List of Doping Cases in Cycling - 1980s - 1988

1988

• Pedro Delgado of Spain tested positive for probenecid at the 1988 Tour de France. Probenicid interferes with chemicals which the kidneys secrete, and thus aroused a suspicion that he was using it as a masking agent for steroid use. Though other sports governing bodies, such as the IOC, recognized probenecid as a doping agent, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), which oversaw cycling, did not, and thus Delgado was allowed to continue in the event without sanction.

• Gert-Jan Theunisse of the Netherlands tested positive for testosterone during the Tour de France and received a ten-minute penalty which moved him from fourth to eleventh place overall. He admitted in 2000 to using illegal substances during his career, according to an interview published by the Dutch regional newspaper Dutch "Eindhovens Dagblad". He confessed "to having used a great deal of Celestone", a corticoid, but he denied to having taken testosterone.

• Geert Van de Walle of Belgium died on 26 November 1988, aged 22, from a heart attack. His death was noted by Willy Voet in his book Massacre à la chaîne although he acknowledged the impossibility of proving the link between these early deaths and the drugs taken while racing.

• In 1988, the first rider was banned for using EPO.

The emergence of EPO - In the late 1980s a recombinant drug created for people suffering from kidney failure became a substance abused by athletes seeking enhanced stamina and performance. The drug is recombinant erythropoietin, known as EPO, which was developed by the Amgen company. Recombinant EPO is a bio-manufactured copy of a hormone normally produced in the kidney and was not detectable by any test at the time.

EPO stimulates the bone marrow in order to increase red blood cell production and thus the body's ability to carry oxygen. A study of 15 Swedish athletes by the Stockholm Institute of Gymnastics and Sports found an improvement of nearly 10 percent in aerobic performance. "Average" red blood cell volume of the population at sea level is about 45% red blood cells. About 5% of the population has less than 40% red blood cell, which is defined as "anemia" and 5% of the population, including many world class athletes, have a natural red blood cells volume of 50%... 1% of the population has 54% red blood cell volume.

The increased thickness of the blood (above 70% red blood cells) increases the risk of blood clotting which can block blood vessels causing a heart attack or stroke, especially in the middle of the night when the heart's rate is lowest. Doctors and blood specialists concluded that the drug could have been implicated in the deaths of as many as 18 European professional bicycle racers between 1987 and 1991. One of them was Johannes Draaijer, a 27-year-old Dutch rider who finished 130th in the 1989 Tour de France. Although the autopsy did not specify the cause of death Draaijer's wife later told the German news magazine Der Spiegel that her husband became sick after using EPO.