Governing body blocks results in protest
Belgian rider Iljo Keisse may have won his appeal in a Dutch court today, thus gaining permission to start the Rotterdam Six Day this evening, but the UCI will do what it can to ensure that his participation is an anonymous one.
The governing body has circulated a communiqué voicing its opposition to his lining out in the race, and will effectively ignore his presence.
“The UCI maintained his decision that Iljo Keisse is not allowed to participate to the Rotterdam Six Days,” it stated. “If the rider would [will] take the start after all, the UCI Commissaries will completely ignore him and his team (their names won’t appear on starting list and results of the race).”
Keisse’s career took a serious knock when he tested positive for cathine and the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) after his victory in the 2008 Six Days of Ghent. He was cleared of doping charges by a disciplinary committee of the Belgian Cycling Union in November of last year, but the an appeal by WADA to the Court of Arbitration for Sport saw his two year ban reintroduced.
The rider won the right to race when he questioned that decision to the Belgian Court of Appeals. However the UCI and WADA have both said that he remains banned outside Belgium, and that was the basis for the ultimately unsuccessful bid to block him from starting in Rotterdam.
Having been unable to prevent his start, the UCI will do what it can to foil his attempts to win the six day.