Team Columbia participates in comprehensive new ANTI-doping program

New Program with Anti-Doping Sciences Institute Promises an Intense Focus on Anti-Doping

High Road Sports Inc., owner and operator of Team Columbia announces participation in a new program run by the Anti-Doping Sciences Institute (ADSI). Designed by leading anti-doping expert Don Catlin, the new independent testing program will build upon the comprehensive testing conducted on the team’s athletes in 2008 and complements the UCI’s Biological Passport program.

“Make no mistake about it. We take our anti-doping efforts very seriously,” says Team Owner Bob Stapleton. “Don Catlin is passionate about uncovering cheats and supporting athletes that compete by fair means. We have been discussing this potential with Don for over a year and ADSI’s new program will be the perfect continuation of what we have embarked on as a team since our introduction to the ProTour in 2007.”

The program will use data from samples collected by ADSI during 2009, and will incorporate data from the UCI and build on the athlete profiles established over the last year and a half. A combination of urine and blood testing will be used to: expand and deepen the scope of testing for EPO, CERA and other related drugs; identify steroids and other drugs that may be in a sample; and continue to develop longitudinal profiles for blood markers and steroid levels. Analytical work will be performed by Anti-Doping Research, under contract to ADSI, as well as other labs selected by ADSI. Combined with the UCI Biological Passport, the expectation is that athletes from Team Columbia will have 600 samples taken during the season. Test results from ADSI’s program will be made available to the UCI and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency).

“We continue to give our riders every chance of success, and we constantly seek the best tools and technology available to do so,” continues Stapleton. “Our partnership with Don Catlin and our collaborative effort with Team Garmin-Slipstream is a perfect example. We may be competitors on the road, but we strongly believe that by working together, we can continue to help create change in the sport.

“Our common goals are to reinforce team values, ensure proper conduct and respect personal commitment to the team. This essential trust between teammates and management is a vital part of the team’s success. We succeed as a team together.”

Dr. Catlin, widely considered one of the fathers of drug testing in sport, founded the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory and served as its director for 25 years until his retirement from UCLA in 2007. He has overseen drug testing at every level of sport, including Olympic, professional and collegiate, and he and his team is responsible for pioneering many of the drug identification techniques currently in use. He was central to the BALCO case, when in 2003 he succeeded in identifying and developing a test for the illegal testosterone product THG, exposing many athletes in the process. Catlin has frequently served as an expert witness in numerous legal proceedings.

ADSI was established as a drug testing and consulting company in 2004 by Dr. Catlin and his son Oliver, in efforts to ensure an outlet for Dr. Catlin’s unique vision and approach to drug testing for the long term future. In 2005 he and his colleagues founded the non-profit Anti-Doping Research, Inc. (ADR) with a focus on research and method development, providing various elements of the anti-doping community with analytical services, educating the public on anti-doping and related issues, fostering collaboration in the field, and considering new concepts and approaches to anti-doping.

“I have been involved in doping control for decades,” says Catlin. “When I developed the first anti-doping laboratory in the United States at UCLA in 1982, my hope was to prevent doping in sports and to work with teams and athletes who shared that hope. Team Columbia HighRoad and Garmin-Slipstream have proven that they do. I’m thrilled to be able to work with them.”

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