The UCI have been compelled to appropriate a press launch issued by Bahrain Victorious that introduced the staff’s signing of Australian Robert Stannard, who obtained a four-year, post-dated suspension for an anti-doping rule violation, with rapid impact.
The staff said their medical staff “couldn’t conclude any wrongdoing” and alleged that “it has by no means been specified whether or not the rider is accused of utilizing a prohibited substance or a prohibited methodology” within the case, which concluded in June.
Stannard continued to claim that he has by no means knowingly taken a prohibited substance or used a prohibited methodology within the case primarily based on Athlete Organic Passport (ABP) abnormalities.
He framed his case as a alternative, stating, “I needed to make a tough alternative: settle for the ruling and have the ability to do the game I really like once more, or battle to clear my identify.”
The UCI determined that the values in Stannard’s ABP have been indicative of using a crimson blood cell-stimulating agent (eg. EPO) or a blood transfusion, nonetheless.
A panel of unbiased specialists (Dr. Laura Lewis, Dr. Paulo Paixao and Dr. Jakob Mørkeberg) have been unanimous of their evaluation of three samples that have been exterior the norm, in rejecting the rider’s specialists’ different explanations, and of their conclusion that the doping is an affordable rationalization for the abnormalities.
“In our view, the information of the athlete bears a number of patterns indicative of blood manipulation, with clear off-phases round competitors in August 2018 and January 2019,” the panel famous within the choice doc.”
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The primary pattern (pattern 2) was collected on the primary day of the Tour de l’Avenir in 2018 and confirmed a haemoglobin (Hb) degree of 16.8 and a excessive OFF rating (a measure of the stimulation of crimson blood cell manufacturing calculated utilizing Hb worth and share of immature crimson blood cells within the pattern).
A second pattern (pattern 6) taken on January 13, 2019, one week after Stannard dropped out of the Australian street championships, confirmed a excessive OFF rating and low reticulocyte share.
“A excessive OFF rating is often noticed when the crimson cell mass of the organism has been supraphysiologically elevated (excessive haemoglobin) and the physique’s personal crimson cell manufacturing is lowered (low reticulocytes) as a consequence to downregulate the surplus in crimson blood cells,” the panel defined, including that this state is indicative of “the use and up to date discontinuation of an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) or the appliance of a blood transfusion.
“In abstract, there are a number of events that the athlete has a suppressed erythropoiesis [red blood cell production] at or after competitions which point out a supraphysiological Hbmass.
“We subsequently conclude that it’s extremely doubtless {that a} prohibited substance or prohibited methodology has been used and that it’s unlikely that the passport is the results of every other trigger. In abstract, the profile bears a number of options of blood manipulation throughout the preparation for competitors,” the panel concluded.
Stannard’s specialists argued that elements reminiscent of a coaching camp at altitude earlier than pattern 2 was taken and excessive coaching circumstances earlier than pattern 6 may account for the values, which they tried to argue weren’t statistically irregular.
The panel rejected Stannard’s knowledgeable Dr. Paul Scott’s explanations for the values primarily based on his coaching schedule main into the Tour de l’Avenir in 2018.
Usually a suspension can be issued from the date of the choice of the UCI Tribunal. Nevertheless, the decide agreed that the UCI ought to have taken motion promptly after the primary pattern would have been flagged routinely by the system in 2018.
As a result of the UCI delayed bringing any Anti-doping Rule Violation in opposition to Stannard till years later, the decide allowed, underneath UCI guidelines, the interval of suspension to be modified to the date of the primary suspicious pattern.
Stannard’s suspension ran from August 17, 2018, by way of August 16, 2022, and, for the reason that dates have been up to now, the interval of ineligibility had ended.
Nevertheless, the 25-year-old was nonetheless chargeable for a fantastic, which has been redacted from the choice doc, together with 2,500 CDF for outcomes administration and €3,129 for the price of the documentation for the blood samples.
