Second masters rider sanctioned today, is disqualified from all results since June 2007
Following today’s earlier announcement by USADA that US Master’s rider Neal Schubel has been handed a two year ban for buying and using EPO, a second competitor has also been handed the same sanction by the agency.
Charles “Chuck” Coyle, of Boulder, Colorado, has accepted a 24 month ban for what USADA termed ‘his purchase, possession and use of synthetic erythropoietin (EPO) and insulin growth factor (IGF-1).’
As was the case with Schubel, USADA sanctioned him based on evidence in its possession rather than via a positive test. This will heighten speculation that both riders are amongst those pinpointed in an investigation involving US-based riders sold banned substances by a former US international competitor, who subsequently agreed to cooperate with USADA.
Coyle, who is now 38 years of age, competed with a number of big US-based teams. He competed with Vitamin Cottage, 7Up/NutraFig, Successful Living, and the Groove Subaru cycling team.
On the latter’s webpage, he listed his career highlights as wins in the Boulder Roubaix Road Race, the King of the Mountains competition at Mt. Hood, the best sprinter award at the Tour of Utah and the sprint king jersey in the Tour of Tobago (Trinidad & Toabago).
Coyle’s two-year suspension begins today. He is also disqualified from all results achieved on and since June 13, 2007. This is, “the date he first committed the anti-doping rule violation based on evidence in USADA’s possession,” according to today’s statement.
Back in 2002, Coyle wrote about fellow pro Scott Moninger’s positive test for 19-norandrosterone. He said that he believed he was innocent and that it was indeed a case of a tainted supplement, as Moninger insisted at the time.
However, Coyle also discussed the harder substances available to those who searched for them, and appeared to suggest that their use was very rare.
“It is also noteworthy to mention that I still believe that the US Peloton is a very clean group of riders. When the issue of doping is brought up rarely are we talking about the “hard drugs” like EPO or riders shooting up Belgium cocktails, and we don’t have 23 year old neo-pro’s having suspicious heart attacks on the slopes of Taylor Street,” he wrote on the Daily Peloton website.
“When we have issues it tends to be with milder forms of doping; this is a positive sign about the state of cycling here in the US. I am not saying that this is not a serious issue but we should try to keep this all in perspective.”
Five years after writing that, USADA states that Coyle was using those same substances that he dismissed in his statement.