The cases revealed in cycling during the first semester of the year are not good. In total, 15 cases were revealed including 7 from the ‘Operation Aderlass’ police investigation.
“Always leave a light on”. MPCC President Roger Legeay’s famous punchline illustrates that it is necessary to stay vigilant at any time regarding the attacks to the credibility of cycling. The beginning of 2019 shows how accurate this phrase is.
15 cases were revealed since the beginning of the year, with 7 of them involving pro riders, in only 6 months. These are the worst results since 2014 – since we started accounting doping and corruption cases.
These results partly are the consequence of a German police investigation led in Austria: The Operation Aderlass. This operation involves 7 cases that were all revealed during the first semester. It shed a light on very modern techniques of – sometimes hard – doping (blood transfusions), which casts a shadow on the efficiency of antidoping fight and tarnishes the image of cycling.
Although, it is possible to relativize the reach of some of these cases as 4 of them are procedures regarding facts that happened years ago (2011-2013).
These 15 cases mainly concern 3 countries: Colombia (4), Slovenia (3) and Austria (3).
Hence, at the end of June, cycling was placing 4th in the “most affected by attacks to the sport’s ethics” ranking, coming after weightlifting, baseball and track and field. At the end of 2018, cycling was only coming in 13th position.
