Australia’s Michael Rogers has dodged a doping bullet. The three-time world time-trial champion was provisionally suspended from racing after testing positive to clenbuterol after winning the Japan Cup late last year.
The test came after Rogers spent a period of time racing in China last October, a country where clenbuterol is known to be administrated to its livestock.
The UCI, in consultation with WADA, have accepted Rogers’ explanation that the substance made its way into his system through the consumption of contaminated meat.
Rogers can consider himself very lucky as it is an excuse that others, including multiple Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador, have used without success.
While it is widely known among sporting bodies that it is a risky proposition to consume meat in China, the acceptance of this fact by the UCI in deciding not to suspend Rogers has raised a number of problems for cycling’s controlling body, least of all its promotion of the Tour of Beijing and its troubled sister race, the Tour of Hangzhou.
Already largely derided by much of the cycling world, China’s WorldTour races now face an added challenge. They need to guarantee the riders visiting their shores that they are able to provide a safe and healthy environment in which to compete.
How they do this remains to be seen.
While the UCI already warns its athletes against eating meat when in China, this advice is neither practical nor helpful. Apart from one or two exceptions, the majority of the peloton are not vegetarians and shouldn’t be expected to change their diets for the one or two weeks that they are away.
And yet, if such a basic requirement as eating safe food can’t be provided, who will want to go?
Rogers was lucky, but the next poor soul might not be.
It has been suggested that the cycling teams themselves should be responsible for what their athletes eat, but in this case the logistics of bringing their own supplies half way around the world and negotiating the red tape required to actually bring food into the country is not a burden they should have to bear.
If the UCI sanctions races in countries with known problems such as this, then surely it is the controlling body’s responsibility to provide some sort of duty of care.
Perhaps a UCI-sanctioned food hall needs to follow the races from stage to stage, with all riders eating the same food in the same place and at the same time so there is no doubt about what they are ingesting!
Of course, the UCI’s decision to clear Rogers of any intentional wrong doing sets a dangerous precedent, especially as WADA seem complicit in the outcome. The rule that the athlete is responsible for whatever goes into his body has been overlooked in this case.
That is not necessarily a bad thing, as I am sure there are legitimate cases of accidental doping that crop up from time to time, but it does open the way for less scrupulous members of the peloton to plead the same lack of culpability.
Judging who has done right and wrong, never an easy task to begin with, has just got a whole lot harder.
To avoid similar scenarios in the future, the UCI needs to make an even bigger decision. It needs to stop sending its athletes into high-risk areas. If that means canning its World Tour races in China, so be it.
Of course clenbuterol exists in places other than China – Contador claimed it was a Spanish steak that brought him undone – but at least in Europe teams and riders have the opportunity to purchase their meat from a variety of sources.
In this unending fight against drugs it is often hard to find sympathy for riders who transgress the rules. Whatever you think of Rogers and his acquittal, the fact remains that riders are being sent into an environment that could prove to be detrimental, not only to their reputations, but to their continued participation in the sport.
That doesn’t seem fair.
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