WADA: Mandard of the Year Award

or: WADA perquisition complex

(Scroll down to the English version)

Au moment qu'on pensait que l'année était terminée, dans le sens d'antidopage, voilà que Pierre Bordry, ses minions et ses alliés policiers-judiciaires remontrent tous leurs acharnements contre l'équipe Astana et l'UCI, juste comme un pit-bull sur le 'visage' d'un enfant. Car le journaliste Stéphane Mandard est (voilà ! Qui en douterait ? ) encore sur le sujet du Tour de France 2009.

On avait offert notre commentaire en Octobre en regardant les articles par M. Mandard concernant Astana et des autres équipes, l'investigation mené par l'Office central de lutte contre les atteintes à l'environnement et à la santé publique (Oclaesp), contre les équipes du Tour. Cependant, l'article publié comme cadeau de Noël ce mardi 23 Décembre, titré Astana aurait commis une infraction pénale pendant le Tour 2009 nous rend encore une fois dans la salade mijoté par M. Bordry et ses confrères du gouvernement français.

Mais regardons-nous ensemble le logique du fabrique de cette histoire.

Avant même le Tour commencé, le Cour d'Arbitration de Sport français a décidé en faveur du coureur belge Tom Boonen, exclu par l'ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation). En cause, son incident printanier d'un analyse positif pour cocaïne. Les raisons du Cour étaient assez claires aussi : son exclusion aurait été discriminatoire, donc ASO a été, plus ou moins, forcé de le laisser courir. Ben dis-donc!

Le même jour, Mme Bachelot, chère Ministre française pour la Santé, Jeunesse et Sport, a fait passé par la presse française une avertissement clair, à propos la participation de Lance Armstrong: « ... qu'il serait particulièrement, particulièrement, particulièrement surveillé ». Bien. On n'as pas su de quelle manière cela se passerait. On le sait maintenant. Remerciements sont de rigueur pour M. Mandard. Mais pour continuer : le logique demandé par Mandard est si illogique, c'est de definir à nouveau le mot paradoxe.

Vous êtes coureur professionnel de long date ; vous êtes dans une équipe qui sera « ... particulièrement, particulièrement, particulièrement surveillé », et donc vous alliez continuer de faire des conneries, des tricheries dans vos chambres d'hôtel, et car vous 'avez fait' ça depuis des années sans jamais avoir été piqué, vous alliez jeter tous vos déchets médicaux dans les poubelles de chambre?

Mais 'ça va pas ! ... quoi'... Il nous prend pour des cons ou quoi (Bordry et/ou Mandard : ça m'est égal...) ?

Notons aussi que Mandard n'a jamais écrit quoi que ce soit à propos les réponses formels et publiques de l'UCI, publié dans un rapport mise sur le site web de l'Union Cycliste Internationale, disponible au monde entière. Ce n'était pas le cas pour l'AFLD : leur 'rapport' a été divulgué à ce reporteur avant même le courtoisie de le passer vers l'UCI. Personne, autre que Mandard, l'UCI et l'AMA, ne l'a jamais mis sur le Web. A quoi sert cette silence radio? Bien : ça sert l'agenda de l'Agence, évidement.

Quel qualité de reportage avons-nous en lisant cet article? On nous a déjà (de l'Australie!) informé que ce société français COSMOLYS, contracté pour organiser et disposer les déchets médicaux de 'beaucoup des équipes' du Tour, n'a peut-être pas agi avec un niveau de sécurité aux hauteurs qu'on puisse espérer si on était leur partenaire contractuel (c'est à dire les équipes qui l'ont contracté). Confus? Nous y sommes aussi.

Ces déchets médicaux doivent être protégé des gens indélicats qui voulaient, à tout prix, ternir l'image de quelques-uns des coureurs (ou équipes), n'est-ce pas? Car c'est bien évident que l'évidence maintenant utilisé contre l'équipe Astana, aurait pu été 'planté' par quelqu'un qui a voulu justement ternir l'image et faire disqualifier leurs résultats, aussi formidable que soit l'équipe Astana. Il nous faut rappeler, aussi, que nous sommes pas dupes. Il y a beaucoup d'incidents sur le Tour, pour lesquels les coureurs ont eu droit d'être soignés : accidents de la route, petits maladies intestinaux, et c...

Si on avait accès aux échantillons des coureurs... si on avait accès aux chambres des coureurs... si on avait accès au camion de Cosmolys... n'est-il plus probable que quelqu'un qui s'est acharné contre Lance Armstrong depuis des années, qui a des alliés partout dans la République française, qui pourrait convaincre la police que ces éléments d'évidence sont vrais, est la vraie source de ces évidences?

Sont-ils réels? Sont-ils authentiques? Ou... sont-ils plantés? Mais Mandard est bien convaincue de la véracité de l'évidence.

Peut-être qu'ils ont tous raison : peut-être l'équipe Astana est la seule équipe de ce dernier Tour de France qui était si stupide, si bête, si naïve, si idiote... bref : si nulle... qu'ils ont fait n'importe quoi avec leurs déchets médicaux douteux et illégales ?

Not bloody likely...

[English here]

Just when one thought that the year had finished, in the anti-doping sense, behold Pierre Bordry and his minions and police/judicial allies, remounting their furious attacks against the Astana team, as would a pit-bull against the face of a child. Because the journalist Stéphane Mandard is again on the subject of the 2009 Tour.

Ww had offered its commentary in October in regarding the articles by Monsieur Mandard, concerning Astana and other teams, the investigation brought by the Central Office for the fight against environmental and public health infractions (loosely translated), against the teams of the Tour. However, the article published like a Christmas present on this Tuesday, 23 December, entitled (translated) Astana may have committed a penal infraction (FR link above) puts us one more time in the story stirred up by M. Bordry and his colleagues from the French government.

But let us regard together the logic of the fabric of this story.

Before the Tour even started, the French Court for Arbitration of Sport decided in favour of Belgian racer Tom Boonen, excluded by the ASO (Amaury Sport Org.). In cause, was his springtime incident that produced a positive cocaine analytical finding. The reasons of the Court were clear enough: his exclusion would have been discriminatory, thus ASO had been, more or less, forced to let him race. Whaddaya say?

That same day, Mme Bachelot, dear Minister for Health, Sport and Youth, passed via the French press a clear warning regarding the participation of Lance Armstrong: “... that he will be particularly, particularly, particularly surveilled.” Hmmm... One didn't know in which manner this would manifest. We do know now. Gratitude is a must towards M. Mandard. But to continue: the logic demanded by Mandard is so illogical, that it redefines the word paradox.

You are a racer for many years; you are in a team that will be “... particularly, particularly, particularly surveyed”, and thus you would continue to do stupid acts, cheater's acts, in your hotel rooms, and because you 'have done' that for years without ever being caught, you are going to toss your medical waste in hotel room waste bins?

But “... bloody hell! Whot...” Does he take us for idiots or what (Bordry and/or Mandard: it's pretty equal)?

Let's note also that Mandard never wrote anything about the UCI's formal, public responses, which were published in a report placed on the UCI web site, available to the world. That wasn't the case for the AFLD: their report was divulged to this reporter (Mandard) before even they had the courtesy to pass it to the UCI. No one, other than Mandard, the UCI and WADA, ever put the AFLD report up on the Web. To what end, this intense silence? Oh well: it serves the Agency agenda, evidently.

What quality of reporting do we discern in reading this article? We were already informed (from Australia!) that this French society COSMOLYS, contracted to organise and dispose of the medical wastes from 'many teams' of the Tour, was maybe not acting with a level of security sufficiently high that one could hope as their contractual partner (to say the teams which joined in the contract). Confused? We are also.

It's well evident that the evidence now utilized against the Astana team, may have been 'planted' by someone who wanted to tarnish the image and results of a team as formidable as Astana had demonstrated. We have to remember, also, that we aren't dupes. There are many incidents on the Tour, for which the riders have a right to receive medical care: road accidents, infections or illnesses (intestinal), etc.

IF one had access to riders' blood samples... if one had access to hotel rooms of the riders... if one had access to the Cosmolys truck... isn't it more probable that someone who has had their teeth sunk into the flesh of Lance Armstrong for many years, who has allies throughout the French Republic, could convince the police that these elements of evidence are true, while being the true source of these evidence items? Are they real? Are they authentic? Or... were they planted?

But Mandard is well convinced of the veracity of the evidence.

Maybe they are right: maybe the Astana team is the only team from this latest Tour de France, who were so stupid, so crass, so naïve, so idiotic... briefly: so null... that they never even thought about their medical wastes?

Not bloody likely...

Tis the season, however, for Monsieur Bordry to distribute his Christmas season Bonuses: Astana takes the big box evidently...

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

one hundred percent pure
copyright 2009 Ww

(Now back to our Holiday, which is already in progress)

The 'Phone-y War': updates on AFLD v UCI 2009

Two new articles appeared nearly simultaneously with our publishing of the three part series Nettoyage Ethique / Ethic Cleansing

The first is more amusing than 'damning', and written by a true master of French journalism, Claude Drousset. Former writer for l'Equipe, editor of Vélo Magazine (French monthly cycling mag), Drousset amused his audience by reminding his French readers (and Francophiles worldwide) of the location, during the week in which the AFLD 'bombarded' the UCI through Le Monde articles (as noted above), of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy was on official state visit in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, and 'home' of the Swiss–licensed, Kazakh–sponsored team Astana, in the 'collimator' via the AFLD 'UCI Report'.

Follow the link above to read these translated gems from the keyboard of a master:

“I imagine this little fictional scene. Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, day before yesterday. [Ww: implying Tuesday, 6 October] The Grand Auditorium of the Presidential Palace. Nicolas Sarkozy at the side of his homologue Nursultan Nazarbaïev. Before them, a group of Ministers, elected representatives, directors of multinationals and grands medias all together. Object: the signature of an engagement of some four billion Euro in contracs, beween Kazakhstan and the largest French entreprises. Until now, this writing is true. The fictional touch? Nazarbaïev, at the point of signing the accord, who lifts his pen and turns toward Sarkozy:

“One second, Mister President, what is this story, in your country, of the favourable treatment of which our racers benefited from the last Tour de France?”

Astana is also a conglomerate of entreprises, sponsor of the team of Contador and Armstrong. This team is targeted in a report of the AFLD, which was leaked Monday. The eve of the Astana Summit. One can imagine the light agony of our hyper-cool President.

[.....]

The ears of Pierre Bordry, AFLD patron, must have been burning since Monday and the publication by www.lemonde.fr of the contents [of the 'UCI Report']. Not only because of the responses from Pat McQuaid, UCI president, furious to be placed one more time (by the French) before its ambiguities in the face of doping. Not only because of the embarrassment of Roselyne Bachelot and Rama Yade, Minister and Secretary of State (de tutelle (?)), called upon to make comments but who also remembered personally that Nicolas Sarkozy had publicly qualified Lance Armstrong in July as a “formidable example”. Four billions of contracts and the admiration of a President of the Republic, facing ten pages of report and some medical waste.

How will this end? We await details, facts and responses from concerned parties, especially the UCI?

+ + + + + + + + + + +

Also an insightful article was published October 21, comes from the South; South African site IOL.co.za has an AP feed article with 'all the details' regarding what was found by the 'French police' in the medical waste from the 2009 Tour. The title:

Armstrong doping suspicions are suspicious

A company named Cosmolys is said to have been contracted by many Tour teams to dispose of their 'medical trash', which one can understand means legitimate used bandaging (for 'road rash' accidents) and other such items (in an age where AIDS is a legitimate concern, responsible authorities have altered the concept of 'trash disposal, and should be applauded). French police seized 15 'containers', stated an anonymous 'French judicial official'.

Apparently 14 boxes were 'what one would expect', but curiously, the Astana box was claimed to be stuffed with 'large quantities' of syringes and intravenous infusion apparati. We are reminded that, under the WADC, IV drips are banned without Therepeutic Use Exemption (TUE). the IOL article from AP tells us that a different company has been engaged to examine this 'evidence', for 'evidence' of its origin, through DNA analysis. The company is TOXLAB, which was part of the '... investigation into Princess Diana's death.' (TOXLAB does not appear to have a website; one of its staff maintains an email through a 'French web-email-service (similar to GMail or Hotmail))

SIDEBAR: The actual investigation is being run by the vice-Procureur Dominique Pérard (Ww leaves his title in French, it is the equivalent of 'Vice Prosecutor' (meaning 'second', not 'addictions'). The agency investigating this 'sordid story' is the OCLAESP: l'Office central de lutte contre les atteints à l'environnement et à la santé publique (roughly the Central Office for the Fight against the Offences to the Environment and Public Health)

The article gets to a point we had discussed at WADAwatch the same day, how unusual it seems that the French police searched and found this group of items:

Did they have legitimate reasons or are they being manipulated by people seeking to embarrass Armstrong and the UCI?
[.....]

Would they have gone to such lengths with other sports?
[.....]

What is clear is that the probe was kept quiet for three months until last week, when word leaked to French media just before Armstrong flew to Paris for the unveiling of next year's Tour route.

An important fact that was 'conveniently ignored' by Stéphane Mandard, the agente–provacateur for this year's Tour scandal, is mentioned by the AP and IOL. Doctors from other Tour teams stated that the Cosmolys' system for medical waste disposal is not sealed, thus access by third parties is conceivable.

SIDEBAR: This makes a legitimate question arise: should Cosmolys, whose contract calls for the safe disposal of medical waste for Teams on the Tour which, themselves, and thanks to information derived from mostly French sporting news journalists, are targeted in a high–visibility and unsecured sport [Ww: No stadiums, or permanent facilities] reasonably foresee that a third–party could acquire access to its meds-waste facility, and thereby compromise the integrity of a team or teams? IOW: Are we assured that sufficient cautions were taken by this contractor to the Tour?

One could think of a word: 'negligence', and a question: 'why isn't legitimate medical waste collected and analyzed through the global 'anti–doping' family for ALL sports? Ponder that...

The AP – IOL article has this to say in conclusion:

“... if Astana is exonerated, will the same people who put Armstrong and cycling in the spotlight by leaking word on the probe say sorry? Don't count on it.”

Well, mes amis, AFLD seems to have much in common with Oliver, whose words defined a classic American film. LOVE STORY: “... means never having to say you're sorry'"

We remind readers that the French judicial system is slogging through the worldwide-crisis presented by 'a 2006 hacking' case, which is purported to be involving a certain Tour winner who was stripped of his title, and a Doctor that was or is his trainer' and that that case is now three years old. WADAwatch wrote an extensive history, which leaves a perplexed reader wondering how a Doctor in California could have employed the 'authorized' French government Hackers (who were also responsible in cases brought by Greenpeace FR, and an independent attorney who represented 'small-investor-class' shareholders, against two of France's biggest State-owned (or majority minority shareholders) corporations.

This story is growing folks: is it unravelling against the French Agency AFLD? Stand by for a weekend wrap up of other news from the CW II... and the Lord of the Leaks...

..........@.........WADAwatch
one hundred percent pure

copyright 2009 Ww

UCI methods attacked by AFLD

A Breaking Story...

The French newspaper LeMonde has published an article today (en français), which reports that the French Agency AFLD has transmitted a report to WADA and the UCI, decrying the UCI procedures for testing and sample protection in the Tour de France, singling out their perceived 'protection' for the team Astana, which featured Tour victor Alberto Contador, and American champion Lance Armstrong.


Selected WADAwatch translations follow.

First:

“The Astana team benefited from privileged treatment by the officials of the UCI.” Such is the conclusion offered by the French Agency for the Fight against Doping (AFLD: l'Agence française de lutte contre le dopage) in a report produced to document the process of doping controls during the 2009 Tour de France, of which Le Monde has been made aware.

Second:

It was sent Monday, October 5, to the UCI and WADA, to the Ministers of Health and Sports, Roselyne Bachelot and Rama Yade, as well as to Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the owner of the 'Grand Buckle' (Fr: le Grande Boucle). This ten page document, realized notably from the scrupulously–maintained journals by the two doctors whose mission from the AFLD was to undertake the receipt of urinary and blood samples during the race, is overpowering for the UCI, the organization responsible for controls during the 2009 Tour which, contrary to precedent editions, has not been muddied from a single positive case.

Third:

The Agency underlines equally that the UCI had fully transmitted the information regarding the teams' locations during pre-Tour preparations for the undertaking of controls... with the exception of Astana. “A retention of information which doesn't go towards the sense of the fight against doping,” comments the AFLD.

Concerning Lance Armstrong, the report reveals otherwise that, on July 24th, a photographer, without authorization, had taken photos during the control of the seven–time victor of the Tour in his hotel room, which “risks to invalidate the procedure.”

Quite the 'accablant' report, Monsieur Pierre Bordry. Some may question if M. Bordry was more focused on 'busting' the UCI, or doing his job.


No word from the AFLD about this report is on their website, as of today, and one doubts that either WADA or UCI will make this 'Official' report public in the near future.


WADAwatch reminds its faithful readers of two prior posts, one of which concerned the conclusions of the process this past springtime, regarding the 'failure' of AFLD to bring an action against Lance Armstrong for allegedly 'refusing' to submit to a control:

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

AFLD-ermath redux: Lance unleashed....

(AKA the 'Right to Shower' - inconsistencies)

QUOTE:
Interestingly, the NY Times reported that the AFLD:

“[antidoping agency] said that Armstrong was required to stay with the drug tester at all times, and that the tester had warned him of that.”

However, as to the AFLD, 'l'Equipe' reported the following:

Le médecin contrôleur avait en effet rédigé un rapport suite au contrôle car le septuple vainqueur du Tour n'avait pas été en sa présence en permanence, s'éclipsant notamment pour prendre une douche. Le collège de l'AFLP a décidé «de prendre en considération les explications écrites du sportif et, en conséquence, de ne pas ouvrir de procédure disciplinaire à son encontre pour ces faits.»

Our own translation would be:

The doctor-controller (DCO in WADAspeak) had in effect issued a report following the control, because the seven-time Tour (de France) winner had not been in his (the DCO's) presence permanently, eclipsing notably to take a shower. The Board of the AFLD decided "to take in consideration the written explanations from the Athlete and, by consequence, to not open a disciplinary procedure against him for these facts."

And secondly, how Ww noted (en français, avec notre très cher accent cowboy ('in French, in our precious 'cowboy' accent)) Madame la Ministre Rosalyne Bachelot "particularly, particularly, particularly" welcomed Lance back to the Tour after his three-year retirement:

Friday, 3 July 2009

L'Homme qui entrait de (la douche) froid(e)...

Excusez-moi de vous écrire en français... chuis un peu 'cowboy' dans la langue de Molière...


Translated: "Excuse me to write to you in French, I am a bit 'cowboy' in the language of Molière"...

[...]

So as one of Tolkien's Orcs was to say in Peter Jackson's version of the Lord of the Rings...

"Looks like there's
meat back on the
table, boys..."

How will this new French attack be resolved?


Is the AFLD really attacking the entire system of worldwide antidoping control, as once-upon-a-time new WADA president John Fahey once stigmatized Floyd Landis, and his search for the truth? Are they alleging bribery, ('pots-de-vin' en français), scandal, intrigue, complaisance, negligence, or...

violations of the WADA International Standards for Testing?

(really: who would know better than AFLD, if
someone had violated WADA rules?)

Are there any truth to the AFLD insinuendoes? Is the UCI protecting Lance, Alberto, and the Kazahkstan team Astana?


It couldn't possibly be, that this year's slower-than-previously-doped Tours actually WAS 99.44 per cent pure? In spite of Greg Lemond's persistent allegations otherwise, against Contador's 'sprint' to Verbier?


We wrote about that also:

Thursday, 30 July 2009

What WADA needs isn't... Greg LeMond

QUOTE:

Oh that Gregario...

... did Papa LeMond ever read the fable of Peter and the Wolf to his knee—riding son, during his early formative years, long before the future American cycling star-to-be became one?

[...]

This is a new saga, stay tuned! The conclusion of this scathing attack by AFLD on its partner in contract, and fellow Signatory to WADA, remains to be seen.

..................WADAwatch

100 percent pure