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If teams are not doping you have to wonder why they do not join the Movement for Credible Cycling?

September 27, 2016

If teams are not doping you have to wonder why they do not join the Movement for Credible Cycling?

The latest revelations by the Russian hack team Fancy Bears has highlighted the lack of control and perhaps even the abuse of TUEs, in particular related to the administration of intramuscular corticosteroids prior to major events (TDF, Giro etc).

Doping is a topic that can really get the fans of cycling heated and to some extent angry, it is a funny topic because you either see drugs in every great performance or you are defending the “natural” ability of your hero. Cyclists to this day either hate or defend Lance Armstrong, there are few people who are not triggered by his name.

Recent revelations by the Fancy Bears team have raised some interesting questions, one that has been dominant in my mind is, is it cheating/doping if you get permission by the cycling authorities to take the band substance?

Red lights should already be going off in your head, WHY oh WHY would the cycling authorities EVER allow you to take a banned substance?

And even more puzzling why would they allow you to take the substance and then go off and compete in a major event?

Surely the athlete should be 100% healthy to participate and if they not 100% healthy and they require a substance that enhances performance, should they be participating?

It also brings into question the entire body that manages cycling and attempts to control doping, why have these bodies NOT set in places rules which would prevent the abuse of banned substances? It is becoming more and more clear that things are not that transparent!

We often forget that sport was engineered to keep the masses occupied, a social contract to engage the energy and focus of the lower and middle class, and in recent years to make a lot of money from the “fan” obsession, through TV rights and product endorsements.

We should be thinking of cycling as The Hunger Cycling Games, “an updated version of the Roman gladiator games, which entails a ruthless government forcing people cyclist to fight to the death as popular entertainment.” After all one large company provides the yearly cycling entertainment that keep us glued to the screens, it owns the races and the media companies covering the races, and to make things more interesting it has partnerships with the teams participating and governing the sport.

On a more serious note, if the cycling bodies are not going to correctly regulate the sport who will?

The Mouvement Pour Un Cyclisme Crédible or as it translates the Movement for Credible Cycling is a group of cyclists and teams who have set up rules beyond those of the UCI to regulate doping. A group who have chosen to do what is “right” instead of play the grey areas of the law.

What is the MCC?

Movement for Credible Cycling is a grouping of teams created in 2007. Don’t think of this as a political movement of Frenchman waving banners and marching to storm the UCI headquarters, it was more a quiet association of teams wanting to go further than the existing anti-doping rules, a forum to exchange ideas and promote ethical sport.

The main goal was to raise the ethical bar. To publicly sign up to the UCI’s rules but also to go further. They agreed not to let riders have exemption letters to use cortico-steroids and that in the event a rider needed cortisone for medical reasons they had to observe a 8 day period of rest because you had to be injured to use this.

If these rules all sound familiar, you’re right. Cycling has adopted a ban on needles whether syringes or IV drips.

In October 2012 and Tour de France patron Christian Prudhomme said the MPCC was vital to the sport and that he’d only consider giving wildcard invitations to member teams, a move later agreed by all the big race promoters.

Clearly cyclist and the teams know that there is an advantage to taking corticosteroids, and that is why they have “self regulated” the use.

An interesting point is number 2,

It is mandatory for any racer who, due to his health condition, may need a cortisone treatment given systemically -via oral, rectal, intramuscular or intraveinous administration – to be prescribed a sick leave and a competition leave for a minimum of 8 days.

How many of the Teams we support and follow would take the higher ground and do what is “right” and not necessarily what is permitted in the law?

These are the latest medical ethics rules:

MEDICAL:

TUE must be validated by the physician in charge of the team.
It is mandatory for any racer who, due to his health condition, may need a cortisone treatment given systemically -via oral, rectal, intramuscular or intraveinous administration – to be prescribed a sick leave and a competition leave for a minimum of 8 days.
It is mandatory for such cortisone treatments given systemically as reminded above to be validated by the physician in charge of the team.
Competition participation will resume, subject to a cortisol levels control yielding normal results.
Corticoïd infiltrations, which do not require AUT, will imperatively be validated by the physician in charge of the team, who will imperatively prescribe a minimum of 8 days of sick leave and competition leave, as well as a cortisol levels control.
In case of unusually low cortisol levels, competition will resume after an additional 8-day rest minimum, and back-to-normal cortisol levels.

MCC Rules March 2016

A voluntary code of conduct is only as good as its weakest member and history suggests the MPCC’s peloton of teams can fragment when the road gets rough. You can don a blue wristband when it helps but discard it when it’s inconvenient.

So for now the MPCC can only lobby and hope the UCI, as ever, plays catch-up.

This is a noble idea and the MPCC has helped as a forum to achieve real change in the sport. It didn’t get the no-needles policy but it was the catalyst.

You wonder why Team Sky, which has been so verbal about its “clean” cycling policy have yet to sign to up? It doesn’t cost much.

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