November 4, 2007 – Scientists are working on new test that can detect genetic doping, claims World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Dick Pound according to an AFP report citing The Financial Times. Pound describes genetic doping as something that is still a few years away but that could “eventually dwarf drugs-based cheating in sports.” Interpol estimated the value of the illicit sports drug market at $19 billion in 2005. Pound, a Montrealer, is stepping down from his position at WADA on November 17 to be replaced by Australian John Fahey. Read the full story here.

Doping scandals continued to create reverberations this week in Europe with Andrey Kashechkin (formerly Astana), Patrik Sinkewitz (formerly T-Mobile) and Jan Ullrich (formerly T-Mobile) notably in the news. As reported previously, Kashechkin is fighting his doping ban in a court of law on the grounds that it violates his human rights. Although Kazakh by origin, Kashechkin now lives in Belgium and a tribunal is expected to hear his case in Liege on November 6. For more on this story click here.

Sinkewitz, who tested positive for artificial testosterone during the 2007 Tour de France, admitted in recent days to taking erythropoietin (EPO) in 2003 when he rode for Team Quick-Step and continuing to do so when riding for T-Mobile according to BBC. He named two T-Mobile doctors, saying they provided EPO and answered questions about blood doping, but then suggested that they only did so reluctantly to prevent cyclists from going elsewhere. Sinkewitz also claims that team doping stopped at T-Mobile in 2006 after Jan Ullrich was implicated in the Puerto doping scandal.

Ullrich, meanwhile, is in a legal fight against German anti-doping advocate Werner Franke. Franke is attempting to overturn a restraining order that Ullrich won against the doping expert according to a CP report. Franke had previously stated publicly that Ullrich paid 120,000 euros ($163,000 Cdn) into the bank account of Dr. Eufemanio Fuentes, who is at the centre of the Puerto doping investigation. A Hamburg court is expected to hear Franke’s challenge by November 30 and Franke’s lawyer may subpoena Ivan Basso, Fuentes and three others to testify. The others are Ullrich adviser Rudy Pevenage, former Team Telekom masseuse Jef D’Hont, and Joerg Jaksche (Tinkoff), the first cyclist to admit to being a patient of Fuentes.