Agostini Positive for Clostebol

frenchfighter

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/agostin ... -clostebol

20.09.2013

The UCI advised Italian rider Stefano Agostini that he is provisionally suspended. The decision to provisionally suspend this rider was made in response to a report from the WADA-accredited laboratory in Köln indicating an adverse analytical finding of clostebol in a urine sample collected from him in an out of competition test on 21 August 2013.

The provisional suspension of Mr. Agostini remains in force until a hearing panel convened by the Italian Cycling Federation determines whether he has committed an anti-doping rule violation under Article 21 of the UCI Anti-Doping Rules.

Mr. Agostini has the right to request and attend the analysis of his B sample.

Under the World Anti-Doping Code and the UCI Anti-Doping Rules, the UCI is unable to provide any additional information at this time.

UCI Press Service

MrTapir

is that a similar type of thing to clenbuterol?

dsoutar

It's an anabolic steroid which I don't believe clenbuterol is

MrTapir

dsoutar wrote:

It's an anabolic steroid which I don't believe clenbuterol is

ah right, i was wondering if its a masking agent or something.

Pross

He may have been on the job before being tested

http://www.clinchem.org/content/50/2/456.full

iainf72

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/agostin ... l-positive

frenchfighter

Its ridiculous that they can take away someone`s livelihood for something like that.

It`s like your boss firing you because you brought him team not coffee.

RichN95.

iainf72 wrote:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/agostini-blames-topical-cream-for-clostebol-positive

A sad tale of an Italian man's over reliance on his mother.

Pross

Reduced ban? Nice to see someone not enforcing the B sample test for a change. I have to admit, I'd never have thought of an externally applied cream entering the blood stream.

dish_dash

shame but zero tolerance = zero tolerance... no excuses... want a career as a professional sportsperson then you gotta adhere to the rules as painful as they maybe at times...

TheBigBean

frenchfighter wrote:

Its ridiculous that they can take away someone`s livelihood for something like that.

It`s like your boss firing you because you brought him team not coffee.

I disagree with this. It's like your boss firing you because you brought him tea, when you know you'll get fired for that mistake.

Athletes know they can't just take anything. He may be telling the truth, but my guess* is that 90% of the innocent mistakes are not so innocent.


*no basis in fact

squired

In a sense it shows that maybe there is an educational gap given that he said he didn't think it would be a problem because it wasn't something you needed a prescription for. Teams need to ensure that their riders fully understand issues like this, because the rider may get the ban, but the sponsor ultimately suffers reputational damage as a result.

Mad_Malx

Pross wrote:

He may have been on the job before being tested

http://www.clinchem.org/content/50/2/456.full

This must be his best defense - just needs to identify a few partners and say that his sessions are (of course) much longer than 20 minutes!

Edit - great find Pros!

Mad_Malx

squired wrote:

In a sense it shows that maybe there is an educational gap given that he said he didn't think it would be a problem because it wasn't something you needed a prescription for. Teams need to ensure that their riders fully understand issues like this, because the rider may get the ban, but the sponsor ultimately suffers reputational damage as a result.

Absolutely - it really is stunningly stupid for a professional athlete to take someone else's medicine without checking very carefully. Pretty much any drug with the letters -bol (as well as others) are steroids.

Pross

He's Italian, of course he lasts more than 20 minutes not like us Brits! Finding some woman to say in public she had a bit of itch that needed treating might be the difficult bit.

salsiccia1

Pross wrote:

Reduced ban? Nice to see someone not enforcing the B sample test for a change. I have to admit, I'd never have thought of an externally applied cream entering the blood stream.

I'd like to think a reduced ban might be applied. Call me naive, but it does sound like a genuine mistake and he's admitted it's his own fault.

All that being said, I do agree with a punishment being applied because there has to be complete accountability on the athlete's behalf, otherwise a cheat could offer any sort of excuse and the burden of proof is on those trying to sanction. If you are a professional-level athlete being ultra-careful is part of the job.

iainf72

Mad_Malx wrote:

Absolutely - it really is stunningly stupid for a professional athlete to take someone else's medicine without checking very carefully. Pretty much any drug with the letters -bol (as well as others) are steroids.

Not that uncommon. A physio I knew used to work with a few county cricket teams, and they used to have terrible problems getting the guys to make sure they only took things that were safe. And that with the UKADA having a web portal where you could put in an OTC product name and see if it's ok

tailwindhome

Mad_Malx wrote:

squired wrote:

In a sense it shows that maybe there is an educational gap given that he said he didn't think it would be a problem because it wasn't something you needed a prescription for. Teams need to ensure that their riders fully understand issues like this, because the rider may get the ban, but the sponsor ultimately suffers reputational damage as a result.

Absolutely - it really is stunningly stupid for a professional athlete to take someone else's medicine without checking very carefully. Pretty much any drug with the letters -bol (as well as others) are steroids.

Kolo Toure. Not just stupid enough to take illegal substances but to imply his wife was fat.

dsoutar

Alain Baxter anyone ?

RichN95.

The best one was LaShawn Merritt who claimed the anabolic steroid for which he tested positive was in a penis enlargement product. I would have let him off just for having the balls to claim that. (Balls but not penis, obviously)

Mad_Malx

dsoutar wrote:

Alain Baxter anyone ?

If I remember correctly Baxter's defense was that the decongestant had the same name but different formulation in USA (and there were other inconsistencies). I'm not necessarily saying Baxter should escape sanction either (because I don't know the evidence) but this isn't as stupid (in my opinion).

Hypothetically - because he isn't claiming this- IF Agostini did produce GF (or BF) who could demonstrate they had Clostebol in a relevant orifice to transfer, this would actually be a defense wouldn't it? Isn't this the essence of the steak defense against strict liability?

Mad_Malx

TailWindHome wrote:

Kolo Toure. Not just stupid enough to take illegal substances but to imply his wife was fat.

RichN95.

Mad_Malx wrote:

dsoutar wrote:

Alain Baxter anyone ?

If I remember correctly Baxter's defense was that the decongestant had the same name but different formulation in USA (and there were other inconsistencies). I'm not necessarily saying Baxter should escape sanction either (because I don't know the evidence) but this isn't as stupid (in my opinion).

It was a Vicks inhaler.

After he failed the test he was stripped of his bronze medal and it was given to the skier in fourth. That skier then gave it back to Baxter.

Pross

Never realised he had the medal given back, nice touch. I think it was pretty much universally agreed it was a genuine mistake and he got a minimal ban but having his name stripped from the record books was quite a punishment but necessary under strict liability. Basically there is never a defence no matter how unintentional.

RichN95.

Pross wrote:

Never realised he had the medal given back, nice touch. I think it was pretty much universally agreed it was a genuine mistake and he got a minimal ban but having his name stripped from the record books was quite a punishment but necessary under strict liability. Basically there is never a defence no matter how unintentional.

Another medal returning story I like (intially) is that when Antonio Pettigrew (a US 400m runner) admitted to doping, Michael Johnson returned his relay gold medal to the IOC without asking. (It didn't end nicely though - Pettigrew committed suicide two years later).

gpreeves

RichN95 wrote:

Pross wrote:

Never realised he had the medal given back, nice touch. I think it was pretty much universally agreed it was a genuine mistake and he got a minimal ban but having his name stripped from the record books was quite a punishment but necessary under strict liability. Basically there is never a defence no matter how unintentional.

Another medal returning story I like (intially) is that when Antonio Pettigrew (a US 400m runner) admitted to doping, Michael Johnson returned his relay gold medal to the IOC without asking. (It didn't end nicely though - Pettigrew committed suicide two years later).

Interesting story. It led me onto this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stripped_Olympic_medals

I had no idea that there had been so many since Sydney!

Mikey23

What a depressing list ...

frenchfighter

To the attention of Mr. Leroux Dominique
UCI – CH 1860 Aigle/ Suisse

Object : UCI file 043/2013 – Agostini Stefano

Dear Sirs,

I want to clarify that my acceptance of the sanction is to be understood as a declaration of capitulation: I give up to a system that has decided that at age 25 I should stop being a professional cyclist.

I think the sanction you have decided for me is not right and I do not feel at all belong to me since I have never made use of performance-enhancing drugs.

My biological passport is impeccable, the different and multiple blood tests can not be faulted.

It is just that the emeritus laboratory in Cologne has detected the presence of 0.7 billionths of a gram in my urine of a substance called Clostebol, the active ingredient of the ointment Trofodermin that I myself had declared at the time of the test and that I had been regularly prescribed by a doctor to treat a rash.

The laboratory has reported, in infinitesimal extent, what I had said in perfect good faith. If I had not declared it probably now I would not be in this paradoxical situation because it would not even been found. This will remain a strong and unresolved question in my mind.

Everybody knows that you can’t dope with an ointment, for more prescribed by your doctor, and sold in any pharmacy or drugstore, even without medical prescription.

Well after 7 long months of suspension, explanations of the factual circumstances of the case, requests of additional information with maturities of short and peremptory time, of grueling waiting for some kind of feedback from you (which came systematically after weeks by my questioning), wear and tear and stress mixed with apprehension … the esteemed UCI, despite having a very clear situation documented beyond any doubt, decided to treat me in such a way besides significantly more severe than other athletes “stumbled” into Trofodermin, even the same way as who does and has done in the past use of EPO, cocaine, blood transfusions, or manipulations of his own blood, proposing a 15-month ban, in addition to the payment of the expenses incurred by you, which is almost like a bad joke.

If your conclusion is to impose me a disqualification undoubtedly excessive, what is most striking are the reasons for this choice. The documentation produced by me duly in your terms proved the truthfulness of my version and then my honesty, the UCI itself has recognized the use of Trofodermin cream for a therapeutic purpose, motivated by a medical prescription, but this explanation and justification was not enough, given the imputation of liability.

This is the process culmination of sanction acceptance that you proposed me months ago, with the stated purpose of speeding up the decision and avoid a trial and related expenses. Obviously none of this has happened and the conclusion then is grotesque.

The alternative that I have is the transmission of the dossier to the Italian Cycling Federation with the steering of the process, the outcome of which will have to confirm the authority deciding the 15-month disqualification otherwise the UCI itself, as already stated candidly in a veiled blackmail tone, will recourse to CAS in Lausanne; for myself this would obviously mean conducting counter and expertise, contribution to a legal defense of the mandate as well as the appointment of arbitrators for a total cost of around 30-35,000 Euros that I don’t have.

I dare say, in the light of the absurd conclusion of this case, that the UCI Anti-Doping “network” has undoubtedly some malfunction since it does not make a distinction with regard to who gets stuck there, even in the light of the circumstances that are certainly worth to distinguish one case from another, as mine and the one of a “real” drug-taking in order to alter performance and distort the results.

Reiterating then as the end of my cycling career due exclusively to 0.7 nanograms (0.000000007 g) Clostebol coming, for your same recognition, as an ointment used once in order to cure, under medical advice, a demonstrated disease, I would like to add that from this vicissitude a deep and intractable disillusionment in the values of honesty, justice, and equality in the sense of treating equal situations [equally] and different situations in different ways remain me.

I leave professional cycling with dignity, knowing that I never cheated and I conquered all my results with dedication and sacrifice, well aware that this absurd story has also caused considerable damage to my image.

Finally, I think that this story, which has ruined my career and destroyed my dreams, will also undermine the credibility, usefulness, and infallibility of your doping control system.

Sincerely,
Stefano Agostini

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/04/ ... KfXLs6f.99

I think it is very sad and feel for Stefano. He mentions what I have done numerous times before, namely strong sanctions based on ridiculously low levels of UCI deemed 'drugs' is farcical. Some serious over-compensation by the UCI and doping authorities for the ineptitude in the past. Cookson, what is your view on this?

Richmond Racer

Very, very few athletes who get done, 'fess up - and only a few more subsequently. Its always 'I didnt know' or 'it was someone else's fault' - or the chimera twin line, obvs.

Asafa Powell - case in point. Frankly the eternal excuses from the Jamaican track and field athletes is wearing very thin.

Mad_Malx

I feel quite sorry for him now, but contesting the ban was never going to work. Better to accept it and do his time, however unjust he (or we) might feel this is.

There is an inconsistency between this post and what he is quoted as saying in the CN article - here he says he was prescribed the drug, previously he said he got it from his mum and subsequently checked with the doc to discover it was a mistake.

While it's clear that tiny amounts have no benefit it's the only realistic way of picking up out of competition doping (which is where steroids would help) given the low frequency of testing.

Daz555

I can't believe people are still buying this bull from pro sportspeople about it being a totally innocent use of something they bought from Boots or something their mother gave them.

Jeez such lies are pathetically transparent.