Following an open letter on the 6th of October, MPCC regards the answer given by WADA as an outrage to its members and to the values they have been defending for 10 years now.
Every year the day before the official unveiling of the Tour de France, Movement for a Credible Cycling members had a meeting in Paris on this Monday, October 16th. As of today, 65% of first and second division teams in the world are members of the MPCC. The Movement takes great pride in seeing that its rules are being followed on a voluntary basis. One year ago, we were really proud to see that our members were fully committed to our values. The general spirit remains the same. This will to foster credibility in cycling has been even more remarkably noted on last October 6th, when the executive board members agreed to send an open letter to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This letter, among other subjects, reaffirmed our will to forbid the use of corticoids and tramadol. MPCC has been leading this fight for years now.
The answer MPCC received from WADA is regarded as reckless by the members of the movement.
Dear Mr Legeay,
Thank you for your letter of 5 October 2017.
WADA is well aware of the issues you raise related to glucocorticoids and Tramadol; regarding which, the Agency has been regularly consulting with experts and other stakeholders — including the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF) and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
On the subject of glucocorticoids, please note that …
Read the letter
Most of science articles around the world, as well as expert endocrinologists consulted by the MPCC claim that corticoids have a positive effect on performance. Though, M. Olivier Niggli, general director of WADA, claims in his answer to our open letter that “Scientific evidence indicates that the performance enhancing benefits of glucocorticoids are very narrow indeed; and that, for the most part, the use of glucocorticoids in sport is detrimental to performance”.
M. Olivier Niggli declared on March 8th 2017: “We have reached the point where we need to open a debate about corticoids”.The need for this debate seems to have faded for WADA.
MPCC also regrets that WADA “felt that [Tramadol] should not be prohibited” solely on the basis of “practical reasons”. To conclude, MPCC highlights the lack of answers regarding the aftermath of Operation Puerto. We consider that we have not received any answers to our questions.We don’t accept this answer, we rule it as incomprehensible and view it as an outrage to:
• Our athletes, who have seen their cortisol levels tested around 3000 times for 10 years, on a voluntary basis.
• Our physicians, who are fully convinced that our approach is the right one.
• Our loyal partners for numerous years
• All the members of our movement
We expect respect towards our commitments with scientific answers, not political ones. !
We grant an unconditional support to M. David Lappartient: the 45 professional teams who belong to the MPCC will collaborate to fulfill these two objectives.
During his campaign, two measures embraced MPCC’s philosophy:
• A minimum of eight days of rest in case of abnormal low cortisol levels
• Forbid the use of corticoids in competition as of January 1st 2019.
We grant an unconditional support to M. David Lappartient: the 45 professional teams who belong to the MPCC will collaborate to fulfill these two objectives. To this end, MPCC obviously wants to keep its seat in the Professional Cycling Council (PCC) as an observer.
Mechanical fraud: efficient and systematic checks
About the important topic of mechanical fraud, MPCC reaffirms that all the means necessary must be used, as well as all the technologies available. We need to stamp out suspicion, and every effort needs to be but in the public place to improve the image of our sport. On the biggest events, at the very least, MPCC requests systematic and thorough bike checks for every rider subject to an antidoping test (3 first riders and 2 random one, plus the GC leader for stage races).