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Vino's B sample comes back positive

By Agence France Presse
Published: Jul. 28, 2007

Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov's B sample confirmed that he had been blood doping, sources told AFP on Saturday.

Vinokourov was thrown out of the Tour de France last Tuesday when it was revealed that a blood sample taken from the Astana team rider after his victory in the time trial on the 13th stage revealed the presence of "two distinct blood populations.”

That suggested Vinokourov had injected the blood from a compatible donor to boost his performance in the race against the clock.

Vinokourov, meanwhile, has hired attorneys Howard Jacobs and Maurice Suh to represent him in what he says will be will be a vigorous defense against the charge of blood doping.

Jacobs and Suh represented American Floyd Landis in his ongoing doping case. The 2006 Tour winner tested positive for the presence of exogenous testosterone during last year’s Tour. Jacobs also defended American Tyler Hamilton in his unsuccessful effort to reverse a blood-doping charge, based on the same technologies used in the Vinokourov case.