CYCLING:MARK CAVENDISH faces additional pressure in the run-up to the London Olympics after missing an out-of-competition drugs test in April 2011 while filming with the BBC on Mount Etna. He will face no action as it is not until three tests have been missed that an athlete faces disciplinary action. However, Cavendish accepted he must ensure he does not miss any further tests. As an elite competitor the Manxman is expected to be available for testing within certain predetermined times.
“It was my mistake,” said Cavendish. “I was with a film crew for the BBC and Giro d’Italia on Mount Etna. It was a simple, genuine administrative error . . . I was tested by the [International Cycling Union] UCI a couple of weeks before that and twice in the fortnight after and had around 60 tests in all last year. It’s part of the job and it’s my job to make sure I don’t miss another.”
Dave Brailsford, who is the performance director of the British Olympic cycling team and head of Cavendish’s trade team, Team Sky, said he has total faith in his rider. “I am totally satisfied he made a genuine mistake. He is tested regularly and is a powerful advocate for testing and ensuring that sport is clean.”
News of Cavendish’s infraction emerged in an Italian newspaper. It came on the same day the implications of whereabouts cases were put in the spotlight by two far more serious instances in France. While a disciplinary procedure has yet to be opened against the French road cyclist Yoann Offredo after “three strikes”, a third warning for the world sprint champion Gregory Bauge resulted in the awarding of Bauge’s 2011 gold medal to Britain’s Jason Kenny, in circumstances that seem racked with controversy.
The UCI confirmed Kenny would become the world sprint champion after Bauge lost his title following a missed test and two infringements of the computerised “Adams” system through which athletes detail their availability for testing. A hearing in early November led to the triple world champion being banned for 12 months, with the ban backdated to begin on the date of his third warning in December 2010. His results in 2011 have been ruled invalid by the UCI. Chris Hoy, who won bronze behind Bauge and Kenny last March, has been upgraded to silver while France have been stripped of their gold medal in the team sprint, with Germany gaining the title and Britain – Kenny, Matt Crampton and Hoy – being promoted from bronze to silver. Bauge will be able to compete in the world championships in April and in the London Olympics, where he will be favourite to succeed Hoy as sprint champion.
The French Cycling Federation yesterday contested the UCI’s decision to strip the titles from Bauge. The federation said the move went against its original decision that Bauge should retain his titles because of a “contradictory legal procedure”. The federation claimed the UCI should have gone through an appeal procedure with a body such as the court of arbitration for sport. The FFC added that no disciplinary procedure had been opened against Bauge as of March 2011 because it had been notified of his third offence on September 30th, 2011, a delay of 10 months. It said the delay in the procedure was not the fault of the athlete, and that this meant “the results he obtained were not affected by any irregularity justifying their being overturned”. The UCI’s attorney, Philippe Verbiest, said the retrospective ban was within his organisation’s rules.
Bauge said he had been informed on Thursday that he would lose his titles, and that “there is no cleaner athlete than I am. I acknowledge my negligence and the administrative mistakes and accept the ban. But I don’t understand why I am being stripped of my titles.”
