EF Education-EasyPost team manager Jonathan Vaughters has told Cyclingnews he is in favour of pre-race anti-doping blood tests to be carried out on team buses less than an hour before the start to deter a blood doping technique uncovered by the Operation Aderlass investigation.
According to a report on the Dutch website Wielerflits, "a number of WorldTour teams" have come together to lobby the UCI and the World Anti Doping Agency to introduce tighter measures to close a potential blood doping loophole.
The German Aderlass police investigation, launched in 2019, exposed a blood doping network that spanned multiple sports and saw several professional cyclists caught and banned.
Among the methods uncovered was that of athletes injecting themselves with blood - taken and stored at an earlier date - immediately before competition. They would then take blood out soon after competition to avoid triggering anomalies in blood parameters in their Biological Passport.
Early-morning blood tests are occasionally carried out at major races but are usually done at team hotels, hours before a race. The new tests could be carried out on the team bus in the final hour before a race start to deter riders from transfusing blood for a particular race or stage.
According to Wielerflits, Team DSM manager Iwan Spekenbrink is leading the way in pushing the UCI to introduce testing in a tighter window, while Jumbo-Visma boss Richard Plugge said he was open to the idea.
Vaughters agrees, too. “I’m in favour of the tests,” he told Cyclingnews.
“Of course it could be problematic to have the anti-doping testers on the bus 30 minutes before the start but if it closes a loophole and is a good deterrent and it further helps regain the public’s trust in the sport, I’m in favour."
Vaughters had seen how the Nordic skiers caught up in the Aderlass investigation had used blood doping before major events but is not convinced similar methods are used in cycling.
Blood doping has been used in professional cycling but is more logistically difficult in an event like the Tour de France. Daily blood doping as discovered in Operation Aderlass would also leave riders with signs of needle use on the arms.
"I don’t have any great concern that it’s going on but it’s better to be safe than sorry, so why not put a definite measure in place to make sure it doesn’t happen?” Vaughters asked.
He is convinced that the riders will accept to undergo blood tests in the final hour before a major race or mountain stage.
"They might not always be happy about it but they will accept and understand that it’s for the greater good of the sport,” he said.
Doping was once organised and controlled by teams, especially when EPO was openly used and blood transfusions were used to find an edge in Grand Tours.
After seeing the damage a doping scandal causes to the sport and team sponsorship, many are keen to bolster the fight against doping and ready to increase their financial contribution.
Jumbo-Visma team manager Richard Plugge is president of the AIGCP teams association and indicated to Wielerflits that WorldTour teams are ready to substantially increase their financial contribution to the anti-doping cause and so contribute almost four million Euros per year. Race organisers and the UCI also make contributions.
Vaughters would like teams to pay a percentage of their overall budgets, so the richer teams contribute more.
“I’m always supportive of increased spending on innovation regarding anti-doping,” Vaughters told Cyclingnews.
“I think it’s a little ridiculous that we have teams that have a 50 million Euro budget and are only required to pay 200,000 annually into the anti-doping fund. I’d make it a flat percentage of the teams' budgets. I think the appropriate number should be like five percent of each team’s budget.
“If we considered doping one of the largest problems that the sport faces, more should be spent on it. I’m fully willing to pay more to make it happen.”
