Canadian believes the sport is cleaner than ever
In light of the recent positive test at the Tour de France, Sky Procycling’s Michael Barry has insisted that cycling is cleaner and is leading the fight against doping. During Monday’s rest day at cycling biggest event, it was announced that Russian cyclist Alexander Kolobnev tested positive for a banned diuretic.
“To race in the Tour de France, or compete as a professional cyclist, no one needs to dope,” said Barry in an article for The Star in Canada.
“Since 1998, the sport has been criticized repeatedly in the media because of the magnitude of positive doping tests and other doping scandals. The criticism was justified. But cycling has now changed and is in the midst of a positive transition.”
Since the Festina scandal in 1998 that saw the French team expelled from the race for using banned substances, cycling has faced an uphill battle in trying to clean up its image. High profile positive tests in recent years at the Tour de France have not helped its cause. In 2008 Riccardo Ricco was one of a handful of riders who tested positive at the event. He was seen leaving the race in shame after winning two stages. It was revealed he had returned a positive test for CERA – a third generation form of EPO.
In 2009 there were no positive tests in the French race while in 2010, race winner Alberto Contador was the only one found with a banned substance in his blood stream.
“Cycling is now a leader in drug testing and policing athletes,” wrote Barry. “As a result of the increased testing there are more positive drug tests, many of which occur at the Tour de France. The good news is that the cheaters are being caught.
“Cyclists are closely monitored. We’re tested at races, we’re tested at home, we’re tested in hotels — the testers can show up anywhere. To allow officials to find us easily, at any time, professional cyclists are required to post our hourly whereabouts online on the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System website.”
The UCI, cycling’s international governing body, has taken many steps to clean up the sport and at times has been the forerunner in scientific testing. In May they announced a ban on the use of needles and injections that were not of medical necessity.
The UCI were one of the first governing bodies or federations to implement the biological passport. The passport is a profile of a particular athlete that is accumulated and monitored over time from a number of blood tests searching for any anomalies in the blood.
Barry said, “In the 1980s and 1990s, athletes would search for prototype drugs, or newly introduced performance enhancing drugs, which they knew the testers could not yet detect. But the introduction of backtesting has greatly increased the risk of that approach. A positive backtest could leave a rider suspended at the peak of his career.”