Vuelta a España winner the most tested of all American athletes under USADA system
Vuelta a España winner Chris Horner has topped the table of riders that have been most frequently tested by USADA during the third quarter of this year, with the RadioShack Leopard rider undergoing ten tests since July.
The number is higher than the seven tests conducted on Robert Lea and the six carried out on Francisco Mancebo. Matthew Baranoski and Caroline Higgins both had five samples taken, one more than Sarah Hammer, Tyler Magner, Shelley Olds, Alison Powers, Christian Vande Velde, Todd Wells and Eric Young.
Many of these were tested by USADA at the US national track championships, thus inflating their figures for that quarter.
A total of 340 tests on 217 riders were done in that period.
Horner is also the most tested sportsperson across all disciplines and sports. He tops the overall table of 1153 multi-sport athletes with those ten tests.
Lea and track and field competitor Matthew Tegenkamp were next, both on seven. After Mancebo in fourth place, ten had five tests. They were the aforementioned Baranoski and Higgins, as well as track and field athletes Abdihakim M. Abdirahman, Mebrahtom R. Keflezighi, Adriana Pirtea-Nelson and Galen G. Rupp, the triathletes Hunter C Kemper, Tim P. O’Donnell and Andrew Potts, plus the weightlifter Geralee Vega Morales.
Looking at earlier periods in 2013, Horner was tested five times in the first three months of the year, then three times in the April to June period. The upsurge in testing of him includes the period during which he won the Vuelta a España. However the testing statistics do not include the in competition tests carried out during that race.
It means that the ten tests carried out on him by or on behalf of USADA exclude the three week period during which he was competing in the Vuelta a España.
According to USADA, the numbers displayed in its statistics do not include the tests carried out by other testing agencies on US athletes, unless specifically requested by USADA itself. They also do not include tests carried out by USADA at the request of others.
Factoring in those details plus the examinations carried out at the Vuelta a España, Horner’s total number of international tests for the third quarter of this year would be considerably larger than ten.
He took his top career result in September when he won the Vuelta a España at almost 42 years of age. Battling injury for several months this year and then beating the previous record for the oldest Grand Tour winner by five years, his performance was questioned by some.
Insisting he is clean, Horner released his biological passport data in a bid to fend off suspicion and to show that he was transparent.
However UCI biological passport panel expert Robin Parisotto subsequently raised questions about those values, telling VeloNation that he had some concerns and that he believed further testing was necessary.
USADA’s statistics show that the rider is indeed being tested more frequently than any other athlete.
He is still searching for a team for 2014, having been unable to secure a contract thus far.
USADA Testing statistics – cycling (third quarter of 2013):
Christopher B Horner, 10
Robert C Lea, 7
Francisco Mancebo, 6
Matthew Baranoski, 5
Caroline Higgins, 5
Sarah K Hammer, 4
Tyler Magner, 4
Shelley Olds, 4
Alison L Powers, 4
Christian J Vande Velde, 4
Todd R Wells, 4
Eric Young, 4
Dotsie L Bausch, 3
Chad Beyer, 3
Brent Bookwalter, 3
Nick Brandt-Sorenson, 3
Tom S Danielson, 3
Jake Duehring, 3
Timothy R Duggan, 3
Stephen Ettinger, 3
Lauren Franges Tamayo, 3
Ken Hanson, 3
Jeff Louder, 3
Joey Rosskopf, 3
John Simes, 3
Curtis Tolson, 3
Tejay VanGarderen, 3
Richard Voss, 3
David J Zabriskie, 3
Kaitlin Antonneau, 2
Chris Barton, 2
David Brinton, 2
Nathan Brown, 2
Matthew Busche, 2
Zachary Carlson, 2
Katherine E Compton, 2
Tela Crane, 2
Andrew Crater, 2
Julie Cutts, 2
Lea Davison, 2
David Espinoza, 2
Lucas Euser, 2
Tyler L Farrar, 2
Madalyn Godby, 2
Carl Grove, 2
Tim Johnson, 2
Jill Kintner, 2
Levi Leipheimer, 2
Kevin Mansker, 2
Jason McCartney, 2
Kristin McGrath, 2
Amanda Miller, 2
Lachlan Morton, 2
Danny Pate, 2
Taylor Phinney, 2
Jeremy Powers, 2
Jessica Prinner, 2
Monique S Pua Mata, 2
Tanner Putt, 2
Jennie I Reed, 2
Walker Shaw, 2
Lauren Stephens, 2
Peter Stetina, 2
Tara Unverzagt, 2
Jennifer Valente, 2
Wayne Watson, 2
Jeffrey Whiteman, 2
Jade Wilcoxson, 2
Scott Zwizanski, 2
Mara Abbott, 1
Brian Abers, 1
Louie Amelburu, 1
Jeffrey Anderson, 1
Lynne Anderson, 1
Jesse Anthony, 1
Raul Arias, 1
Chris Baldwin, 1
Sarah Barber, 1
Stephen Bassett, 1
Stephen Bedford, 1
Sam Bewley, 1
Shannon Bhatia, 1
Logan Binggeli, 1
Jeremiah T Bishop, 1
Paul Bourcier, 1
Christen Boyer, 1
Chris Butler, 1
Alex R Candelario, 1
Daniel Casper, 1
Jonathan Chodroff, 1
Karen Claeys, 1
Ruth Clemence, 1
Cameron Cogburn, 1
Luca Cometti, 1
Jeromy Cottell, 1
G Lawson Craddock, 1
Adam M Craig, 1
Jordan Cullen, 1
Andrew M Dahlheim, 1
Michael Day, 1
Camille Deluca-Flaherty, 1
Michael Dessau, 1
Cameron Dodge, 1
Ivan Dominguez, 1
Anne Donley, 1
Liam Donoghue, 1
Joe Eldridge, 1
Melissa Erickson, 1
Calan Farley, 1
Richard Feldman, 1
Russell Finsterwald, 1
Richie Frahm, 1
Eamon Franck, 1
Cheryl Fuller-Muller, 1
Phillip Gaimon, 1
Anne Galyean, 1
Matt Gates, 1
Daniel Gay, 1
Stephanie Gonzalez, 1
Serena Gordon, 1
Georgia Gould, 1
Alex Grant, 1
Rose Grant, 1
Tanya Grossman, 1
Aaron Gwin, 1
Alex Hagman, 1
Lauren Hall, 1
Jacqeline Harmony, 1
Colleen Hayduk, 1
Todd Hayes, 1
Elizabeth Heller, 1
Dirk Himley, 1
Janel Holcomb, 1
Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, 1
James Host, 1
Sarah Huang, 1
Heather Irmiger, 1
Ben Jacques Maynes, 1
Cody Johnson, 1
Gea Johnson, 1
Brian Kesselman, 1
Benjamin King, 1
Viginia King, 1
Maura Kinsella, 1
Warren Kniss, 1
Nathan Koch, 1
Zachary Kovalcik, 1
Tyler Krenek, 1
Nadia Latzgo, 1
James Lawrence, 1
David LeDuc, 1
Stephen Leece, 1
Joe Lemire, 1
Craig Lewis, 1
Nicholas J Long, 1
Kellen Lutz, 1
Jack Maddux, 1
Alissa Maglaty, 1
Lisa Magness, 1
Gavin Mannion, 1
Eric Martin, 1
Jonathan P McCarty, 1
Mary McConneloug, 1
Tara McCormick, 1
Stephen McLaughry, 1
James Mellen, 1
Kevin Metcalfe, 1
Cody Miller, 1
Lucia Mokres, 1
Catherine Moore, 1
LuAnne Murray, 1
Rudolph Napolitano, 1
Katerina Nash, 1
Amber L Neben, 1
Elizabeth Newell, 1
Barry W Nobles, 1
Mike Olheiser, 1
Phyllis Olrich, 1
Logan Owen, 1
Gary Painter, 1
Anne Perry, 1
Amy Phillips, 1
Christine Phillips, 1
Christopher Phipps, 1
Justin Posey, 1
Kiel Reijnen, 1
Todd Renwick, 1
Todd Robertson, 1
Donny Robinson, 1
Mark Rodamaker, 1
Fred A Rodriguez, 1
Mitch Ropelato, 1
Stefan Rothe, 1
Branden Russell, 1
Alexis Ryan, 1
Bailey Semian, 1
Katherine Shields, 1
Robert Springer, 1
Brendan Sullivan, 1
Robert Sweeting, 1
Andrew Talansky, 1
Frederic Thomas, 1
Elizabeth Tyrell, 1
Al Urbanski, 1
Matthew Valencia, 1
Molly Van Houweling, 1
Allen Vugrincic, 1
Lawrence Warbasse, 1
Pat Warner, 1
Joshua Webster, 1
Kerry Werner, 1
Justin Williams, 1
Bonnie Woodbury, 1
Chloe L Woodruff, 1
Tyler Wren, 1
Michael Zagorski, 1
David Zimbelman, 1