Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Back to news
news
Doping
Racing
Roman Kreuziger, key support rider for Alberto Contador, out of Tour de France over bio passport abnormalitiesRoman Kreuziger.png

Roman Kreuziger, key support rider for Alberto Contador, out of Tour de France over bio passport abnormalities

But why did UCI take eight months to move case forward?
by John Stevenson
Mon, Jun 30, 2014 12:44
5

Czech professional cyclist Roman Kreuziger has denied doping after being stood down by his Tinkoff-Saxo team over irregularities in his biological passport values.

Kreuziger maintains there are innocent explanations for what the UCI claims are abnormalities identified in his biological passport in 2011 and 2012.

Nevertheless, Kreuziger will not be racing again until the issue is resolved, although the team has not formally suspended him.

In a statement, Tinkoff-Saxo said: “The team has decided, in agreement with Roman, that he will not ride in any races including this year’s Tour de France until more information becomes available to the team.

“Though he won’t be racing for now, until more information becomes available to the team it will not provisionally suspend Roman unless required by the UCI or the Czech Federation.”

The case will raise questions over the speed with which the UCI acts in biological passport cases. The passport system tracks the levels of cells and other substances in a rider’s blood and urine over time to detect unusual values that can indicate doping.

Kreuziger claims he was notified on June 28, 2013 that the UCI had detected abnormalities in his biological passport values.

He said in a statement: “I immediately had the data in my biological passport checked by two accredited experts, who in September and October last year unanimously concluded that the values were due to causes that were not due to the use of doping substances or methods.”

Statements from those experts were passed to the UCI by October 3, 2013, the team said.

On May 30, Kreuziger was advised that the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CAFD) Experts Panel did not accept his explanation.

He sought the opinion of a third expert who, he said, confirmed that “the data in my biological passport are absolutely normal and give no grounds for suspecting the use of doping substances or methods.”

Nevertheless, Kreuziger finds himself out of the Tour de France where he was expected to be a key support rider for team leader Alberto Contador.

“I intend to defend myself in the appropriate quarters, even by the more expedite legal proceeding, in order to establish in the fastest possible way the truth in this matter,” he said.

uci
Tinkoff-Saxo
Roman Kreuziger
Biological Passport
Alberto Contador
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

Add new comment

5 comments

Avatar
Paul J | 10 years ago
0 likes

The problem with the bio-passport is that it's based on science that's founded on pretty sketchy data with respect to elite level endurance athletes. There is software that flags anomolous bio-passport parameters, and then it goes to a subjective interpretation by a panel of experts.

As a result, there is a *lot* of room for the experts to argue about the data, and the riders/teams themselves can get their own experts in to argue even further.

Avatar
Colin Peyresourde replied to Paul J | 10 years ago
0 likes
Paul J wrote:

The problem with the bio-passport is that it's based on science that's founded on pretty sketchy data with respect to elite level endurance athletes. There is software that flags anomolous bio-passport parameters, and then it goes to a subjective interpretation by a panel of experts.

As a result, there is a *lot* of room for the experts to argue about the data, and the riders/teams themselves can get their own experts in to argue even further.

I think that is why they prefer suspensions. As it says the UCI have not actually banned or suspended the rider, just that he has an anomalous reading. This means that the UCI suspects but cannot confirm he is doping. I'm guessing the choice of Saxo-Tinkoff is one which covers the bases. If he's found guilty he/the team do not have any sanctions against them in the Tour and it removes the finger of suspicion from their team.

A few months down the line he comes back and has served his suspension with no effects on the upcoming races. It minimises the damage to the team and is almost self-regulating

I wonder whether the JTL situation is that he cannot recreate the conditions under which the anomaly occurred. Anyway the fact remains that things have not eradicated doping. So status quo

Avatar
Metjas | 10 years ago
0 likes

UCI still not fit for service it seems; honestly, how many years does it take to make a decision and how is it acceptable that this hits a team weeks before the biggest race of the year, especially as the alleged offences date back from his Astana days.

Regardless of the actual case, it's just not acceptable in this day and age to drag this out over years, and it does pose the question whether the biological passport is as reliable as the UCI and WADA wants us to believe; after all it seems 3 independent experts, Tinkov Saxo medical staff and the UCI expert panel cannot agree on interpreting the data.

And the UCI believes it is perfectly acceptable for a rider under investigation to move teams - I wouldn't be very happy as team manager to find out halfway through the season.

Avatar
edster99 | 10 years ago
0 likes

3 years since a finding - and its not done and dusted ??? that is ridiculous. I mean, really ridiculous.

Avatar
Simmo72 | 10 years ago
0 likes

Its impossible to comment really except that this all takes too long and the timing sucks. Whilst we are at it, any news on JTL?

Latest Comments