L'Equipe publishes UCI's secret "Index of Suspicion" of doping of all 198 riders in 2010 Tour de France

French sports daily L’Equipe has published what it claims is a list that ranks all 198 riders in last year’s Tour de France according to the degree to which they are suspected of doping. The full list is published at the end of this article. Subsequent condemnation of the leak by world cycling’s governing body, the UCI, would appear to confirm that the list is a genuine one.

The list, published in today's print edition of the newspaper, was reportedly drawn up to help anti-doping officials better target specific riders during tests at the race. It was compiled by Édouard Sottas, then a researcher at the WADA-accredited laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland, after studying each athlete’s biological passport data as well as the results of pre-race samples taken on 1 July.

L’Equipe points out that a high rating on the scale – an index of 10/10 indicates the highest degree of suspicion – does not necessarily mean that the cyclist concerned does use performance enhancing substances, since there can be other explanations for abnormal values. It also underlines that none of those with elevated indices actually failed a doping control on the race.

Only two riders achieve the maximum 10/10 index. They are Quickstep’s Carlos Barredo, whose most notable involvement in last year’s race was a post stage punch-up with Caisse d’Epargne’s Rui Costa, and RadioShack’s Yaroslav Popvych, long-time lieutenant of Lance Armstrong.

Armstrong himself, riding his final Tour de France last year, achieves an index of 4/10. The investigation focused on him currently being conducted in the United States concentrates on the early 2000s, when he rode with US Postal Service.

The sole cyclist to test positive for a banned substance at last year’s race was overall winner, Alberto Contador, whose subsequent acquittal by the Spanish federation is the subject of an appeal by the UCI and WADA at the Court of Arbitration for Sport next month. His index is 5/10.

Dennis Menchov, who finished third overall, has an index of 9/10, making him the most highly suspected rider among the sport’s big names. Runner-up Andy Schleck has an index of 3/10, as does last year’s Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso.

Among British riders taking part in last year’s Tour, Jeremy Hunt, then with Cervelo TestTeam, has a score of 7/10, Geraint Thomas 6/10, Bradley Wiggins 5/10, David Millar 4/10, Charlie Wegelius 3/10, Mark Cavendish and Steve Cummings 2/10 and Dan Lloyd 1/10.

The sport’s governing body condemned L’Equipe’s decision to publish what was clearly a highly confidential list, saying: “The UCI has been informed that the L'Equipe newspaper was going to publish in its edition on Friday a confidential document containing the riders' individual readings following tests carried out before the start of the 2010 Tour de France," said the UCI.

"First of all, the UCI deplores that this document has come into the possession of outsiders as it is a single tool on which the antidoping services organise their activity during the race.

"This document was reserved for the UCI and independent experts of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Such a weakness in the confidentiality is very serious and the UCI will open an inquiry to discover the origin of the leak."

“Index of Suspicion” of the 198 riders who began the 2010 Tour de France, as published by L'Equipe:

10/10

Carlos Barredo, Yaroslav Popovych

9/10

Denis Menchov

8/10

David de La Fuente, Jose Ivan Gutierrez, Danilo Hondo, Matthew Lloyd, Iban Mayoz, David Muravyev, Rinaldo Nocentini, Daniel Oss, Kevin Seeldrayers, Konstantin Siutsou, Jurgen Van den Broeck

7/10

Jeremy Hunt, Andreas Kloden, Tony Martin, Christophe Moreau, Michael Rogers, Wesley Sulzberger

6/10

Linus Gerdemann, Christian Knees, Egoi Martinez, Francesco Reda, Alessandro Petacchi, Mauro Santambrogio, Geraint Thomas

5/10

Alessandro Ballan, Matti Breschel, Alberto Contador, Cyril Gautier, Iniaki Isasi, Serguei Ivanov, Vladimir Karpets, Alexandr Kolobnev, Kartsen Kroon, Steve Morabito, Benjamin Noval, Jose Joaquin Rojas, Niki Sorensen, Alexandre Vinokourov, Bradley Wiggins

4/10

Pierrick Fedrigo, Janez Brajkovic, Bernard Eisel, Cadel Evans, Lance Armstrong, Juan Manuel Garate, Andrei Grivko, Jesus Hernandez, Ignatas Konovalovas, Sebastian Lang, Levi Leipheimer, David Millar, Daniel Moreno, Serge Pauwels, Manuel Quinziato, Luke Roberts, Samuel Sanchez, Christian Vandevelde, Nicolas Vogondy

3/10

Ivan Basso, Grega Bole, Bret Bookwalter, Dimitri Champion, Gerald Ciolek, Rui Costa, Damiano Cunego, Maura da Dalto, Francis de Greef, Kevin de Weert, Markus Eibegger, Imanol Erviti, Tyler Farrar, Fabio Felline, Juan Antonio Flecha, Maxim Iglinskiy, Vasili Kiryienka, Roman Kreuziger, Mathieu Ladagnous, Robbie McEwen, Maxime Monfort, Sergio Paulinho, Joaquin Rodriguez, Andy Schleck, Chris Anker Sorensen, Sylvester Szmyd, Paolo Tiralongo, Amets Txurruka, Johan Van Summeren, Gorka Verdugo, Charles Wegelius

2/10

Eros Capecchi, Mark Cavendish, Steve Cummings, Rémy Di Gregorio, Duran, Mathias Frank, Oscar Freire, John Gadret, Francesco Gavazzi, Vladimir Gustov, Thor Hushovd, Christophe Kern, Thomas Lovkvist, Sebastien Minard, Daniel Navarro, Grischka Niermann, Stuart O'Grady, Ruben Perez, Christophe Riblon, Thomas Rohregger, Luis Leon Sanchez, Carlos Sastre, Frank Schleck, Simon Spilak, Bram Tankink, Stijn Vandenbergh, Benoit Vaugrenard, Jens Voigt, Eduard Vorganov

1/10

Marcus Burghard, Sandy Casar, Anthony Charteau, Sylvain Chavanel, Julian Dean, Michael Delage, Martin Elmiger, Johannes Frohlinger, Jakob Fuglsang, Robert Gesink, Xavier Florencio, Adam Hansen, Ryder Hesjedal, George Hincapie, Andreas Klier, Robert Kulge, Alexandr Kuchinsky, Daniel Lloyd, Mirco Lorenzetto, Martijn Maaskant, Aitor Perez, Alan Perez, Jérôme Pineau, Ruben Plaza, Alexander Pliushin, Marten Tjallingii, Rafael Valls, Marten Wynants

0/10

Mario Aerts, Yukiya Arashiro, Stéphane Augé, Michael Barry, Francesco Bellotti, Alberto Benitez, Edvald Boasson-Hagen, Lars Boom, Maxime Bouet, Pavel Brutt, Fabian Cancellara, Manuel Cardoso, Dries Devenyns, Samuel Dumoulin, Julien El Fares, Simon Gerrans, Anthony Geslin, Bert Grabsch, Chris Horner, Robert Hunter, Kristjan Koren, Brett Lancaster, David Le Lay, Christophe Le Mevel, Andreas Malori, Koos Moerenhout, Amael Moinard, Lloyd Mondory, Damien Monier, Juan Jose Oroz, Rémi Pauriol, Mathieu Perget, Gregory Rast, Mark Renshaw, Nicolas Roche, Jurgen Roelandts, Pierre Rolland, Anthony Roux, Jérémy Roy, Mathieu Sprick, Rein Taaramae, Sebastien Turgot, Niki Terpstra, Brian Vanborg, Jurgen VandeWalle, Ivan Velasco, Thomas Voeckler, Fabian Wegmann, David Zabriskie