Second result backs up human growth hormone doping claims
Farnese Vini-ISD rider Patrik Sinkewitz has been notified that his B sample is also positive for human growth hormone, and has said that he could end his career. The German rider learned yesterday that the second assessment has come back with the same result as the A sample announcement in March.
He is the first cyclist to fail the test, and is facing a lengthy legal battle to try to clear his name. Sinkewitz looks set to incur a lifetime ban from the sport as he previously tested positive for testosterone in 2007.
“Unfortunately it is so,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, confirming the news. “I know that no-one believes me. I must now first wait and think about how I deal with this news.” On his website, he claimed that contrary to the announcement by the UCI no “substance” was found, but a “blood value that they are holding against me.”
His positive test arose from an in-competition test conducted by Antidoping Switzerland at the GP di Lugano on February 27. The test was authorised by the UCI, and the sample was analysed at the WADA accredited laboratory in Lausanne.
The result was announced by the UCI on March 18th, and the rider was told then that he would be unable to race until the German Cycling Federation can determine if he has indeed broken the rules. He claimed then that he had done nothing wrong.
“I can only say that I have definitely not used any banned substances,” he told the same newspaper. “At first I thought it was a gag, but then I was given it in writing.”
The B sample news means that disciplinary proceedings will now notch up a level.
After receiving a reduced ban for cooperating with investigators after his 2007 positive, Sinkewitz returned to cycling in 2009 with the PSK Whirlpool-Author team. That season he won a stage of the Tour of Portugal, as well as taking a stage plus the overall in the Sachsen Tour.
He was then signed up to ISD Neri by another former team-mate, Luca Scinto, who was acting as manager of the Italian squad. Scinto said that he should be given an opportunity. “Look at all the great riders that have been caught for doping, they returned one day,” said Scinto at the time, according to Reuters.
“Look at (Ivan) Basso, (Alexandre) Vinokourov. Sinkewitz is one of them and he deserves a second chance.”
Sinkewitz won the Giro di Romagna with the team. It was renamed Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli team this season and he continued as a rider there. His best result was ninth on a stage of the Tour of Oman; the 30 year old was also 30th in both the GP di Lugano and the GP Regio Insubrica, and finished 48th overall in Tirreno-Adriatico. Those may well prove to be the last races of his career.
The former Deutschland Tour winner was suspended by his team and is likely to be fired very soon. It said at the time of his positive A sample that it would drop him if the B sample gave the same result.
“The team, which has always pursued a strict anti-doping line devoted to cleaning, monitoring and respect of the rules, will wait the repetition of the analysis to decide,” it said then. “It is ready to dismiss the athlete in case of confirmation of a positive case.”