Nibali, Visconti and Pozzato say idea of night-time anti-doping controls seems mad
The World Anti-Doping Agency’s recommendation for night-time anti-doping tests has cause a stir. Top Italian cyclists disagree with the idea, saying they are already tested enough when compared to other sports.
WADA sent its recommendations, based on its independent observation at this year’s Tour de France, in a 51-page report to the International Cycling Union (UCI) on Thursday. It noted mistakes, praised the UCI’s work and made 57 recommendations.
The UCI should “seriously consider removing the informal knowledge and comfort that all riders have in knowing that they will not be tested in the middle of the night,” WADA said in its report.
“Such a strategy would obviously not be universally welcomed. The UCI would need to accept that if it truly wishes to take the fight against doping to a new level it will not necessarily receive compliments from all riders and teams.”
“Nothing really surprises me anymore. We have accepted everything and we will likely accept this. With resignation,” Italian Champion Giovanni Visconti (ISD-Neri) told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Try to wake up football players ahead of the Champions final! Doping exists, but the controls are already effective and very severe. Not letting us sleep at night seems obsessive.”
Cyclists may currently only be tested from six in the morning until 10 at night. WADA believes there is an open window of opportunity for cheating, perhaps doping via micro-dosing.
“What difference is there between tests at 11 at night or three in the morning? I don’t see what it would change,” said Filippo Pozzato (Katusha). “It seems exaggerated to me.”
Roberto Corsetti, team Liquigas-Doimo’s doctor and head of the Italian cycling team’s doctors association, also argued against WADA’s suggestion.
“In the report there is no scientific explanation why a control at two or five in the morning would produce a different result than one at ten or six in the morning,” said Corsetti.
“A rider on the way to winning a Grand Tour is tested almost every day: as the race leader, a stage winner, for his biological passport and surprise tests. Around 20 tests.”
Liquigas won two Grand Tours this year with Ivan Basso at the Giro d’Italia and Vincenzo Nibali at the Vuelta a España.
“The day that I won in Asolo at the Giro d’Italia, I was controlled at the end of the stage and an hour later at the hotel,” explained Nibali. “It’s also happened where I have been controlled in the evening and then again the morning after. In the whole season, I had about 70 tests in total, blood or urine.
“Waking the riders also in the night-time seems mad.”