Doping or not?
Innocent until proven guilty… but come on! It’s so hard for me as a cyclist and an enthusiast of professional cycling to believe any of the reasons or excuses given these days for a positive drug test. This is so frustrating. Does anybody else find this frustrating? Here’s the latest from cycling news on Bjorn Leukemans:
Doctors deny Leukemans’ sex life responsible for test
In another attempt to explain his positive doping test for testosterone, Björn Leukemans has said that he was having sex when the doping controllers arrived to take his urine sample in an out-of-competition test shortly before the Worlds in September. However, anti-doping experts have laughed this explanation off. While not addressing the specific case, Wilhelm Schänzer of the anti-doping lab in Cologne, Germany, said, “If you ask whether sex has an influence on testosterone levels, I say: sex has nothing to do with synthetic testosterone.” Hans Cooman of the Vlaamse Gemeenschap [Flemish Community in Belgium], who took the sample from Leukemans, confirmed to Sportwereld that “The natural testosterone [level] may perhaps be higher [while having sex], but I do not see how sex can influence synthetic testosterone.”
This was the story the day before on cycling news. You’ll notice Leukmans’ first claim was that… “he naturally has higher testosterone values.” :
Björn Leukemans has continued to protest his innocence and denied having used testosterone, saying that he has naturally high testosterone values. Team Predictor-Lotto announced yesterday evening that it had suspended the 30 year-old after learning of the positive doping test. Predictor-LottoTeam manager Marc Sergeant defended his rider, telling the Flemish public broadcaster VRT that “We are always 200 percent against doping. We cannot deny these facts and must suspend Björn, even though he swears up and down that he has done nothing wrong. Björn told us that in the past he already showed too-high values once. He naturally has higher testosterone values than others, and he thinks that this is such a case.”
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