Neverminding the latest doping scandal that had Saunier Duval's entire team abandoning the tour, Mark Cavendish, after winning today's lead-out sprint, became the first Briton to win three stages in the same Tour de France.
Also, the media came out very quickly in pronouncing what Riccardo Ricco is purported to have taken for his doping regimen: CERA (or Micera the brand name). This is a third generation synthetic EPO that WADA does not even have a positive test for, however, tests can show that a person has used it, just not when. This leads blood-doping expert Daniel Friebe to speculate that authorities must have searched Ricco's room in addition to having an atypical EPO result. It was the room search that produced the positive test, since it is always a doping violation to have banned substances in your possession.
Update: Numerous reports have come out that Roche has been working with the ADA's in formulating a doping test, even while they were developing the new EPO drug. The latest claim is that they introduced a signature molecule, which is what the lab tests were looking for. Unfortunately, this new test, and how it was introduced, does not conform to WADA procedures, so I would be very surprised if it were used during the Olympics. But since this is the French version of the Tour de France, the ALFD can do whatever they want, and the riders' contracts have to honor that.
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