There were some interesting numbers released by the professional cycling group (CPA) this week that revealed the biological passport is being implemented on a wide scale.

Over the course of the 2008 season, some 6501 blood and urine samples were collected from 749 racers as part of the UCI’s effort to create a biological profile for each rider.

The so-called biological passport is an ambitious anti-doping effort initiated by UCI officials, who insist that creating a biological profile of individual riders is one of the most effective tools in catching cheats.

There’s still a lot of work to go to complete the profiles and finalize the potentially controversial criteria for implementing the disciplinary aspect of the program.

Officials hope to have the program fully running in 2009 and could include racing “stops” if test results indicate evidence of manipulation, even if there is not a definitive analytical positive.

Numbers released by the CPA reveal testing number through September. On average, riders saw 8.6 tests during the nine-month period, with some riders targeted for more than the average number of tests.

Urine samples outranked blood samples by nearly 3-to-1 for in-competition controls. Urine sampling remains the best method to detect many banned substances, including the blood booster EPO.

More than four times more blood samples were taken during urine in out-of-competition controls. Nearly 1000 urine tests were carried out while riders submitted 3906 out-of-competition blood samples during that same time.

The blood sampling will help officials create a biological “snapshot” of a rider’s natural perimeters of blood indicators such as hematocrit, reticulytes and hemoglobin.

Tests through Sept. 2008
In-competition: Blood, 452; urine, 1,211 = 1,663
Out –of-competition: Blood, 3,906; urine, 932 = 4,838