Report says American was given preferential treatment by governing body and that doping still exists in cycling
Monday 9 March 2015 16:40, UK
Past regimes of the International Cycling Union have been accused of protecting Lance Armstrong and undermining the fight against drugs in the newly released Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) report into doping.
The 228-page document, published at midnight on Monday morning, is the result of a 13-month investigation by a three-man CIRC panel who were tasked last January by current UCI president Brian Cookson with uncovering how doping became so prevalent in cycling and whether or not the UCI had been complicit.
The panel conducted 174 interviews - including with Armstrong, Chris Froome and past UCI presidents Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen - and found that "a culture of doping continues to exist" in the sport but that it has now gone "underground" in the face of tougher testing.
Although the UCI came in for heavy criticism throughout, the CIRC found no evidence to support allegations that Armstrong twice failed drugs tests and on each occasion paid the UCI to cover them up.
It also said Armstrong's lifetime ban "can hardly be justified", given that other offenders have received bans of only six months.
The CIRC did not have power to bring charges against individuals and through the course of its investigation, no current riders admitted to doping.
The key findings of CIRC were:
- There was "preferential treatment for Lance Armstrong" from the UCI, which "defended" or "protected" Armstrong and took decisions that were "favourable to him".
- The UCI “perceived doping as a threat” to its ambitions to grow cycling worldwide and protect the sport’s reputation.
- Decisions taken by the UCI's leadership in the past "have undermined anti-doping efforts".
- The UCI became “an entity run in an autocratic manner without appropriate checks and balances”.
- Dopers today have “moved on to micro-dosing in a controlled manner that keeps their blood parameters constant and enables them to avoid detection”. In addition, where in the past doping was organised by teams, riders now organise their own doping programmes, often without the team’s knowledge.
- No one "credible" in the sport “would give cycling a clean bill of health in the context of doping”.
- When asked about teams, the general response from interviewees was that “probably 3 or 4 were clean, 3 or 4 were doping, and the rest were a ‘don’t know’".
- The UCI “consistently failed” to apply its own doping rules in relation to Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs). It gave the examples of Larent Brochard in 1997 and Armstrong 1999, “when both riders were permitted to provide backdated prescriptions to avoid sanctions” following positive tests.
- Doping occurs in women’s cycling, “although it most probably is not as widespread and systematic”.
- Doping in amateur cycling is becoming “endemic” due to “ease of access to drugs” and “reduction in costs”. Masters races have “middle-aged businessmen winning on EPO”.
The CIRC, which confirmed it operated independently of the UCI, was chaired by Switzerland's former state prosecutor Dick Marty. It also included Peter Nicholson, an Australian who has investigated war crimes for the United Nations, and Professor Ulrich Haas, a German specialist in anti-doping rules who works for the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
As well as digging into the past, they were charged with making recommendations to strengthen the fight against doping in the future.
The key suggestions were:
- The introduction of testing between 11pm and 6am given that “the absence of night-time testing is a weakness in the current system and needs to be addressed”.
- The UCI should set up an independent whistleblower desk to “encourage people to come forward with information”.
In a press release publishing the CIRC report, Cookson said: "While the CIRC report on the past is hard to read for those of us who love our sport, I do believe that cycling will emerge better and stronger from it.
"It is clear from reading this report that in the past the UCI suffered severely from a lack of good governance with individuals taking crucial decisions alone, many of which undermined anti-doping efforts.
"I am absolutely determined to use the CIRC’s report to ensure that cycling continues the process of fully regaining the trust of fans, broadcasters and all the riders that compete clean."
Froome was the only current rider listed as having spoken to the CIRC.
