Someone's knockin' at the door.

7:20pm this evening, a random knock comes to the front door. I get up and am greeted by two women, one with a clipboard, who says 'We're here for Alison Powers'. I'm not exactly sure why I lost my ability to speak. I felt like I was in the presence of some authority and all I could do was turn around and yell upstairs to Alison that she had visitors. My senses came back to me and I turned back to the door and invited them in. At some point, I realized that I was looking at two people from the US Anti-Doping Agency, the governing body of cycling that does the random drug testing for athletes.

The women introduced themselves to Alison and gave a brief explanation for what was going to happen. Basically, they only collect the samples, but that's really an oversimplified version of what goes on.

There's a form that has some basic information. The agent put three styrofoam boxes on the table, and a bag with cups. She explained to Alison that she could choose any of the three boxes, and the reason there were three was to minimize the chance that anything had been tampered with beforehand. Everything had numbers and was recorded on the form. She then allowed her to choose a cup and to give it a close inspection, again to make sure that nothing was out of order. At that point, Alison and the agent went into the bathroom to collect the sample. Having someone watch you pee into a cup seems pretty demoralizing. I'm pretty sure no pro football player (on either side of the pond), has to endure that sort of thing.

When they returned, it was time to open the box. It was sealed with a piece of tape that leaves half of itself on the box when it's opened. Inside the box are the infamous A and B sample bottles. Both bottles were sealed with a shrink wrap. It was a bit strange to see them, knowing how much controversy has arisen as a result of the contents of bottles like that, and possible impropriety in their handling in the past.

Alison was told step by step what to do: Inspect the bottles to make sure they haven't been tampered with. Remove the shrink wrap. Remove the lids and check for these red rings around the mouth of the bottle. Pour from the cup into the A bottle about halfway up. Then reseal the bottle until the lid no longer clicks. Do the same with the B bottle. Turn each upside down to check for leaks. Place each bottle into an individual plastic bag and seal them with tape. Place both bottles back into the styrofoam box.

Next, the agent checked the pH and specific gravity of the urine. A sample that is too weak means that the lab won't be able to test it, and the agents have to take another sample. Same thing for the pH. Alison was fine with both.

The agent then asked a series of questions, including whether or not she'd had any recent blood transfusions, and what medications she'd taken in the last 3 days.

After that, she signed the form in a way that didn't reveal her name on any part of it that is sent to the lab. The whole process took about half an hour, mostly because the agent was very detailed in the explanations and steps. Alison gets her results in 6-8 weeks.

This was the first time that Alison has been tested by USADA (she was actually pretty pissed off that it hadn't happened already), but not the first time she'd been tested since she became a pro. She said the testing methods here are much more careful and thorough than in Europe, where agents handled samples and bottles and didn't document things as carefully by doing such things as labeling samples with names, instead of numbers. In her words 'it's pretty sketchy'. That doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence in WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), and casts an even larger shroud of doubt over the Euro labs that have ruined, and attempted to ruin, the careers of a lot of cyclists.

I'm sure there are dopers in the sport, and more than likely most of the big names are part of that crowd. It just seems to me that the testing protocol itself should be squeaky clean, and not something that can ever be questioned in terms of it's potential impact on results.