UCI mounted no appeal after Slovenian anti-doping agency cleared Valjavec
When AG2R’s Slovenian climber, Tadej Valjavec, takes the start line at this Sunday’s Tour de Doubs, it will be his first race in over four months. His long absence was not due to injury or illness though, but rather the dark specter of doping brought forth by the UCI’s Biological Passport Program.
Unlike other riders implicated by the UCI and suspended, namely Franco Pellizotti, Pietro Caucchioli, Francesco de Boni, Ricardo Serrano, and Ruben Lobato, Valjavec looks to be free and in the clear with only the last four months as penalty.
At the end of July, Valjavec’s national anti-doping agency ruled that there was no evidence that Valjavec had done anything resembling doping, and thus granted him a return to racing. Valjavec made a case to discredit the passport findings, and apparently did a good job showing that he was sick when some of the tests were taken, and even went so far as to cast a doubt as to whether the tests had been done properly.
Following the significant ruling of the Slovenian anti-doping agency, the UCI and WADA had one month to submit an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
At the time, UCI spokesman, Enrico Carpani, spoke with the AP about the case: “Our legal department have to understand what is written in this document and study it. We have to know why they took the decision.”
On July 30th, Conal Andrews of VeloNation pointed out that Valjavec’s case could be a challenge to the entire biological passport. It seemed unquestioned at the time that the UCI would “work to prove that the system is indeed reliable.”
However, in an eyebrow raising move, they did not act within the one month window, so now the AG2R-La Mondiale rider can return with no problems.
The question now is whether the Valjavec case will have lasting implications for the credibility of the Biological Passport.