The UCI had been compelled to appropriate a press launch issued by Bahrain Victorious that introduced the staff’s signing of Australian Robert Stannard, who obtained a four-year, post-dated suspension for an anti-doping rule violation, with rapid impact.
The staff said their medical staff “couldn’t conclude any wrongdoing” and alleged that “it has by no means been specified whether or not the rider is accused of utilizing a prohibited substance or a prohibited methodology” within the case, which concluded in June.
Stannard continued to say that he has by no means knowingly taken a prohibited substance or used a prohibited methodology within the case based mostly on Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) abnormalities.
He framed his case as a selection, stating, “I needed to make a tough selection: settle for the ruling and be capable to do the game I like once more, or struggle to clear my identify.”
The UCI determined that the values in Stannard’s ABP had been indicative of the usage of a purple blood cell-stimulating agent (eg. EPO) or a blood transfusion, nevertheless.
A panel of unbiased consultants (Dr. Laura Lewis, Dr. Paulo Paixao and Dr. Jakob Mørkeberg) had been unanimous of their evaluation of three samples that had been exterior the norm, in rejecting the rider’s consultants’ various explanations, and of their conclusion that the doping is an inexpensive rationalization for the abnormalities.
“In our view, the information of the athlete bears a number of patterns indicative of blood manipulation, with clear off phases round competitors in August 2018 and January 2019,” the panel famous within the resolution doc.”
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The first pattern (pattern 2) was collected on the primary day of the Tour de l’Avenir in 2018 and confirmed a haemoglobin (Hb) stage of 16.8 and a excessive OFF rating (a measure of the stimulation of purple blood cell manufacturing calculated utilizing Hb worth and proportion of immature purple blood cells within the pattern).
A second pattern (pattern 6) taken on January 13, 2019, one week after Stannard dropped out of the Australian street championships, confirmed a excessive OFF rating and low reticulocyte proportion.
“A excessive OFF rating is usually noticed when the purple cell mass of the organism has been supraphysiologically elevated (excessive haemoglobin) and the physique’s personal purple cell manufacturing is lowered (low reticulocytes) as a consequence to downregulate the surplus in purple blood cells,” the panel defined, including that this state is indicative of “the use and up to date discontinuation of an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) or the applying of a blood transfusion.
“In abstract, there are a number of events that the athlete has a suppressed erythropoiesis [red blood cell production] at or after competitions which point out a supraphysiological Hbmass.
“We subsequently conclude that it’s extremely probably {that a} prohibited substance or prohibited methodology has been used and that it’s unlikely that the passport is the results of every other trigger. In abstract, the profile bears a number of options of blood manipulation through the preparation for competitors,” the panel concluded.
Stannard’s consultants argued that elements comparable to a coaching camp at altitude earlier than pattern 2 was taken and excessive coaching circumstances earlier than pattern 6 might account for the values, which they tried to argue weren’t statistically irregular.
The panel rejected Stannard’s knowledgeable Dr. Paul Scott’s explanations for the values based mostly on his coaching schedule main into the Tour de l’Avenir in 2018.
Normally a suspension can be issued from the date of the choice of the UCI Tribunal. However, the decide agreed that the UCI ought to have taken motion promptly after the primary pattern would have been flagged routinely by the system in 2018.
Because the UCI delayed bringing any Anti-doping Rule Violation in opposition to Stannard till years later, the decide allowed, beneath UCI guidelines, the interval of suspension to be modified to the date of the primary suspicious pattern.
Stannard’s suspension ran from August 17, 2018, by means of August 16, 2022, and, for the reason that dates had been up to now, the interval of ineligibility had ended.
However, the 25-year-old was nonetheless accountable for a positive, which has been redacted from the choice doc, together with 2,500 CDF for outcomes administration and €3,129 for the price of the documentation for the blood samples.