Pat McQuaid keen to clean cycling from micro-dosing – Cycling News
Pat McQuaid, the President of UCI has warned the cyclists on using the micro-dosing methods to enhance their performances. He has mentioned that riders abusing the game will eventually be caught and will face a strict punishment.
No further cases have emerged recently but UCI has disclosed that it is investigating two riders who have tested for unusual blood passports. He has mentioned that less number of new cases does not mean that UCI is short of funds.
The first cases seen in such regard were in June 2009 when Ricardo Serrano, Ruben Lobato Elvira, Pietro Caucchioli, Igor Astarloa, Francesco De Bonis, Tadej Valjavec and Franco Pellizotti Jesus Rosendo Prado were named by the UCI.
Pellizotti finished the Giro d’ Italia 2009 at third position and also won the climbers jersey at the Tour de France as he was cleared by the Italian national anti-doping court, TNA after he appealed against the UCI. The case was not finished as UCI filed
a petition against the decision and the cyclist was finally banned for two years. Similarly, Slovenian agency cleared Tadej Valjavec before he was finally banned by CAS and UCI has to raise a large amount of funds to pursue those cases.
Pat was persistent on his point as he mentioned that UCI will always look at the sport first and to make it clean from all sort of abuses is his prior responsibility. He said, “That’s because there are no new cases we can open up. The experts are learning
more and more and maybe they need more information before they can make a decision." He believes that the number of micro doping cases has reduced at a very fast pace and that is another reason why no new cases have emerged recently.
The pressure of handling the micro doping cases has been transferred on McQuaid’s shoulders after Anne Gripper retired. Pat is determined that he will fight till the sport is 100 percent clean from any sort of unfair play. He mentioned that no matter how
smart one cheats or tries to hide the doping elements, he will make a mistake and will be brought to justice.
Tags: