Following reports in today’s press regarding team BARDIANI-CSF currently racing in the Giro d’Italia, MPCC expressly points out that on Friday, May 9, the movement was informed by team BARDIANI-CSF that one of its riders showed an abnormally low cortisol level.
As of this Friday prior to the start of the Giro d’Italia, MPCC has formally requested to the team BARDIANI-CSF – through its president – not to enter this rider into the race and to prescribe eight days off-race as from the date the sample was taken by the UCI, in accordance with article 9 of MPCC regulations and its annex.
MPCC considered that the explanations provided by the team BARDIANI-CSF were not sufficient to keep the rider in the race and immediately invited the team manager to attend the board of directors scheduled on June 8th in Lyon, in order to provide further explanation and allow the board to review this case.
MPCC would like to remind that on October 20, 2014, all the team doctors reaffirmed the strict enforcement of the existing rules for health reasons.
At this annual meeting, MPCC team doctors expressed unanimously their wish to increase the number of cortisol level tests.
Since the beginning of the year a total of 263 cortisol level tests have been run on the professional peloton, either on the initiative of MPCC (128) or UCI (135 in the Giro).