Musing and Errata on the world of Adventure Racing from the Yak
presented by MPGear.com

Just got off the phone with Lotta Richter of Saga d'Aventures in Paris. She was gracious enough to provide some insight into the first known case of an adventure racer testing positive for doping.

First off all it is important to note that Saga has put a lot of thought into their drug testing policy. They decided some time ago that the issue was important enough that any world class race promoter must take a position on it and that clearly the only responsible position must be that the use of performance enhancing drugs or techniques is simply not tolerable.

They decided further that it is necessary to enforce that position by way of testing. To be sure that they instituted a program that would be fair and credible they sought the advice of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) who educated them as to the state of modern drug testing technology, policies and standards. Based on what they learned, Saga contracted IDTM (International Doping Tests & Management) in Sweden to provide drug testing services for each of their events around the world. They are one of only 4 companies that provide this service on a global scale.

Lotta went on to explain that a "positive doping control" does not mean that the athlete necessarily tested positive for the practice of blood doping, but only that there was a violation of some kind. In fact the specific details of the violation are known only to IDTM, Saga d'Aventures and the athlete who was notified before a public statement was made.

I asked why the results were only now being reported when the race and test were conducted in mid-December. According to Lotta the turnaround on the test takes some time and when the positive result came in, Saga once again sought the advice of the IOC as to the right way to handle notifying the athlete and about public disclosure.

You can read the details of the anti-doping rules at the Raid World Championship in the Rules and Regulations (PDF).

The bottom line is that as adventure racing grows and as we see more six figure payouts for winning the big races there are going to be some athletes looking for an edge to put them "in the money" and some will be willing to do whatever it takes. Barry Bonds anyone?

Kudos to Saga for being on the right side of this issue. A drug scandal doesn't do much to help the sport, but the fact that athletes are being tested goes a long way towards establishing a standard of professionalism at the highest levels of competition.