Bernhard Kohl

October 14th, 2008 filed in Cycling

Bernhard Kohl is the latest cyclist to test positive for CERA at the 2008 Tour de France. The Austrian, Kohl, won the King of the Mountains Jersey and a 3rd place podium position in the overall classification at this year’s tour. He joins teammate Stefan Schumacher, Riccardo Ricco, and Leonardo Piepoli as the latest cyclist caught doping with CERA, a new form of EPO.

To the AFP for the story :

Kohl is the fourth rider to have been found positive for this drug by the AFLD since it pioneered a new blood test for EPO Cera and is currently retroactively testing blood samples of riders during the 2008 race. An AFLD statement on Monday said: “The AFLD confirms that its laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry has found two abnormal samples showing the presence of EPO Cera in blood tests done on July 3 and 15, before and during the Tour de France, on Austrian cyclist Bernard Kohl.

“The official notification to the athlete was done through the Austrian Anti-doping Agency (NADA Austria). This means disciplinary proceedings can be taken against the athlete by the French and Austrian national disciplinary authorities, as the 2008 Tour de France was not included in the UCI (world cycling’s governing body) calendar.”

Kohl was one of the major surprises of this years tour, riding high in the overall classification, and placing 3rd overall behind Carlos Sastre and Cadel Evans. His tour seemed too good to be true, and apparently it was. Bernhard Kohl had just signed with a new team, Silence-Lotto, and he was promptly fired from that team today. The AP has more details :

Kohl, a climbing specialist, rode for Gerolsteiner this season but has since signed with Silence-Lotto through 2011. The Belgian team had hoped he would be a key support rider for Cadel Evans as the Australian challenges for the Tour victory next year.

Silence-Lotto said in a statement it would take “the necessary legal steps to immediately stop the cooperation with Kohl. I’d much rather finish fourth in an honest way than win with the least bit of suspicion,” team chief Marc Coucke told VRT network. “Fortunately it happened now,” he said, noting that Kohl had yet to ride for the team.

Bernhard Kohl CHEATed in the Tour de France
Chester Cheater

What did I say to you just a week ago? “I figure it will only be a matter of days before his fellow overachieving teammates Bernhard Kohl and Sebastian Lang are also outed as a dopers. Remembers those names.” Sounds a bit prophetic doesn’t it? We still have time for Lang to come back dirty as well, but I would be happy with nailing one of the two. Bernhard Kohl looked out of place in the Tour de France, his performance was the best of his life, out of character. He was one of the biggest surprises of the race, and as we have come to learn, surprise = cheating. Schumacher and Kohl were room mates at the tour, and collectively they returned the most unexpected results. It comes as no surprise that they were cheating together. I can’t wait for the tell-all book to come out, explaining how they injected each other in the ass.

Cycling is BEATing the drug cheats
Billy Beater

I don’t know what I can say to defend this young man, so I won’t even waste the effort. I would like however to defend the sport of cycling. I have heard many criticize cycling as being a dirty sport, full of doping, and how it should be removed from the Olympics. I think this criticism could not be further from the truth. In actuality, cycling is catching more cheaters because it has the best and most aggressive testing. Cyclists are tested in competition, out of competition, randomly, and after victories and high finishes. When was the last time you saw a baseball player asked to give a blood and urine sample after rounding the bases in a home run trot? 180 riders started the 2008 Tour de France, and 7 have now been caught doping. That is less than 4%. Meanwhile Jose Canseco maintains that 85% of baseball players were using performance enhancing drugs when he played. Cycling is BEATing the drug cheats, and should be applauded for it.

So what do you think? Did Bernhard Kohl CHEAT, or BEAT?