Moreno case points finger at Spain and cycling

BEIJING (Reuters) - The first doping case at the Beijing Olympics involved a Spanish cyclist, Maria Isabel Moreno, again pointing the finger of blame at a sport and a country both regularly linked to doping.

"Of course it's a blow for cycling," the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), Pat McQuaid, told Reuters on Monday.

"And it's a Spanish rider, which shows that we have a problem in Spain. It's time that Spanish authorities start to do something concretely. For years, they have not been tough enough on doping and this is the result of their leniency," he added.

Moreno failed an out of competition test for EPO on July 31 and left Beijing unexpectedly without waiting for the results, citing "a crisis of anxiety" which stopped her from entering the women's road race.

Spanish cyclists had apparently been targeted for controls by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with the whole team tested three times at the Olympic village before the competition started.

In an interview with sports daily Marca, Spanish coach Paco Antequera complained about the testing, which other teams were not subjected to.

"It seriously hampered our preparation," he said.

Antequera also said the gold medal won by Spaniard Samuel Sanchez in the men's road race on Saturday avenged what he saw as persecution.

Sanchez's gold medal in Beijing followed team mate Carlos Sastre's Tour de France victory in July, the third Spaniard in a row to win the world's most prestigious cycling race after Alberto Contador and Oscar Pereiro.

Spanish cycling success in recent years has often been tarnished by doping scandals.

Sanchez's gold medal in Beijing followed team mate Carlos Sastre's Tour de France victory in July, the third Spaniard in a row to win the world's most prestigious cycling race after Alberto Contador and Oscar Pereiro.

But two of the five riders who tested positive in the last Tour were Spaniards, Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado, both kicked out of the race for failing EPO tests.

SERIOUSLY ROCKED

Spanish cycling was seriously rocked over the last two years by Operacion Puerto, a doping investigation which led to the arrest of former Kelme team doctor Eufemanio Fuentes and the seizure of doping products and bags of blood plasma used for transfusion.

Influential team director Manolo Saiz was arrested and leading Spanish riders like Jose Enrique Guttierez, Oscar Sevilla, Francisco Mancebo or Joseba Beloki were identified as his patients and suspended.

Suspicion has also surrounded Alejandro Valverde, Spain's most successful rider in the last two years, because one of the blood bags bore the name of his dog, Piti.

The UCI tried to prevent Valverde from taking part in the last world championships in Stuttgart for his alleged implication in the scandal, a decision overruled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Valverde was pre-race favorite for the road event in Beijing but finished only 13th.

A urine test to detect EPO was launched in 2000 and remains the main weapon of the anti-doping agencies against the banned oxygen-enhancing hormone.

Another doping case in the Tour de France, involving Italian climber Riccardo Ricco, revealed that anti-doping laboratories were now capable of spotting a new generation of EPO previously thought to be undetectable.

It is not yet known what form of EPO Moreno was tested for.

(Editing by Ed Osmond)

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