Biogenesis founder testified Victor Conte had A-Rod under a doping regimen

If you didn't know, Victor Conte revealed last year he had a secret working agreement with Alex Rodriguez during the time of the Biogenesis scandal. Conte claimed it was only for legal supplements and nutritional information. Last month Tim Elfrink, the guy who broke the original Biogenises story, wrote another article about Bosch's MLB testimony which included stuff about Conte's and A-Rod's relationship. For example, his meeting with Conte. Last summer, The New York Daily News reported that Rodriguez met with Conte in 2012, while A-Rod was in the Bay Area for a series against the Oakland Athletics. Conte was, as any casual sports fan can tell you, the Pablo Escobar of performance-enhancing drugs. Before pleading guilty to federal charges in 2005, he plied top international athletes like record-breaking sprinter Marion Jones with designer drugs from his BALCO laboratory. Home run-king Barry Bonds’ inhuman assault on the record books was powered by Conte’s chemistry. When The Daily News contacted him, Conte acknowledged a visit from Rodriguez but said that their business “was about legal performance enhancement” only. Bosch’s testimony suggests something more nefarious. Following the Conte visit, he says that he and Rodriguez began incorporating what they called the “Conte protocol” into A-Rod’s treatments. It was a doping regimen, according to Bosch, meaning it was designed to increase oxygen through red blood cells in a manner banned in the highest levels of international sport. Specifically, Bosch suggested that through Conte’s protocol he may have provided Rodriguez with Epogen. That’s a commercial name for EPO, the blood doping agent used most infamously by disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, destroying his legacy and the integrity of the sport itself. EPO increases red blood cell counts, helping to carry more oxygen to the muscles and improve endurance. It’s a sophisticated and risky form of doping, and was for a decade on the leading edge of sports performance. It also killed as many as 18 cyclists during its heyday, thanks to an unfortunate side effect if it’s not dosed properly: Blood can turn to sludge, triggering heart attacks or strokes. In interviews with baseball officials, both Conte and Rodriguez denied Bosch’s suggestion that their protocol included EPO, according to league sources. Bosch himself waffled when questioned by officials, appearing unsure whether the substance prescribed was Epogen or Neupogen. There’s a huge difference between the two. Neupogen, which is designed to create more white blood cells, would aid recovery and is not considered a doping agent. Yet Bosch repeated several times that Conte’s regimen was a doping protocol, according to the source who detailed his testimony. ...... “Is it important for me to take my blood tomorrow or do you have it for V?” Rodriguez texted Bosch on May 30, 2012, the same month as A-Rod’s Bay Area meeting with Conte, according to a trove of messages entered into league evidence against the superstar. “V” was half-hearted code identifying Victor Conte. By then, both Rodriguez and Bosch knew that the authorities were closing in on them. Sometime in 2012, according to Bosch’s testimony, Rodriguez had called him warning that a New York newspaper—Bosch didn’t identify which—was close to running a story exposing their relationship. Within an hour, Rodriguez had called back and said his attorneys managed to ****e the story. Now Rodriguez wanted to bring in outside consultation. Rodriguez told Bosch as much during a meeting at his townhouse on Bank Street in Manhattan—the one with the leased hyperbaric chamber. (Bosch suggested, with dubious scientific basis, that doping worked best in 100 percent oxygen.) Rodriguez told Bosch that he wanted him to speak with Conte on the phone and hear out the rival self-proclaimed sports chemist’s ideas. Here's a couple articles with Conte's lawyer responding to the allegations. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/victor-conte-denies-report-alex-rodriguez-peds-article-1.1886350 http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/lawyer-anthony-bosch-transcript-clears-victor-conte-article-1.1891926 “After having spoken to someone who has authoritative knowledge of the transcript, indeed, Mr. Bosch said nothing about Victor Conte providing Alex Rodriguez with EPO or any other banned or illegal drug,” McNamara said. “It’s clear that Mr. Bosch never testified that Victor gave any performance-enhancing substances to A-Rod.” According to McNamara, Bosch’s references to Conte revolved around text messages in which Bosch referred to “Epogen,” a commercial brand of EPO, and “Neupogen,” which is not considered a doping agent, both of which Bosch apparently believed to have been part of a protocol Conte published on the Internet in 2008 and which has been widely distributed since then. “He believed either Epogen or Neupogen were part of the ‘Victor Conte Protocol,’” McNamara said she was told by the person who had viewed the transcripts. “His testimony was brief on this topic, I’m told, and it was in the context of explaining his own text messages. He had text messages in which he referred to the ‘VC Protocol.’” Not, she added, to Conte having provided EPO to A-Rod.