inrng

Adopted by the Congress of the UCI, in its meeting of 21 September 2012 in Maastricht, the Netherlands

Considering that :

• The case of former rider Lance Armstrong, whatever its outcome may be, invites to reflect on the effectiveness of the fight against doping, as is confirmed by the creation by WADA of a working group to that effect;

• The UCI has always, as was already confirmed in 2002 in the Festina case by the Court of appeals of Douai (France), used all available means and made all reasonable efforts to fight doping in sport ;

• The UCI has invested in the research for a method to detect EPO since the nineties, was the first sports federation to introduce a no-start ruled based upon the haematocrit level (1997), to introduce the urinary EPO test (2001) and to introduce the homologous blood transfusion test (2004);

• The UCI was the first sports federation to introduce the athlete blood passport (2008), the most effective tool to prevent and detect blood doping ;

• This testing programme of the UCI which was conducted independently, objectively and without consideration of any individuals has found many riders positive, including high profile riders ;

• The comprehensive anti-doping programme of the UCI expresses both UCI’s awareness of the doping problem and its firm determination to do away with it ;

• Yet various doping scandals have shown that athletes with the help of medical and other experts have managed to escape detection by the most effective doping programme ever implemented;

• Notwithstanding all efforts it has not been possible to avoid doping practices for which science and WADA could not provide detection methods and that can only be detected by police methods that are outside the reach of an international federation ;

• Awareness of what has happened or even sanctions for violations that have been detected many years afterwards do not enable to undo and clean up what has to be accepted as a dark period in cyclings history ;

• There is no point in continuing to reexamine the past of then undetectable doping and stigmatize the sport of the young generations now that the situation has considerably improved through UCI’s continued efforts.

The Congress of the UCI confirms its confidence in the management of the UCI in its fight against doping over the years ; asks the Management Committee of the UCI :

• to deal with the ongoing cases according to the applicable rules ;

• to ignore attempts to exploit commercially or otherwise the painful aspects of cycling’s past ;

• to concentrate on the anti-doping effort for the future of cycling in order to provide a clean environment for the next generations of riders.

Alexandre Vinokourov will join the Grand Chapter of the Musketeers of Armagnac in a special ceremony on Saturday 1 September in the French town of Condom. The Olympic cycling champ will be the special guest for the prize ceremony.

As well as celebrating Armagnac, a form of brandy from the Gascon region of France, the Chapter promotes traditions and customs from the past in this area of South-West France.

And yes, Condom is the name of a town in South-West France.

Story spotted by Twitter’s @Biarnes72.

Fatima Yvelain is a regional-level distance runner in France. I suspect you had not heard of her until now but she enters history with one of the best ever excuses for a positive doping test.

Following a positive test for EPO after a half-marathon, she claimed heavy rainfall on the day of race had caused water to stream over hidden medical waste somewhere near the course. As she ran, the EPO-laced rainwater splashed onto her shorts, thus contaminating her urine when she later provided a sample at the doping control.

Needless athletics website VO2.fr reports the French Athletics Federation didn’t believe a word. She is banned for two years.

Update: this is no hoax story. You can read the official sanction from the French Athletics Federation here (PDF, in French).