- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The president of cycling’s governing body has called on the Spanish government to do more to tackle doping after four of the country’s riders were suspended for doping this week.
UCI president Pat McQuaid launched the call for action at the world road championships in Geelong, saying too many doping cases came from Spain and the government there was blind to the problem.
He admitted the sport had taken “a big hit” in recent days but refused to comment in-depth on the provisional suspension of Tour de France winner Alberto Contador.
“There is a problem in Spain because … a large percentage of our doping cases come from Spain,” McQuaid told reporters as the elite women’s road race was being run on Saturday.
“There doesn’t seem to be, so far, the will to tackle that in Spain.
“And that really needs to come from the government down.”
It was announced this week that Spanish star Contador tested positive for a minute amount of clenbuterol, a potent weight-loss and muscle-building drug, on the second rest day of this year’s Tour.
Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain) runner-up Ezequiel Mosquera was also suspended along with his teammate David Garcia da Pena for a test result positive to hydroxyethyl starch.
And on Saturday the UCI provisionally suspended Margarita Fullana for EPO use. The 38-year-old won bronze in the cross-country cycling at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and she has won three mountain bike world titles.
“In relation to anti-doping, and in particular in relation to Spain and especially over the last couple of days in Spain, cycling has taken a big hit,” McQuaid said.
“We have over the past month sanctioned four big Spanish riders.”
McQuaid said he didn’t want to stigmatise the country but its government had to do more with its anti-doping laws, which he described as the strictest in the world “along with France and Italy”.
“The government needs to work with the sport,” the UCI president said.
“The government needs first of all to recognise there’s a problem and I don’t know that they actually recognise there’s a problem.
“Then they need to sit down with the sport and put a lot of measures in place.”
McQuaid said he didn’t want to cast aspirations against Contador because his case was on-going.
The rider’s “results management process” had to be completed before he could comment further, he said, adding media speculation wasn’t helpful.
“It is not before a conclusion is reached that one can be transparent and explain the full picture,” he said.
“Leaks are not fair to the system.”
McQuaid said authorities were half way through analysing Contador’s test results when they were leaked this week.
“It’s a complicated case and we just have to wait until such time as we can be clear and straight as to what all of the evidence of the case is.
“I can’t say how long it will take.”
Meanwhile, World Anti-Doping Agency director-general David Howman said in New Delhi on Saturday that Contador’s positive doping test should not be taken any less seriously because only trace amounts were found.
Howman, while not commenting specifically on the Contador case during a news conference at the Commonwealth Games, said “just because … a small amount is detected, it doesn’t mean you weren’t cheating.
“What you must remember is that you can take a steroid and it can be in your system for many weeks.”
Howman said WADA annually reviews all substances to determine whether there should be a threshold to “cover situations where there might be inadvertent doping.”
“I think there is a fine balance there,” Howman said. “So what do you want us to do? Find the cheats or put in a level which means some who are cheating get away with it?”
Fancy a wager on your favourite sport? Head on over to PlayUp for great odds and friendly customer service and pick a winner. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.