Cycling Compiles Biological "Passports" to Root Out Doping
source: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=biological-passports-cycling-doping
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Cycling, a sport that rivals or surpasses baseball in credibility issues when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs, is taking a new scientific tack in a bid to polish its tarnished image. The sport's international governing body, the International Cycling Union (UCI), has been murmuring to the press that doping charges are forthcoming—and soon—courtesy of a newly instituted anti-doping measure known as the biological passport.
The passport is an electronic record of an individual athlete's biological attributes, developed over time from multiple sample collections. (During the 2008 season, the UCI collected an average of 10 samples each from more than 800 cyclists.) Rather than ordinary spot-testing approaches, which look for unnatural ratios between biological constituents in a single sample or for direct chemical evidence of known doping agents, the passport allows investigators to see the big picture—any deviations from the rider's test-established norm that might result from doping, even if the specific drug or tactic remains unknown.
The UCI has assembled a nine-member panel of independent scientists to evaluate the riders' profiles. Michael Ashenden, a sports scientist with the Science and Industry Against Blood Doping consortium in Australia who sits on the UCI panel, says that each member of the group can examine whatever markers he or she chooses in blood profiles. (The UCI also collects urine samples to track steroids such as testosterone, high levels of which caused 2006 Tour de France champion Floyd Landis to be stripped of his title.)
The passport is an electronic record of an individual athlete's biological attributes, developed over time from multiple sample collections. (During the 2008 season, the UCI collected an average of 10 samples each from more than 800 cyclists.) Rather than ordinary spot-testing approaches, which look for unnatural ratios between biological constituents in a single sample or for direct chemical evidence of known doping agents, the passport allows investigators to see the big picture—any deviations from the rider's test-established norm that might result from doping, even if the specific drug or tactic remains unknown.
The UCI has assembled a nine-member panel of independent scientists to evaluate the riders' profiles. Michael Ashenden, a sports scientist with the Science and Industry Against Blood Doping consortium in Australia who sits on the UCI panel, says that each member of the group can examine whatever markers he or she chooses in blood profiles. (The UCI also collects urine samples to track steroids such as testosterone, high levels of which caused 2006 Tour de France champion Floyd Landis to be stripped of his title.)
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