Velo News wrote:Perez implicated in blood doping, Spanish daily reports
By VeloNews Interactive
This report filed October 30, 2004
Santi Perez (Phonak), runner-up in the 2004 Vuelta a España, may have tested positive for blood doping, according to the Spanish daily MARCA.
The daily suggests that the result may have come from the A sample in an out-of-competition test, adding that it is not yet certain whether the alleged blood doping involved the transfusion of Perez' own blood or the blood of another.
MARCA also suggested that there might have been a procedural problem with the examination of the B sample, saying that neither Perez nor a representative of his team was present.
This might explain the delay in any official announcement from the UCI or the Spanish cycling federation, as well as the failure to date of Phonak and Perez to reach agreement on a new contract, the daily added.
Phonak's contracts include a dismissal clause for any rider found guilty of a medical violation, MARCA said.
Perez, the revelation of this year's Vuelta, abruptly withdrew from the Spanish world's team on September 27, citing a bout of gastroenteritis. Earlier, American Tyler Hamilton abandoned the Vuelta, also blaming stomach problems, after his A sample tested positive for blood doping at the Athens Olympics and both A and B samples tested positive at the Vuelta.
Hamilton's B sample from Athens was mishandled and the International Olympic Committee subsequently ended its inquiry into the matter, though he still faces a possible two-year suspension for the positive at the Vuelta.
Both Hamilton and Phonak proclaim innocence in the matter and plan to challenge the test as scientifically untrustworthy.