Teams informed of suspicious riders, or not?

23 riders are under investigation for doping violations because of testing under the biological passport programme, the UCI announced last week, and the teams have been informed as to who they are. At least, one team claims that other teams have been informed, but UCI chairman Pat McQuaid has now denied that the riders are necessarily being investigated for doping, and no such notification has been sent.

"The teams involved have been informed," Gerolsteiner team manager Hans-Michael Holczer told the Suedwest-Aktiv newspaper. "Thank God, I didn't receive a letter." The two Dutch teams Rabobank and Skil-Shimano both confirmed to telesport.nl that they had also not received such a letter from the UCI. There's a good reason for that, McQuaid told the website, "That is correct, because we have absolutely not sent any team such a letter."

McQuaid continued, "Several tests have been done on all riders since the biological passport was set up. For these 23 riders, we found results which deviated from the normal results. That does not mean that they are suspicious. It is possible that there is a natural cause. That is why we have the biological passport, so that such things can be cleared up." (SW)