Tour of Elk Grove winner fails drug test, stripped of title

Australian cyclist Nathan O'Neill admits he took a prescription diet drug but denies it propelled him to victory at the Tour of Elk Grove.

Still, the 32-year-old has been stripped of the $33,500 prize and is banned from the event for life.

Test results taken after the August race in the Northwest suburb found traces of Phentermine, a stimulant appetite suppressant that professional riders are banned from using during the racing season.

In addition to losing the Tour of Elk Grove prize, he also has been tossed from the Health Net Pro Cycling Team.

Second-place finisher Mike Friedman, a Pittsburgh resident who lost to O'Neill by 3 seconds, instead will get the Tour of Elk Grove prize money and the title.

Earlier Coverage Stories Australian Nathan O'Neill takes top prize [8/22/07]Contestants face drug testing in "Tour of Elk Grove" [7/28/07]

While riders are allowed to use the drug with a prescription in the off-season, its use is prohibited in races.

"I admit that I used the medicine for the prescribed purpose, in an out-of-competition situation. Unfortunately for me, there was a tiny amount that was still present in my body at the time the sample was collected in competition," O'Neill said in a statement.

While he denies it created a stimulant effect to give him an edge in the race, O'Neill has apologized to his team, sponsors and fans for what he calls "an embarrassing situation."

O'Neill will present his case before a panel from the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority in the coming weeks, where he intends to clarify the situation, according to his Web site. He is an eight-time Australian National Time Trial Champion. O'Neill currently lives in Braselton, Ga.

This marked the first year the bicycle race, which is set to return for a third year next summer, drug-tested its riders. Besides conducting a few random tests, organizers tested the top three finishers in the two-day, three-stage pro men's race.

Two separate tests from one sample showed small amounts of the drug, Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said. The second results confirmed the first findings in late October.

Last year, top rider Floyd Landis pulled out of a plan to appear in the suburban race after a sample from the Tour de France found high levels of testosterone.

While the mayor, who created the race, is disappointed by the findings, he said he doesn't consider this a black eye that will taint the race.

"Riders only cheat to win the big races," said Johnson, who has been working to boost the stature of the event.

"We're going to make sure anyone who rides in our race is clean," Johnson said. "It's our aggressiveness in this that allowed us to catch him."

Professional riders have been known to use diet drugs as a stimulant to give them a boost during racing, as well as to keep them in shape during the off-season, said Mike Hanley, the Midwest regional coordinator for the USA Cycling organization.

They know that drug testing is too expensive for all riders to be tested, so some are willing to take the risk to win the prize money, he said.

This drug might not be at the level of other doping charges to emerge in the cycling world in recent years, but the O'Neill incident could blemish the image of cycling in the eyes of fans new to the sport, Hanley said.

"If they find out (the race) is tainted, then I'm sure they're going to have a negative reaction to it," he said.