After Rebellin speculation mounts about second Olympic cyclist

In the light of yesterday's news that six competitors from last year's Beijing Olympics have retrospectively tested positive for CERA a form of EPO, including Olympic road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin, attention has now turned to the identities of the others involved, and in particular to the identity of the other cyclist.

According to sources within the IOC the six are made up of three track and field athletes, allegedly including a male gold medallist, two cyclists, and one weightlifter.

Rebellin is so far the only one of the six to be confirmed by their national Olympic association as having failed the retrospective tests. The form is that national Olympic associations of all the affected athletes will first be informed and they will then take the appropriate action. So far both the British and American Olympic associations say they have not been informed of any problems with their athletes “We're treating this as no news is good news”, said a US official.

Given the nature of the drug involved it is more likely that the second cyclist will have been competing in one of the endurance events – which again points more to the road race than the track, or a road rider competing on the track. That said, a weightlifter is also said to be among the Olympic six – a sport which is all about explosive power, rather than long-term endurance, so CERA it would seem also has benefits for such athletes, which might point to one of the track sprint competitors. Either way if a second cyclist is involved we will know his, or her, identity soon enough.

2008 Men's Olympic Road Race Top 10
1 Samuel Sánchez (Spain)      06:23:49

2 Davide Rebellin (Italy)                                  

3 Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)                          

4 Alexandr Kolobnev (Russian Federation)                   

5 Andy Schleck (Luxembourg)                               

6 Michael Rogers (Australia)                              

7 Santiago Botero (Colombia)                           0.12

8 Mario Aerts (Belgium)                                   

9 Michael Barry (Canada)                               0.16

10 Robert Gesink (Netherlands)                         0.18

2008 Women's Olympic Road Race Top 10
1 Nicole Cooke (Great Britain)      03:32:24

2 Emma Johansson (Sweden)                                 

3 Tatiana Guderzo (Italy)                                

4 Christiane Soeder (Austria)                        0.04

5 Linda Villumsen Serup (Denmark)                    0.09

6 Marianne Vos (Netherlands)                         0.21

7 Priska Doppmann (Switzerland)                          

8 Paulina Brzezna (Poland)                               

9 Edita Pucinskaite (Lithuania)                          

10 Zulfiya Zabirova (Kazakhstan)