Anti-doping samples from the 2017 Tour de France are being retested in light of information obtained during the blood doping investigation Operation Aderlass, Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab) reported.

The UCI already announced last November that it had asked the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF) to reanalyze samples from the 2016 and 2017 seasons after receiving information from Austrian law enforcement authorities during the Aderlass investigation.

Het Nieuwsblad reports that the re-inspection is now focused on unnamed doping products of American origin, with particular emphasis on the analysis of samples from the 2017 tools.

"Based on additional information [...]. . we have identified the relevant sample and performed an initial analysis. We refrain from further comment," a CADF spokesman told Het Nieuwsblad.

Reanalysis of the 2016 and 2017 samples is reportedly being conducted at laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria and Cologne, Germany.

"At that time, there were a number of banned substances that were not available on the regular pharmaceutical market and for which the laboratories did not have the best detection methods. In the meantime, these methods were improved," Peter van Eenow of the Ghent Anti-Doping Institute told Het Nieuwsblad.

Eight professional athletes are already involved in the Adelrath doping investigation, which became public when Austrian police raided the Nordic Ski World Championships in Seefeld, Tyrol, in February 2019.

German police then raided his clinic in Erfurt and arrested Dr. Mark Schmidt, once the team doctor for Gerolsteiner and Milram. Schmidt remains in custody ahead of his trial later this year. So far, athletes from six countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy) have been implicated in the doping network investigation.

Stefan Denifl, Georg Preidler, Pirmin Lang, and Danilo Hondo have all confessed to doping, as have Alessandro Petacchi, Kristijan Dulasek, Kristijan Koren, and Borut Bozic, as a result of Operation Adelrath's investigation, banned for using prohibited methods or substances.