Cyclist Bernhard Kohl Details his Doping in 2008 Tour de France

by optic | June 9, 2009 at 07:27 am

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Recently retired pro cyclist Bernhard Kohl has detailed his doping practices from the 2008 Tour de France, explaining how he received blood transfusions undetected by his team and the doping controls. The 27 year-old Kohl retired as a result of his positive test and has a spoken in detail about the way in which it is possible for him to continue using performance enhancing products despite the strengthening doping controls.

Kohl tells all about doping Former Gerolsteiner rider and Tour de France podium finisher Bernhard Kohl is now an open book on doping practices in the peloton after he was caught for blood booster EPO-CERA in August last year and recently announced his retirement from the sport. In an exclusive interview with L'Equipe, the Austrian detailed how he "prepared" himself for last year's Tour and received blood transfusions from his manager during the event.

The blood transfusions took place in the evenings at the team hotels. Kohl's manager, Stefan Matschiner, flew to France three times during the Tour to meet the cyclist and provide him with a pouch of 0.5 litres of blood. "He sent me an SMS: 'You can come to my room'. I disappeared for 20 minutes, nothing more. Nobody noticed anything," Kohl stated.

Kohl and two others were caught using the next-generation blood booster EPO-CERA in last year's Tour de France, a synthetic form of erythropoietin which stimulates the bone marrow’s production of red blood cells. But he also states that before the Tour he used EPO, human growth hormones and insulin. During the Tour itself it seems the caffeine, pseudo-ephedrine, painkillers and the EPO mentioned above by injecting 1/2 litre of his own bloof 3 times during the Tour.

"Everybody in the cycling scene was convinced that this EPO was not detectable. Many more riders had taken it. Oddly enough, we were only three to fall. I am convinced that the top ten could have been positive," the Austrian said. "It just happened to be me, tough luck. I didn't ask for a counter-analysis: this masquerade was over."

Finally, Kohl said efforts of the biological passport have fallen short, and perhaps even aided the more nefarious members of the peloton.

“The top riders are so good at doping that they know what they need to do to keep their blood levels stable to escape targeting,” he said. “In fact, the UCI has shown us the levels of riders who failed tests. We used that as a reference to follow. The passport has almost helped us.”

Kohl announced on May 25 that he would retire from competition permanently.

Kohl acknowledges that his decision to speak out is the true reason for his retirment as it has in effect blackballed him from any professional cycling team, something which is denied by most riders in the peleton who suggest that Kohl's statements are a matter of sour grapes.