Cycling’s Doping Dilemma

Steve Bauer will always remember December 10, 2010 as the day Team SpiderTech was granted official UCI ProContinental status making them eligible to race in the world’s biggest and most prestigious cycling events. The team director had gathered his riders and staff together for a series of meetings at a St. Catharines, Ontario hotel and planned a celebration at a restaurant later that evening. Little did he know, cycling’s anti-doping authorities were also in town and were targeting his squad.

“The World Anti Doping Agency came to the hotel at 6 a.m,” Bauer said. “About noon we were announced as a ProContinental team and at 6 p.m., the CCES [Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport] came independently, not even knowing UCI had been there, to take urine tests. “We were going out for dinner so we said ‘look we’re dressed to go and we have to be at this restaurant at 7 p.m., so you guys are getting on the bus with our athletes.’ The anti-doping chaperones can’t leave them out of their sight, so they went with us and tested them in the restaurant’s washroom.”

Bauer laughed at the events of the day and is careful to point out that his team has nothing to hide. The random unannounced testing is just part of the life for professional cyclists these days. In one of the most stringent anti-doping programs in any sport, Canadian riders can be tested at any time by the UCI, WADA and the CCES, as well as at competitions. People associated with the sport are united in the belief that cycling is cleaning itself up. But that’s not always the view from outsiders.

As a ProContinental team, SpiderTech is obliged to participate in the UCI’s Biological Passport program, at a cost of around $100,000 per year. Each rider is expected to be available for random unannounced blood and urine testing throughout the year and can be tested three or more times a year if they’re seeing good results on the bike. Using the Biological Passport program, normal hormone and blood variable levels can be compared over time and used to determine if an athlete has been using performance enhancing substances. The system was adopted and implemented by WADA in 2009, but the UCI had rolled out its own passport system a year earlier.

According to UCI president Pat McQuaid, this is just one example of the governing body taking the lead in the fight against doping. He takes pride in an impressive array of statistics to back up his claim. In 2010, the UCI collected and analysed 5,247 urine samples and 627 blood samples during competitions. But they didn’t stop there. Another 2,067 urine samples and 4,981 blood samples were collected during random, out of competition tests. In total, the UCI took 12,922 samples last year. Compare that to the 5,570 samples they took in 2006.

In comparison, the International Association of Athletics Federations, the governing body for track and field, conducted 3,706 urine tests and 604 blood tests in and out of competition last year. Both sports suffer image problems and seem to be held to higher standards than any other sport. Worth noting is that none of the major North American professional sports leagues: NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA have signed on to the WADA anti-doping code, despite ongoing discussions. In the absence of a comprehensive anti-doping program, it’s virtually impossible to catch the cheats or to determine the extent of doping that might be going on.

Canadian rider David Veilleux, who rode for the French ProContinental squad Europcar in 2011, said he has noticed the increased vigilance by the UCI. “They show up three or four times a year,” the 24-year-old said. “It’s something I’m starting to get used to. Sometimes it’s inconvenient, but it’s part of the job and I am absolutely committed to doing those tests if it can make the sport cleaner. I compete 100 per cent clean I’m doing it to push my limits.” Veilleux said he knows some riders are so focused on results that they’re willing to use performance enhancing drugs as a shortcut.

“It’s frustrating sometimes that we are all classified as dopers. I think it’s totally wrong. I mean, 10 years ago, the teams would encourage it. You would get on a team and the doctor would give you stuff. But now, all the teams know there’s a problem and are taking efforts to discourage the riders from doing it,” he said. “It’s like in life. There are cheaters everywhere and the guys who do it, do it on their own. The mentality has changed a lot. There’s a good difference in the peloton too.”

So what was the outcome of those nearly 13,000 UCI tests last year? There were 44 athletes (none Canadian) that tested positive for performance enhancing substances. Punishments ranged from one year to lifetime suspensions for repeat offenders. The most common suspension for those caught doping in cycling is a two-year ban. McQuaid is pleased with the results.

“It must be remembered that each doping case that comes to light is a step forward for cycling,” he said. “We are gradually, but surely, weeding out the cheats. Although in the short term this tarnishes the image of our sport and the riders, it’s for the long-term benefit of cycling. “It’s widely acknowledged that the UCI is the most active international federation when it comes to the fight against doping and we’re constantly striving to introduce more measures to deter riders from resorting to doping.”

McQuaid points to the UCI’s no needle policy which, simply put, is a ban on injections unless they are for purely medical reasons. No longer can a team physician claim they were injecting ‘vitamins’ into a rider while possibly violating anti-doping rules. Earlier this year, the UCI also agreed that convicted dopers wouldn’t be allowed to be part of team staffs.

“We’re also placing a lot of emphasis on improving the riders’ environment and educating their entourage,” McQuaid said. “Coaches, family and friends, former riders, heads of clubs and federations, team managers and doctors have a great influence on the decisions taken by the riders. I understand that there is an image problem and I sympathize with riders who suffer because of the acts of their colleagues. The large majority of the peloton is clean and we’re doing all we can to protect these riders and their images.”

Despite a soured history between the UCI and WADA – cycling was one of the last international Olympic sport federations to sign the WADA code – McQuaid has a staunch supporter in WADA director general David Howman.

“To be fair, over the last few years there has been quite a change [in cycling],” said Howman. “We still have the odd controversy and, of course, the controversy can upset all the good work. You only have to put one foot wrong and the many yards you have gained are set back. That’s just bad luck sometimes.”

“What has happened in cycling over the last four years is that they have done a heck of a lot of work to try and make sure the athletes who compete in their sport do so in a proper fashion.” Howman said while the UCI is doing its best to clean up the sport, athletes need to follow suit. “The athletes also have to do their best to show that their sport is one the public can have confidence in. You can’t blame the administrators. It’s the athletes who are still not pulling their socks up.”

Unfortunately, it’s been some of cycling’s biggest names who have fallen afoul of the anti-doping programs. Tour de France winners Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador, most notably, have failed drug tests in recent years, while a cloud of uncertainty still hangs over seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong. Contador tested positive for Clenbuterol, was cleared by the Spanish cycling federation and continues to compete while the UCI and WADA both have appealed that decision to the Court for Arbitration in Sport.

For cycling, this certainly isn’t a new problem. Doping has been going on for decades and some would say there will always be those who want to take shortcuts to success. At the 1984 Olympic Games, Bauer was narrowly beaten in the road race by Alexi Grewal of the U.S. The American later admitted he had been blood doping, the now banned practice by which a litre of blood is removed during the training period then, once the body had replaced the missing red blood cells naturally, the packed red blood cells are re-infused. This is usually done before a major championship. Blood tests can now determine when an athlete has re-infused their own blood, although the accuracy of these tests is still in question.

Bauer, who was the silver medalist in that race and went on to a fourth in the 1988 Tour de France, has lived through the good times as well as the not so good. “I’m sure doping existed in the 1980s, but the conversation we had, guys like me and Greg Lemond and Phl Anderson, the new anglopones to the World Tour, we were basically speaking out against doping,” he said. “I don’t think it was so bad in the 80s, I think it got worse toward the end of the 90s when EPO came known in athletics circle as a drug that could really boost your performance.

“Toward the end of my career there was a certain frustration like ‘where did this guy come from? How come he is going so fast?’ Through the best years I raced, I had to believe I could beat anybody when I was on a good day. I think I proved I could be a top guy without taking stuff, but I think that sort of changed at the end of my career. I was fortunate to finish my career in the mid 90s when it was getting a lot worse.”

It wasn’t until 2000 that a reliable test to detect the use of EPO was implemented. Now, with the number of WADA-accredited laboratories increased to 35 and with governments, sport federations and the World Customs Organization signed on to the WADA Code, the anti-doping forces are unifying to curb cheating.

Testing is focused on the international professional cyclists, although masters competitors and club amateurs have been caught on occasion. The feeling of crossing the line ahead of the pack to win some minor prizes or a champion’s jersey sometimes proves so much of a temptation that riders resort to cheating.

Like all UCI ProContinental teams, SpiderTech has a no-nonsense policy when it comes to doping. A clause contained within each rider’s contract allows the team to part company immediately if a rider tests positive. All financial obligations are terminated at the same time.

“If you are caught doping, you’re basically finished. That’s the end of the story,” Bauer said. “We have to compete with the right attitude. If you tell yourself you need to dope to win, then no matter what anti-doping control program is out there, you may be tempted to take something.

“Our athletes can be tested anywhere in the world, at any time. That’s every hour, every minute of the day they can be tested. I think to myself: ‘who in their right mind is going to continue to risk his livelihood? His career? You’re going to get caught. Cycling is catching guys. That’s why we have a doping problem – because we test and guys are getting caught. It’s going to diminish because it can’t continue. There’s not going to be a thousand stupid guys in the peloton anymore.”

Paul Gains is an international freelance writer based in Cambridge, Ontario. He served as the press chief at the 2003 UCI World Road Cycling Championships in Hamilton.