On a lush sports field in Uraidla, not far from the Tour Down Under finish line, seven men are gathered around a picnic table beside a campervan. Right now they’re enjoying a bite to eat and a chat, but when stage 3 of the race finishes (with Javier Romo taking the stage and overall lead), they’ll spring into action. And when they do, they’ll be doing one of the most important jobs at the race.
These men all work for Sports Drug Testing International (SDTI), a company that, for the last 15 years, has been sub-contracted by the UCI to handle anti-doping efforts at the Tour Down Under. It’s in that campervan that they drug-test a handful of riders every day, helping to protect the integrity of the sport.
Mitch Manning is one of the doping control officers (DCOs) gathered around the campervan (that’s him in the wide-brimmed hat, bottom right in the feature image). He’s good enough to take a quick break from his picnic to explain to Escape what’s involved in anti-doping at the Tour Down Under. The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and fluency.
Matt de Neef: What is the role you guys play on a day-by-day basis at the Tour Down Under?
Mitch Manning: So we get up early in the morning, come down, set up, then we’ve got a little bit of a picnic atmosphere. About half an hour before the race finishes, this all clears away and becomes very professional. And then the ITA, International Testing Authority, they send a doping control officer over from Sydney or Melbourne or Singapore – wherever they’re going to send them from.
Generally, each day in the women’s and the men’s [race], we test four athletes. The first day of the race, it’s the overall leader – because it’s the same person [as the stage winner] – and three randoms. They’re selected through ITA. Some of them are targeted random, but these are totally random; the ones that aren’t on the podium.
(Mitch doesn’t quite spell it out here, but the four riders tested are normally the stage winner, the overall leader, then two random riders. Unless the stage winner and overall leader are the same person – which they are on stage 3 – in which case that person is tested, plus three random riders.)
What happens is, each of the [SDTI] chaperones get given a clipboard with the name of the athlete on it, they work out where the buses are, and then at the end of the race, they go over and find their random athlete or they go over to the podium and wait for the stage winner and the overall leader to come down off the podium, and then tap them on the shoulder and say, “You’ve been selected for anti-doping.”
They come back here – water, Powerade, whatever, with or without their crew, they’ll bring food and their own drink over with them. And then when they’re ready, they knock on the [campervan] door, go in, there’s a toilet there, fill out all the paperwork electronically on a tablet with the ITA.
They pass the sample, A and B sample, seal it, and then on our transport days, Andy, who’s our team manager this year, he’ll go down to DHL and send it off to the appropriate laboratory where it’ll get tested, and then the athlete will find out within seven days through the ADAMS [Anti-Doping Administration and Management System] database their result.
MdN: You guys just take urine samples here at the race, right?
MM: Yep.
MdN: Is that the same if you do home testing? Do you only take urine samples from athletes then?
Urine, blood – whatever the sport demands we do. Our company does blood and urine, and they are looking at doing hair and stuff down the track, where you pluck the hair out at the roots, and then however long your hair is is how long they can backtrack what came through your system.
Hotels, houses and stuff like that – we knock on the door. If the athlete says they’re going to be home eight o’clock at night, nine o’clock at night, we knock on the door at eight o’clock at night, and if they’re not home, they get sanctioned for breaching their whereabouts.
(As per UCI guidelines, athletes must specify where they’ll be for at least a one-hour period every single day, in order for anti-doping officers to be able to find them for an unannounced anti-doping test.)
MdN: Where’s the lab you send samples to?
MM: Well, depending on the specifications for UCI, it’s either Sydney, Salt Lake City, Bucharest – there’s about 60 accredited labs around the world, and you can only send to those labs.
So if they specify they want a fast turnaround, they’ll go to Sydney, and they’ll get there overnight, and then it’ll be tested the next day. If it’s a standard test, then it’ll be any of the other big labs that may be marginally cheaper than the Australian ones so it works out cost-effective.
MdN: Once a rider has been selected for testing at the race, you guys don’t let them out of your sight, right?
MM: You could be over there or the other side of the fence, so long as you can see what they’re doing and see that they’re not manipulating, doing [anything] sneaky. Our company has been doing this for 15 years – we’ve never had a rider try to avoid a test or try to do something sneaky.
The UCI, after the Armstrong era, cleaned up the act and they train, train, train. They do a great education program with the junior riders and stuff like that, so they all know if you get caught evading, non-compliance and stuff like that, it’s just as bad as getting caught cheating, and you’re going to get sanctioned. So they don’t bother.
MdN: And what about when the athlete is passing the urine sample – how closely are you watching?
MM: We have a legally qualified medical practitioner, whether it’s a nurse or a doctor. It’s not a WADA specification; that’s what the UCI want. And they physically watch the sample go in the beaker, and then they physically watch the beaker get sealed. And then the DCO watches the whole process.
Nobody but the athlete can touch their equipment until it’s sealed. It’s all about the athlete’s integrity – the process is 100% for the athlete and to prove that they’re clean. So that way nobody can tamper with their product. They’ve got tamper-proof bottles.
MdN: Tell me more about the bottles you use.
MM: The company, Lockcon, they make lightweight plastic ones. A and B sample – a minimum of 90 ml; 60 in the A and 30 in the B. The process being broad spectrum test on the A sample. If it comes up clean, the B sample sits around for a while and then gets destroyed. If it shows up as an anomalous test, then they only look for one specific thing with the B sample. Hence, they only need half as much liquid.
On the outside [of the cup] you’ve got the gradient; so they’ve got the 90 ml marker. If they can fill the cup, that’s spectacular. But if they can’t reach the 90, that’s what they call a partial sample, and they have to sit around and wait until they can do some more.
(After the interview, Mitch tells the story of a rider who was drug-tested at Willunga Hill a few years ago and still couldn’t fill the cup after waiting for 90 minutes. The chaperone ended up driving the rider back to Adelaide and following them into the hotel, where, after a further wait, they were finally able to provide an adequate sample.)
The athlete’s the only one who can touch these. They check that the number on the front of the bottle, top of the bottle, and on the box, all match. I’ve done well over 1,000 of these and I’ve never had one that doesn’t match, because a machine does it and it’s pretty much infallible.
Once they’re sealed, back in the box, and that gets transported to the lab. The box itself’s not important, but these things here [the coloured seals on the top of the bottles – see image below], once they’re clicked, they can’t be unclicked without damaging them, so the athlete knows that their sample hasn’t been interfered with.
MdN: Do you ever have any athletes that complain or comment about being watched so closely when they’re giving a sample?
MM: All the time. We had one female athlete at a tournament where she said it’s similar to child molesting. Obviously it was a female watching a female. She said she would prefer to have blood or hair taken than being watched go to the toilet. She said it’s a very personal thing for her.
I’ve had a male athlete say he can only do a number two while he’s doing a number one, so he’s sitting on the toilet and he was complaining that I’m watching him do both. And I said, “Well, you set the scene. I just have to watch that sample get done.”
Muslims – it’s a mortal sin* for a Muslim male to show another male his penis. I had an athlete explain to me he wasn’t being gun shy; he was having a moral dilemma. But he signed a contract so he understands. And when he finished doing his sample, he said he would have to go to his mosque and speak to his mufti and work out what penance he needs to do so he doesn’t go to their version of hell. And so I set up a mirror so I could watch him in the mirror, and I said, “If I could see it happen in the mirror, I haven’t seen your penis, but I’ve seen you pass the sample …” And he was most appreciative that I was culturally sensitive to that.
(*Our fact-checking suggests that while this is indeed forbidden, “mortal sin” is a significant exaggeration. “Indecent” or “inappropriate” might be a more accurate description. Additionally, it’s worth noting that Islam’s so-called “Law of Necessity” allows Muslims to engage in actions that would otherwise be prohibited, if doing so is deemed necessary.)
Obviously, with juniors, if somebody’s under 18, you must give them the opportunity to have a representative, whether it’s a coach, a parent, or a guardian present. They can sign a form saying that they don’t want their parent watching them take a pee. So there’s a whole lot of different situations. We signed confidentiality agreements where we can’t talk about individual athletes. We can talk about the process, and we can talk about funny stories, but you can’t say what tournament it was and what athlete it was.
MdN: How many chaperones have you got here at the race?
MM: Technically we have four riders, so we have four chaperones. Andy’s on as the overseer, van driver, Uber driver, whatever you want to call it. And I’ve got a touch of the Bell’s Palsy so I’ve taken a step back this year. I’m just an observer, so technically no role, apart from making sure everything is running smoothly.
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