According to www.lejdd.fr, a test has now been developed to detect AICAR, which has been banned since 2009, and the test could be used at the forthcoming Tour de France.
AICAR was first used in the 1980s as a method to preserve blood flow to the heart during surgery. However, in 2009, the French Anti-Doping Agency, suspected that AICAR had been used in that year’s Tour de France for its weight loss, performance, and blood-oxygen boosting properties.
The presence of the drug had been difficult to establish as anti-doping laboratories were unable to identify endogenous AICAR. A threshold was therefore established by scientists, beyond which an athlete could be declared positive.
In a similar method used to distinguish endogenous or synthetic testosterone, laboratories can highlight the presence of AICAR. According to Professor Martial Saugy, director of the Swiss laboratory, “the detection method is robust and will be finalised very quickly.” According to the French website, the test could be used on the next Tour de France, and that samples from the 2013 Tour could also be tested.
