UCI

Rasmussen Banned… And Lessons To Learn

Regular readers will know I’ve been following the case of Danish rider Alex Rasmussen closely since last September when news emerged that he’d committed three anti-doping “whereabouts” faults. Normally this constitutes an anti-doping violation under the rules, meaning a ban was likely. He got fired by his team, HTC-Columbia but when the case was heard by the Danmarks Cykle Union he was cleared. Only the case went to appeal and yesterday he lost.

The case is bigger than one rider as it covers the systemic issue of out-of-competition testing, the logging of an athlete’s “whereabouts” and also exposes discrepancies in the UCI rules which have to be fixed.

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Riders Blocked From Racing

It looks like the perfect picture for a cycling team. A smiling rider stands tall on the podium, dressed in yellow with the team logos in evidence as the girls hold their pose for the cameras. Even his sunglasses are perched just right on the team-issue baseball cap. But there’s something wrong with the picture.

I’m not talking about the composition of the image. You might notice the podium girls haven’t zipped up their jerseys fully but it’s not that. No, the problem here is that Radioshack-Nissan’s Jakob Fuglsang has won a race and bizarrely this could prove damaging for the interests of his team.

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USPS Conspiracy Loose Ends

There are still unexploded bombs from World War Two. Every now and then one is discovered buried deep in the ground, often during construction work. Residents are evacuated, a security cordon is put in place, a military bomb squad arrives to defuse the defunct device and within a day or two construction work resumes.

Cycling has its buried bombs too. An axis of deceit carpet-bombed European roads, bridges and mountain passes with syringes and vials some of which are only blowing up today. Yesterday’s explosive stories about Lance Armstrong and others involved in the squad that went from US Postal to Radioshack was just one example. Only headlines and text got sometimes warped by the shock. Here’s a quick look at a few of the issues.

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It’s Not About Lance Armstrong

The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) intends to charge several people with a range of doping-related offences going from the use of banned substances to trafficking and conspiracy. Whilst Lance Armstrong is amongst those facing charges, he is not the only one name involved. These charges relate to the various teams for which Armstrong rode for and involve the senior management and coaching staff. In short this is about the way the team was run.

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Wednesday Shorts

That’s how good Peter Sagan is. Ok, like all statistics you can take them apart a bit, for example the age they turned pro makes a difference. But 33 wins? Even for a sprinter this is phenomenal but like those listed, Sagan seems to have something more. After all he beat Fabian Cancellara for the prologue in the Tour de Suisse.

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The Ancestor of Your Bike

It might look inelegant but the photo above from a seller on ebay reveals the ancestor of almost every modern road bike.

This is the tale of a radical designer and a scrap mountain bike frame meeting mass production and global trade to eventually reshape racing bikes.

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Saturday Shorts

There’s been a big focus on the Giro this week and no wonder given it’s the second biggest race on the calendar, with an open list of contenders, some good scenery and a variety of chances. But there’s been plenty more happening during the past week and more to come in the days ahead.

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Oiling the Wheels in Turkmenistan

In March this blog looked at the award of the 2013 track world championships to Belarus, a decision taken with input from a senior UCI official with a significant financial interest in a giant construction project in the capital, Minsk. Whether coincidental or not, the awarding of the worlds served to highlight the significant conflict of interest between the UCI’s sporting interests and the business activities of Igor Makarov, the Russian oligarch behind the Katusha team who now sits at the UCI’s top table, the Management Committee.

Now it’s time to take another look because sadly the overlap between sport and business is not restricted to one case. In another example here is a tale from Turkmenistan.

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UCI lets Saxo Bank keep Pro Team licence

Eight weeks ago the UCI announced it would ask its Licence Commission to review the status of Team Saxo Bank’s UCI ProTeam licence, its spot amongst the top-18 teams with automatic entry into the biggest races. Today we learn from the UCI that the team will keep its licence. Here’s a quick recap of the issues and also why Saxo Bank’s trouble’s aren’t over yet.

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