Several riders had passport problems before the Giro but of the travel kind and could not get a visa for the start in Belfast. Now Roman Kreuziger has passport problems of the other kind with the UCI questioning his blood values and he’s now been suspended by his Tinkoff-Saxo team and won’t ride the Tour de France.
This post isn’t about doping. Instead it’s about procedures and probabilities so apologies if you wanted something scandalous and bloody. What’s happened and what’s coming next?
The storm about Chris Froome’s TUE saw the rider catch most of the headlines but behind it is really a tale of UCI procedures. This blog’s been questioning whether the UCI really followed WADA’s guidelines while the Journal Du Dimanche was also suggesting that Sky benefited from preferential treatment because UCI President Brian Cookson’s son Oliver works for Team Sky. It’s an embarrassment that’s easily addressed.
Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) has followed up its piece on last Sunday’s Affaire Froome with allegations that the UCI doesn’t have the proper process in place to issue Therapeutc Use Exemptions (TUE). The JDD quotes WADA boss David Howman as being “concerned” by this and how he’s “asked the UCI to rapidly fix the insufficiencies seen in this case“.
This is going to be a quick read because it’s a simple matter of whether the UCI or the JDD is telling the truth.
In recent years, sports betting has become more and more popular. It’s glory days for the bookmakers but also for the event organizers. Due to the rapid increase in sports betting and thereby property and image exploitation, the event organizers naturally want a piece of the cake as well, writes Mikkel Condé.
French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) has come up with the sensational headline “Froome “dopé” par l’UCI” which doesn’t need much translation. Behind it is the allegation that during the Tour de Romandie Chris Froome fell ill, the team doctor wanted him to take an anti-inflammatory drug called prednisone and the UCI gave approval and that this was “rushed” with “administrative legerity”.
Watching the opening game of the FIFA World Cup reminded me why I don’t watch much football. A Brazilian player called Fred felt a rival’s hand on his shoulder and collapsed to the ground as if struck by a sniper. In football they call it a professional foul, elsewhere it’s called cheating.
Not that cycling is superior. Here cheating is elevated to an art and the rulebook can at times resemble an à la carte where participants, including the governing body, select the rules they want like a diner picking their dinner. What ever happened to sportsmanship?
With the spring classics done it’s time for the stage races. But there’s no immediate switch from embrocation to Ambre Solaire as this year’s Tour de Romandie offers similar conditions to last year with snow and rain forecast
With Cadel Evans in 2011, Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and Chris Froome in 2013 the race winner has gone on to win the Tour de France. This year’s edition is probably important to Team Sky in terms of recovering from a disastrous April rather than staking claims to the future. It’s also a race that serves a final tune-up for those riding the Giro.
I didn’t bother with a “The Moment The Race Was Won” piece for the Flèche Wallonne because the race is so predictable. It’s got a tough course and a hard fight just to get to the foot of the final climb. But it always comes down to the final kilometre and the Mur de Huy. North of the Pyrenees Twitter wasn’t full of joy at Valverde’s win. Indeed there were insinuations of doping and overnight I got a couple of emails asking if Valverde is doping, after all he’d set the fastest every time up the Mur.
The call for riders to be given yellow and red cards as warnings and sanctions in a bike race got a few laughs last week. Unlike other sports where play can be stopped you can’t stop a race unless in the most severe of circumstances so seeing officials waving cards could be a symbolic gesture at best. But that’s the very reason why we need them.
One of the unwelcome side effects of following pro cycling is a passing acquaintance with medicine. In recent years it’s been haematology first with the haematocrit count then EPO and DIY blood doping. Now a quick look at analgesia thanks to Tramadol, a powerful painkiller that’s being used and abused in the peloton. It seems a ban is only a matter of time.