Uci Report Claims Doping Culture “still Exists”
Cycling continues to struggle with widespread doping as cheats exploit grey areas, according to a new report by the Cycling Independent Reform Commission into the sport’s troubled recent history.
The 227-page document, commissioned by International Cycling Union (UCI) president Brian Cookson – who will appear at the Sport Industry Breakfast Club, powered by CWM FX, on 17th March – as part of an ongoing push for transparency, was set up last January to investigate how cycling allowed widespread doping to spread through the peloton during the 1990s and 2000s.
The report clears UCI bosses of outright corruption but heavily criticises the sport’s leadership throughout that era.
Findings include a conclusion that the UCI did not want to catch cheats and turned a blind eye to anything but the worst excesses. The report’s authors also accuse former UCI presidents Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid of failing to follow their own anti-doping rules and showing preferential treatment to former champion Lance Armstrong.
The report reads: “There are numerous examples that prove Lance Armstrong benefited from a preferential status afforded by the UCI leadership…UCI did not actively seek to corroborate whether allegations of doping against Lance Armstrong were well-founded [but] fell back to a defensive position as if every attack against Lance Armstrong was an attack against cycling and the UCI leadership…there was a tacit exchange of favours between the UCI leadership and Lance Armstrong, and they presented a common front.”
A total of 174 anti-doping experts, officials, riders and other interested parties were interviewed as part of the report, which cost an estimated £2.16m.
The report claims that it could be possible for a number of riders to be “micro-dosing”, by taking small but regular amounts of a banned substance in order to fool detection methods. The use of weight-loss drugs and experimental medicine are also “widespread”, leading to eating disorders and depression.
UCI president Brian Cookson, elected into office in 2013, thanked the panel for its work: “It is clear that in the past the UCI suffered severely from a lack of good governance with individuals taking crucial decisions alone,” said Cookson.
“Many [of these decisions] undermined anti-doping efforts; put the UCI in an extraordinary position of proximity to certain riders; and wasted a lot of its time and resources in open conflict with organisations such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada).”
Cookson added that his predecessors and their close associates regularly interfered in anti-doping cases which “served to erode confidence in the UCI and the sport”.
The report was compiled by chairman Dr Dick Marty, a former Swiss prosecutor, and two vice-chairs, German anti-doping expert Professor Ulrich Haas and Peter Nicholson, an Australian who has investigated international terrorism and war crimes.
Cookson will appear alongside World Rugby’s Brett Gosper at the Sport Industry Breakfast Club, powered by CWM FX, next week. To find out more click here.
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