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. Spain's sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky told a news conference that the test was “a stain on Spanish sport”. But he insisted that a new anti-doping law in his country had toughened sanctions against offenders and had doubled the anti-doping budget in Spain. “Our motto is zero tolerance. We're going to clamp down on all the cheaters who tarnish Spanish sport,” he added. Spanish cyclists had apparently been targeted for controls by the 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. 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 teammate 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. 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. “We had better success on the road than in our anti-doping fight,” Spanish cycling federation president Fulgencio Sanchez said. 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. 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. – Reuters __
