Banning Leisure cyclists for refusing to drug test in your home

Carawaystick

Sticky Bottle has a report of ukad banning a leisure cyclist who never competed, for 4 years from all sport, for refusing to do a drug test when a drug tester rocked up to his home.

It seems farcical given the actual steroid abuse by certain british cyclist to ban a non competitive cyclist from participatory sport.

robyntmorton

While the letter of the law says they are right, it does seem a little over the top to take such action against a leisure cyclist.

Halloween Jack

robyntmorton wrote: »

While the letter of the law says they are right, it does seem a little over the top to take such action against a leisure cyclist.

I've noticed a lot of amatuers getting pinged lately, laughable attempts to seem tough on doping...

rtmie

From the linked article "He was targeted for a test in May of this year after the UK Border Force seized a package of steroids in the postal service that he had ordered online from India.
The package was seized on April 10th this year with Edmond s home address on it. When examined it was found to contain 20 ampoules labelled as testosterone and 100 tablets labelled as Nandrolone .
According to the UK Anti Doping s ruling document in the case, its testers called to Edmond s home on May 1st in an effort to take a sample from him for testing.
He refused to provide a sample of blood or urine and told the testers he was not a racing cyclist. As such he said he was not aware he may be tested.
He later admitted ordering the drugs for said they were for personal use."

Hmmm, still not the sort of character I'd start a crusade for.

boardbeer

And I was thinking of ordering up a bit of EPO on the darknet, to help me through the winter commute...

scott.s

He must have had a race licence to be in the testing pool, no?

cython

scott.s wrote: »

He must have had a race licence to be in the testing pool, no?

Seemingly not.

Ian Edmonds was a member of British Cycling and though he was not a racing cyclist, as a member of the federation he was subject to dope testing.

I imagine that at the bare minimum anything that would not be permitted for a racing cyclist outside of competition is also banned for leisure?

loyatemu

so he's banned from an activity he doesn't take part in anyway?

Lukker-

loyatemu wrote: »

so he's banned from an activity he doesn't take part in anyway?

That's about the crux of it. If he was a member of British cycling though he will probably be banned from training in association facilities.

rtmie

scott.s wrote: »

He must have had a race licence to be in the testing pool, no?

According to the article he was tested by UK Anti Doping not by British Cycling, after they were informed of the package. I guess the cycling aspect may be incidental to the story, he may in theory also have been involved in other sports. Presumably the PEDs in question might be beneficial in other sports, no?

CramCycle

I am confused as to why UKAD and not the police turned up? Prescription drugs over the net is a no no is it not over there (and here).

Carawaystick

It seems like uk customs told ukad about the steroids. I'd imagine there's a data protection violation there; how would ukbf know the addressee was a member of an organisation under the umbrella of ukad?

I'd imagine if ukbf had their act together they'd go down the criminal route instead of using intimidation by proxy.

Beasty

I presume he's banned from BC leisure events also. Guess insurance may be a factor as BC offer 3rd party as well as accident insurance and there may be the potential for the use of some drugs on the banned list to affect someone in an adverse manner when participating in leisure events.

Anyway, they know where they can find me if they want to test me.....

Pherekydes

Curious case. Is he banned from commuting by bike? What about walking to work (banned from all sport)? Weekly poker night?

I'd imagine it's just to pad out the doping figures at year end.

Beasty

Not banned from all "sport", and can certainly continue to cycle (and maybe even try out for the likes of the NFL or WWE). BC's ban can of course be applied to all BC sanctioned events.

Carawaystick

Beasty wrote: »

Not banned from all "sport", and can certainly continue to cycle (and maybe even try out for the likes of the NFL or WWE). BC's ban can of course be applied to all BC sanctioned events.

BC say he's banned from "all sport"
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/about/article/20161027-Ian-Edmonds-banned-for-attempting-to-use-prohibited-substance-and-refusing-to-submit-sample-0

Meanwhile Johnathan Tiernan Locke got what looks like just over 15 months for doping

Lizzie Deignan got bc funding for her appeal against missing 3 out of competition tests

Simon Yeats got only 4 months for failing a drugs test

Shane Sutton was found to actually be a misogyist idiot, but BC have not prevented him from taking part in sport at all.

Pherekydes

Beasty wrote: »

Not banned from all "sport", and can certainly continue to cycle (and maybe even try out for the likes of the NFL or WWE). BC's ban can of course be applied to all BC sanctioned events.

Well, a doping offence under UKAD would merit a ban from all sport.


Of course, I was being facetious about being banned from walking or using his bike.

Pherekydes

Carawaystick wrote: »

Lizzie Deignan got bc funding for her appeal against missing 3 out of competition tests.

She only missed two. The other was rightly expunged from the record.

Chuchote

loyatemu wrote: »

so he's banned from an activity he doesn't take part in anyway?

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/leisure-cyclist-41-who-never-raced-gets-doping-ban-of-four-years/

The Nottingham rider and member of Mapperly Cycling Club, has now been banned from all competitive sport for four years for “attempted use of steroids”.

To be honest, it seems fair to me.

Beasty

Pherekydes wrote: »

Well, a doping offence under UKAD would merit a ban from all sport.

I quoted a couple of examples that are not under the auspices of UK sport or even WADA. There are plenty of other activities that may be considered "sport" by some. We even include Frisbee in the Sports category here....

ThisRegard

loyatemu wrote: »

so he's banned from an activity he doesn't take part in anyway?

Banned from all sport, not just cycling.

Pherekydes wrote: »

Curious case. Is he banned from commuting by bike? What about walking to work (banned from all sport)? Weekly poker night?

I'd imagine it's just to pad out the doping figures at year end.

If I'm running a local 10k i don't want to be racing against a cheat. It's much more than for numerical purposes.

Chuchote

Banned from all competitive sport. He can play football or tennis or swim or cycle or rock-climb; he just can't take part in competitions or matches.

Miklos

I've banned a few people from my home for refusing to piss into a cup alright.

NiallBoo

I wonder does this mean that leisure cyclists in the uk can't use mechanical aids?

Beasty

Just like to point out I'm not particularly fussy, and am happy to hand out bans to leisure as well as competitive cyclists....

P_1

I presume he's just banned from races or would something like that also cover sportives?

robyntmorton

P_1 wrote: »

I presume he's just banned from races or would something like that also cover sportives?

IIRC it's any event sanctioned by a governing body, racing or otherwise.

morana

theoretically any of us CI members could be tested, but they have a registered testing pool which comprises of a number of high profile athletes and funded athletes. the CI anti doping officer picks a number of events at the start of each year for the sports council to show up at to test. usually its national champs, ras bit it can be any event (racing)

Beasty

Is there then an issue about anyone taking something that could qualify for a TUE? The process of getting these things is very convoluted and the Governing bodies are, I suspect, only set up to deal with these at the elite level. It's not something you can just go and ask your GP for.

(So, for example, yesterday I was racing in Newport, feeling crap. Came back last night and had some Night Nurse, which is not on the banned list. Day Nurse is still on the list I think, and if I had taken some of that during the day I would be committing a doping offence)

n1ey

Carawaystick wrote: »

Sticky Bottle has a report of ukad banning a leisure cyclist who never competed, for 4 years from all sport, for refusing to do a drug test when a drug tester rocked up to his home.

It seems farcical given the actual steroid abuse by certain british cyclist to ban a non competitive cyclist from participatory sport.

In America most people do not belong to USA Cycling. You only belong to the federation if you are going to race. Many did not even belong to USA cycling and would race. MTB until recently was not part of the same membership fee.

We don't have people belonging to the federation in order to qualify for a bike club. Each bike club can obtain insurance on the open market.

From the American perspective it is bizarre to think that someone in an Olympics sanctioned federation should NOT be tested.

I am rather glad that they caught the fellow. I think that many amateurs are doping in my area. I think that the federation should use its money to protect me. I disagree with them on spending 99% of the money to pay for Olympics level athletes. The idea of the federation was to foster the sport. I rather that my federation develop bike racing, which is actually on a sharp decline in America.

The federation(USA Cycling) has pushed against amateur doping for the last two years.

Bill

NiallBoo

n1ey wrote: »

In America most people do not belong to USA Cycling. You only belong to the federation if you are going to race. Many did not even belong to USA cycling and would race. MTB until recently was not part of the same membership fee.

We don't have people belonging to the federation in order to qualify for a bike club. Each bike club can obtain insurance on the open market.

From the American perspective it is bizarre to think that someone in an Olympics sanctioned federation should NOT be tested.

I am rather glad that they caught the fellow. I think that many amateurs are doping in my area. I think that the federation should use its money to protect me. I disagree with them on spending 99% of the money to pay for Olympics level athletes. The idea of the federation was to foster the sport. I rather that my federation develop bike racing, which is actually on a sharp decline in America.

The federation(USA Cycling) has pushed against amateur doping for the last two years.

Bill

But if they're not competing then they're not cheating.

IMO this should be purely a police matter.