In light of how they are treating Iban Mayo, I’m going to stand up right now and say that the UCI should move their headquarters to Salem, MA.

Just yesterday, the Spanish Cycling Federation closed their case against Mayo when the tests on his “B” sample from the Tour de France came back negative.

As you might recall, the “A” sample was taken during the second rest day of the 2007 tour de France, had been tested by the notorious Chatenay-Malabry lab in France and was found to show evidence of EPO. He was suspended by his Saunier-Duval team, pending the outcome of the “B” sample.

Testing results of the “B” sample were long in coming. A lab in Gent, Belgium peformed the test and stated that there was a mistake in the testing of the “A” sample. An Australian lab also tested the “B” sample and declared it clean. Mayo said:

 During these months I have felt very bad. My professional career was a wreck, but everything has turned out as expected. I have not stopped training during this time, although I didn’t feel good.

Mayo was prepared to continue with Saunier Duval next year, but the UCI has now said that testing is not completed, and that they want the Chatenay-Malabry lab to test the “B” sample as well. Anne Gripper of the UCI goes so far as to comment that:

The “B” sample is not negative. The analysis is not yet finished.

In other words, “the only lab we trust to find riders guilty is Chatenay-Malabry because we know that they can tweak the tests to whatever result we ask them to.”

Of course, there was some initial excitement around the negative finding because it leads some credence to Floyd Landis’ defense that Chatenay-Malabry finds false results.

What surprises me is that there is enough of the sample left to work with. I seem to recall that when Floyd asked for a retest from another lab, they said there wasn’t enough left to work with.

Let the Witch Trials begin!