Brian Damsgaard, Danish anti-doping guru, is soon to join Team CSC. He is to be employed on the team to leverage his expertise on doping on the team testing. The preliminary deadline for his employment is October 5. The reason for the early deadline is so as to make it possible for Damsgaard to follow and monitor the riders over the off-season period.

Damsgaard’s employment heralds an interesting – and hopefully effective – new step in the fight against doping. The new anti-doping plan seems intended to work as follows:
– 500-1000 blood and urine tests over the year, distributed with 95% of the tests in the spring pre-season build-up, 4% in the autumn, and 1% in competition.
– Testing will include blood profiling and other extra-ordinary anti-doping initiatives. Riders will be sanctioned if there is any indication of doping (i.e., a positive test is not necessary; the team will act if any abnormalities appear).
– Close cooperation with the UCI and ADD (Anti-Doping Denmark). All suspicious tests will be forwarded to the relevant authorities.
– There should be transparency of the test measurements on the team. According to Damsgaard, the plan is that the test values of all riders will be made public – anonymously. In other words, anyone will have the chance to examine the Team CSC riders test values, although it will not be public who each rider is.

ADD has initially refused to cooperate with Team CSC, saying that to do so would be too expensive. They are however now reconsidering the offer, as Riis has pointed out that expenses will be covered by the team.

The plan is that Damsgaard himself will be an employee of CSC (the sponsor) itself; rather than an employee of Team CSC. He will be paid on a hourly basis, with a part of the salary being put into a research fund at Bispebjerg Hospital in Denmark.

Team CSC’s iniative with Brian Damsgaard seems very interesting, and may be just what the sport needs to restore faith in the system. It is to be hoped that this initiative, and those of T-Mobile will meet with success, and lead the way in controlling doping.