J'aime la vie, j'adore rigoler, voyager, lire, bien bouffer, comme un bon Français. Je n'ai pas peur de la mort, je n'en ai juste pas envie !»


"I hope that this next treatment will work, he declared. Whatever be of my good will and the force to fight, if one doesn't find the right medication, there's going to be a moment where this will take me and I am going to pass (away). I do not want to die at 50 years old, but if it is incurable, what can I do about it? I love life, I adore laughing, travelling, reading and eat well, like a good Frenchman. I do not fear death, I just don't want it!"


[sniff...]


WADAwatch believes, based on a FR3 interview last year (YouTube excerpt) in which the host Michel Drucker had brought in Laurent Fignon, on TV remote feed, to add drama to the pre-Tour telecast, that Lance and Laurent are working (through the Livestrong foundation) to find the drug, find the cure and find Laurent a future free from the pains of cancer.


If not, time is running out for the last French victor of the national Fete-race-Fetish: the Tour de France, and no one wants that.


Lance? Please?

+ + + + + + + + +



Whatever is going to happen to Alejandro Valverde, via an appeal to CAS/TAS, won't be known for two months yet. CAS has apparently (its Panel of Arbitrators, of course) proposed to publish its decision in March, and 'previewed' that this decision would or may announce the CAS Panel's legal 'incompetence' to entertain the extension of the suspension to a UCI-imposed worldwide status. The appeal is addressing whether Valverde can be banned on Italian soil, from an Italian suspension based on evidence provided from the Operacion Puerto 'sting' in Spain. As Valverde's original appeal was against CONI, the Italian Olympic Committee in charge of Italian anti-doping efforts, and CAS permitted joinder of UCI and WADA appeals seeking that extension, we await the legal reasoning for a clearer understanding of what CAS can, and cannot do, to address the decisions taken (or sought) against the Spanish cyclist...

+ + + + + + + + +


Lastly, concerning Stephan Schumacher, the French word 'pagaille' seems à propos (one could roughly and rudely translate the word as 'clusterF**K'). His hearing, in March 2009, has not yet produced any decision from the CAS Panel which heard his appelate pleas and arguments. Nine months later, the Panel just announced that their 'pre-Noël' decision, which had been bumped back to January 11, was now to be issued January 25th. See the French version in L'Equipe, where Schumacher's quoted as saying "They seem like they have to declare me innocent, but don't want to... I think there are intense discussions occurring between the Panellists, and that (legal) foundation is lacking for this suspension, due to procedural errors..." (obviously from the 2008 Tour de France, the 'renegade' Tour which banned the UCI and trumpeted the AFLD/Département des analyses 'glorious mastery of anti-doping science')

Interestingly, this is also a case where the UCI has sought 'universality' of the country-based decision to ban (it was the French AFLD that had banned Schumacher for two years; it was the UCI that sought 'world-wide extension' of that ban, similar to the Valverde Italian 'procedure' above).

+ + + + + + + + +



From our new roving Headquarters, now eight hours behind this Parisian 'Epicenter' of sports-doping news, we thank you for 'migrating' with us! Soon reports will be coming to you about Country X's speed skaters, or cross-country skiers, as we approach the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver...


Donate to WADAwatch: send an email and fund our presence in Vancouver. Surely WADA itself would like to have a legally-trained, former Treaty Committee drafts-person performing such a similar 'Independent Observer' service? All expenses included...


..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure

copyright 2010 Ww




Wednesday 6 January 2010

Death in the Family: Dr Jacques de Ceaurriz, LNDD


As opposed as WADAwatch has been continuously, to the observed operations of the French lab under its Director, Jacques de Ceaurriz, we are saddened by the news of his death yesterday, and wish that his family remembers him for the qualities they found in him.

There is no joy in relating this news. He could have (he was aged 60, "too young, too young") done much with the quest for WADA standardization, in the few years of a career that remained (In France, retirement comes earlier than in the USA... A matter of some contention in the French politcal debate...).

+ + + + + + +

WADAwatch is on the move! When next we report, it should be from the Colorado Rockies... in the state which hosts the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and the state in which USADA's favourite attorney, Richard Young, hangs his hat. Not intending to lose our 'Flair for French', we will continue to provide you with the in-depth side of a 'HEADLINE!!!'-Dominated 'industry'.

Enjoy your mid-January weather(s)...


..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure

copyright 2009 Ww




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