Missing chaperones make mess in GP Dottenijs
Rabobank’s cross racer Gerben de Knegt looks out for his fellow mud colleagues and prevented Bart Wellens from receiving a missed doping control on saturday. The chaperones, who usually grab the riders after the finish, were nowhere to be seen at the GP Dottenijs.
Wellens left immediately after the race, while third-placed De Knegt knew he had to go to the doping control. De Knegt was able to call Wellens, who was already some 35 miles away, near Gent. Wellens returned immediately, making the time cut for presenting himself to the control.
De Knegt didn’t think the anti-doping control was well organized. “It was a mess there,” he told De Telegraaf. “Normally there is a chaperone waiting for you when you are subject to a control, but there weren’t any. I knew I had to go to the control, because I was on the podium.”
Others did not think that they were subject to the control. “Wellens didn’t see anybody and because of the bad weather he was happy to leave. Fortunately I was able to call him,” De Knegt said.
The Dutchman admitted that the control is still the responsibility of the rider, but things were not quite right in Dottenijs. “It was not marked where the control was supposed to be. I was looking around for half an hour. That’s impossible.”
Jonathan Page had a similar incident in 2008, when he missed a doping control at the World Cup in Koksijde. Page had crashed early in that race, hurt his back and withdrew. He went home and found out only three weeks later, when he received a letter stating that he had missed the doping control in Koksijde. He was later cleared by the sports court of arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland, as he did not miss the control intentionally.