THE CPA IS AGAINST ANTIDOPING CONTROLS WHICH DO NOT RESPECT THE RIDERS’ PRIVACY

from 07/11/18

After another case of non-respect of the privacy of the riders by the anti-doping controllers, the CPA says enough. The association of the professional riders has already noted to the CADF and to the UCI certain intolerable situations about the timing of some doping controls to which the riders are submitted.

"There have been cases in which the riders were checked on their wedding day, during a funeral or on their child's first day of school - says Gianni Bugno, president of the CPA. - Now there is the case of the rider Pieter Serry, who got checked in the off season, during the Flemish cycling Festival. Like a prisoner and right when he was ready to enter this long awaited gala, he had to leave the party and to go under the controls. We can no longer watch to this modus operandi that does not respect the rights of a person and his private life! The riders pay 2% of their prizes to make these controls possible, they are the only athletes in the world who pay from their own pockets for antidoping controls. The riders respect the dead-lines and the procedures required for the fight against doping, but in return they ask for some respect of their private lifes... "

In the upcoming days, the CPA will investigate who ordered Serry’s check, if it was either the Belgian national antidoping agency, the Belgian cycling federation or the CADF. In addition, the CPA will present an official request to all the bodies involved in the fight against doping and the UCI to establish a code of conduct for the controllers. This to make sure that the private life of the athletes, at least in certain circumstances, gets respected.

"The CPA has always supported the fight against doping - concludes Bugno - and has always deployed in defense of a clean cycling. We have invited the CADF director to our last assembly to work on common goals. In many countries we organize meetings between the riders and the members of the CADF to make the ADAMS geolocation system more comprehensible and to inform the riders about their duties towards the doping controls. But now, I think it is time to consider also the riders’ rights, not only their duties... "

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