Dope test created for an advanced form of the blood booster EPO! - Beijing athletes to be retested!

CERA is a newly created form of Epogen or "EPO" creted by Swiss pharmaceutical company, Roche. It ultimatley is an advanced form of Epogen that both kidney failure patients and corrupt endurance athletes want.

Amgen developed Epogen first and litterally made billions-of-dollars off its sales thus setting Amgen up as the biotech giant it is today. After 17-years, the Epogen patent expired allowing other drug manufacturers to "monkey" with it and make revised versions of it. That's where Roche comes in.

Roche adds a "...gylcol molecule" to the EPO making it more powerful and subsequently requiring patients to receive less doses of it. Patients like the idea of receiving fewer shots and cheaters, who are obviously more inspired by a more powerful form of EPO, began taking it. However, there is this little detail the dopers missed and I suspect that little detail is the "Methoxy polyethylene glycol" molecule they added to it. (Who has that molecule bouncing around their system like a carbonated bubble inside a bottle Perrier? Not me!)

Roche knows what they created and they know the consequences, so they hook up with WADA and I have a strong suspicion that they said, test for "Methoxy polyethylene glycol." My reference for believing that is the test marker is this NPR article that references it: [Link]

The Guardian: "...On Wednesday the International Olympic Committee said the new Cera blood test would be used to analyse almost 1,000 blood samples collected during the Beijing Games, and an IOC spokeswoman added last night that these samples could also be tested for autologous transfusions "if a method is fully validated by the scientific community [and] Wada.". ..." [Link]

The Associated Press: "...The head of the Tour de France on Tuesday hailed a new lab test that has exposed three riders in the 2008 race for cheating with an advanced form of the blood booster EPO.

"It's very good. It allows us to confound the cheaters," Christian Prudhomme told The Associated Press by phone. "What's being done at the Tour de France has never existed in the world of sport, in no competition."..." [Link]

However, The Giro d'Italia Chief won't retest riders for CERA because he "knows that all his riders were all clean." (I can just see our American NFL Commissioner saying to himself, "yeah, that has a nice ring to it as a drug protocol - Gosh, I soooo stupid not to have thought that up myself!")

Vello News: '...According to Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday, Zomegnan believes none of the riders on the race - won by Spaniard Alberto Contador - used the drug. ..." Vello News: [Link]

Thanks to the French Coach for suggesting this article.

More Masters Swimming articles in the news!

From the Washington post: "...Research continues to demonstrate the benefits of exercise, no matter your age. But the Tatum brothers, who for nearly 90 years have swum, skied, bowled, played football and worked in the yard, have never needed convincing. ..." [Link]

This is a great article about two masters swimmers with amazing stories and accomplishments. There is even a video included within the article.

In fact, the story was so good that even NPR covered them as well. Here is the audio link: [Link]

Article sent to us by "lane4 [at] SMC."

I just swam in 72 degree water at Santa Monica College

Santa Monica College, home of KCRW and NPR has one of the best pools in Southern California. The staff is great, it's clean and I appreciate it so much that they let SCAQ swim there. Tonight, they got their boiler back on line but a 50 meter pool takes a long time to heat, Consequently we swam in 72 degree water.