Dismissing Christophe Brandt for testing positive for methadone seems really strange. Taking it without a prescription may be illegal, but it seems extremely unlikely to be enhancing in any way. There is no euphoria with this opioid and it is extremely easy to detect, and everyone ought to be aware of that. It also has a half life of several days usually, and so if you took it today, you'd likely still test positive next week. You would have to be a really dumb doper (oxymoronic?) to use methadone. It would seem lab error would be a reasonable explanation for this positive. My common sense would be not to keep a person from continuing the tour on this test alone. Assuming the test was run the same day as the sample was taken, it ought to be positive the next day too because of the long half life. At the least with this non-enhancing drug, they ought to repeat the test in 24 hours before they take him out of the race. I guess I would rather have someone truly positive ride for a few more days before the truth was known, than have someone who was falsely positive get taken out of a race he'd prepared a year for.

smart doper would be the oxymoron you were looking for. dumb doper is just redundant.

Asked myself the same question. Thats the most bizarre thing I have ever heard any athlete test positive for. Why would he take it? To get off another drug that couldnt be perfomance enhancing?

Asked myself the same question. Thats the most bizarre thing I have ever heard any athlete test positive for. Why would he take it? To get off another drug that couldnt be perfomance enhancing?
It's a strong pain killer. He might have had an injury and needed some painkiller. Maybe it masks some other drug? Of course, there's the always available "It must have been in something I took" excuse (the one he used).

All these "reasons" are highly speculative and very unlikely but it's about all I can think of, assuming the test was actually positive. To me, the most plausible explanation was a faulty test. Does anyone know how the "B" sample tested? For something this strange I would have been willing to continue racing until there was a positive confirmation.

tested positive also according to cyclingnews.

It does seem suspicious. I could beleive someone spiked a drink, but what motivation? It's not like Brandt was going to do anything more than try a breakaway stage win...Lotto has not GC contender...not even a KOM to mention. So...someone mad at Robbie McEwen and spikes a bottle and it gets passed to Brandt by mistake...I can only beleive the first part of that statement.

If I'm looking for conspiracies, I'd better go back to the "USPS crashed out Mayo" thread.

tested positive also according to cyclingnews.

It does seem suspicious. I could beleive someone spiked a drink, but what motivation? It's not like Brandt was going to do anything more than try a breakaway stage win...Lotto has not GC contender...not even a KOM to mention. So...someone mad at Robbie McEwen and spikes a bottle and it gets passed to Brandt by mistake...I can only beleive the first part of that statement.

If I'm looking for conspiracies, I'd better go back to the "USPS crashed out Mayo" thread.


Taken from cyclingnews.com.... and I must say that based on the fact that the test was for methadone, which would not really help a rider in the trace amounts detected in Brandt's test, this seems very plausible.

Brandt uses tainted supplement defense
Christophe Brandt (Lotto-Domo), who was expelled from the Tour by his team last week for testing positive to methadone, believes that the drug came from a tainted nutritional supplement that he took to cure his liver problems. The Belgian together with his lawyer, a doctor and another witness visited the chemist that had sold him the supplements, which were prescribed by Lotto-Domo team doctor Daniel De Neve. According to Le Soir, the chemist said that he had been working with methadone on the same day that he had prepared Brandt's supplements, which could have been contaminated as a result.

Brandt described the revelation as "a relief. Even if I remain suspended by the Lotto-Domo team pending a decision by the Belgian Cycling Federation, I hope to avoid a sanction thanks to this new evidence." --- from cyclingnews.com

My guess would be that it was part of the "Pot Belgie" that he was taking.

As a side note, how come when there is doping scandal, such as with Cofidis this year, and then one of their riders has a big win, Phil and Paul always talk about it as if it is some kind of vindication? Seems to me a more logical reaction might be that the same old **** is going on?

a fine concoction of morphine, cocaine, cortisone and whatever. I'm sure the methadone was just a substitute and easier to come by. People tend to forget, with crashes, saddle sores and 3 weeks of racing...this stuff hurts. I went down on wet concrete today, very similar to CSC's lo-speed TTT wreck and I hurt. I'm sure they do to a much greater degree.
So don't hide it, divide it! (joking)