Pellizotti case raises questions about UCI’s nine-person expert panel
Gianni Bugno, a former pro and head of the Italian cyclist association, is pushing the International Cycling Union (UCI) for greater biological passport clarity. Yesterday, he spoke as part of the 19th annual meeting of the association of Italian team doctors in Ravenna, Italy.
“We have always been in favour of the biological passport,” Bugno told La Gazzetta dello Sport, “but it needs more clarity, even the procedures.”
Roberto Corsetti, team Liquigas-Doimo’s doctor and president of the doctors association, led the meeting. It centred on the biological passport and the recent case of team Liquigas cyclist Franco Pellizotti.
The UCI announced on May 3 that Pellizotti’s biological passport showed irregularities. The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) reviewed the case and recommended a two-year suspension to the Italian anti-doping tribunal (TNA) on July 29. However, the TNA acquitted Pellizotti on October 21 because there was not “a sufficient level of certainty.”
The UCI is expected to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Pellizotti, 32, was prevented from racing the Giro d’Italia in May and has not raced officially since.
The biological passport offers a way to signal doping without a traditional positive test. Scientists can plot blood and urine readings over time to be able to recognise irregularities. Once the UCI’s scientists spot something odd, it sends the results to three experts on its nine-person panel: Robin Parisotto and Mike Ashenden (Australia), Michel Audran and Olivier Hermine (France), Bo Berglund (Sweden), Yorck Olaf Schumacher (Germany), Giuseppe D’Onofrio, Pierluigi Fiorella and Giuseppe Fischetto (Italy).
D’Onofrio and Fiorella attended the team doctors meeting yesterday.
“The UCI sends us a number of cases, completely anonymous,” explained D’Onofrio. “The three experts will examine and consult with each other, and report to the UCI if there are any the UCI needs ‘to target’, that is, if there are cases it needs to ‘control’ further. Two or more times a year, the nine-man panel will meet and review the cases to decide if the should be reported as violations.”
Bugno and D’Onofrio want all nine experts to be involved immediately
“We have already sent a letter to [UCI] President Pat McQuaid,” said Bugno, “to ask that there are no longer filters in the profile selection of athletes and that all nine experts have the data of the 850 riders involved, and not only those who are irregular.”
“We requested the UCI to allow for greater transparency and sharing,” added D’Onofrio. “I do not agree that there are only three groups of experts to examine the profiles, all nine of us have to get involved to reach a broader consensus of opinion.”
D’Onofrio said that the nine-person panel will discuss this issue further at its meeting in February.