Armitstead and these missed tests…

Here… http://inrng.com/2016/08/armitstead-whereabouts-ukad-british-cycling/
And here… https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/01/rio-2016-lizzie-armitstead-court-appeal-olympics

Lucky to be going to the Olympics it seems. Withdrawn from recent races claiming to be “preparing for the Olympics” while actually suspended from racing by UKAD. Missed a test in August, October and then again the following June. I find it quite difficult to believe that a professional athlete, who’s entire livelihood and reputation depends on staying the right side of the anti-doping rules, can be so complacent as to miss 3 in a row in a relatively short space of time, and not contest any she does miss at the time if there really are legitimate reasons 😕

Tom Fordyce just retweeted this article of his from last year

http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/33189303

Yes, don’t doubt that it’s an administrative headache for an athlete, but…

Had my reputation and future been dependent on getting even the smallest details right, perhaps it would have been an hourly priority. This, after all, is an athlete’s chance to prove to the world that they are working their sporting wonders in a clean and fair way.

Cheers for that, Stoner, very interesting. Wouldn’t fancy living to that!

But I wouldn’t fancy pro-level training, either.

Cyclingtips (here[/url]) and Inrng (here[/url]) both did articles about the ADAMS system too.

I still think that with two missed tests and a possible 4 year ban as a consequence of another missed test, in the rainbow stripes, in an Olympic year, with my career and reputation on the line, i’d either be contesting the earlier misses or being absolutely fastidious about my whereabouts.

Missing one is fair enough I think, everyone makes mistakes.

Missing another is a bit silly if you’ve already missed one. You should really be expecting this one, but maybe something got in the way.

Missing a third is bloody ridiculous and a bit suspect IMO.

Hmm.. does sound a bit strange.

She has got a cute smile though, so all is forgiven. 😀

^agree (with ads678),

however, it was the first missed one which they have had the lawyers crawl all over in an attempt to get it overturned.
has it taken this long?

the press wouldnt be playing so nice if this was a russian rider

Regardless, this kind of slack attitude towards what I consider a serious aspect of the job only detracts from any achievements that come post scandal.

I’m staggered that such a soft system exists at the very highest level of the sport, It almost certainly reduces the level of interest in the events, especially in the current climate.

Shoddy

Lots of people (including UKAD) wanting to know why she didn’t challenge the first one at the time. Fair question, but is there a process of appeal to UKAD and would they have been likely to rescind it (without an appeal to CAS)? So you can understand why she didn’t bother with the hassle of a challenge at that stage.

The second came soon after, so it is a bit more odd that she didn’t challenge the first then – rather than having the sword of damocles hanging over her for 10 months.

If she is to be believed, the third test is one of those situations where we accept that mistakes are made. Of course, if he story turns out to be false (and you can be sure someone will be digging) then it’s going to be a hard one to bluff.

be so complacent as to miss 3 in a row

It’s not 3 in a row, it’s in a year and we don’t know how many times she has been tested in that time. Quite a lot of in-comp tests due to her wins, but it would be interesting to know how many out of comp tests she has done.

What is clear is that her reputation has taken quite a hit – she needs to explain herself more fully.

Well she only contested the earlier test after she missed the 3rd test in June. Was provisionally suspended until the CAS hearing. Though that was kept very quiet indeed.

the press wouldnt be playing so nice if this was a russian rider

I assume you’re only reading the UK press!

Clean – yeah right !

Missed one because they were asleep with their phone on silent, missed the other for no explained reason. Pulled out of some races at short notice.

Seems to me that to even be competitive in cycling at that level you have to compete against cheats. Hardly surprising that anyone near the top is cheating.

She might as well change her name to something sounding Russian.

Can you imagine turning up to a race clean and being expected to compete against these people – it would not be worth being clean.

Ban them for life.

Its only a bloody sport, its not like they do something that adds much to society. So ban them for life and sod the fact they wont earn a living anymore cheating at riding a bike.

The testing regime is very onerous. Give your location for every single day ! She missed one test and provided a sample the following day, one missed test was anulled and one test they said was a real miss. So really she missed one test not three.

Trying to maintain a professional racing and training schedule and manage the minute detail of your whereabouts diary is a fair challenge – in less challenging roles, people employ someone full-time to do this but a cyclist is expected to do it themselves? With her winning record she’ll have received a number of tests – perhaps if they naysayers knew how many negative tests she’d done, they wouldn’t be baying for her blood? Nothing to see here – move along!

What is clear is that her reputation has taken quite a hit – she needs to explain herself more fully.

Will that make any difference? She’s already been judged by folk on here and elsewhere already.
People dragged Mo Farrah over the coals when he missed two in 12 months.

There’s no perfect system for drugs testing and people fall foul of it through mistakes and falability quite often.
Look at Simon Yates having taken a ban and been briefly battered in the press due to his doctor not putting a TUE form in for him.

She seems to have explained herself pretty clearly, the tester made a cock up and she was tested again the next day and was clean.

Trying to maintain a professional racing and training schedule and manage the minute detail of your whereabouts diary is a fair challenge

Yet it’s quite rare for a professional athlete to actually miss 3 tests in that 12 month window.

Nothing to see here – move along!

I do hope that’s the case.

Uneasy reading and it certainly looks bad if you just read the headline.

Really need more evidence on this bit before pitchforks are deployed though…

the second seems to be an admin error on Armitstead’s behalf and the third the same, only complicated by “an emergency change of plans due to a serious illness within her family”.

18 months of total domination of the sport and 3 missed tests in a year – don’t really like the smell of that much. Shame, cos I was a big lizzie fan.

she was tested again the next day and was clean.

Which is plenty of time to have cleared some substances out of the system

As an professional athlete you need to get tested, you also need to prove to your audience your clean.

It is not hard or difficult to be available at a time each day to get tested if your job/reputation/sport depends on it.

Hard is defusing bombs in Afghanistan, or doing brain surgery in Syria.

FFS, these people ride bikes for a living, sticking to a schedule to get tested to prove your not cheating is not hard.

A bit careless of her (and others) but with that many athletes and that many tests, some cock-ups will happen. I assume she didn’t bother to contest the first one immediately because she just assumed it wouldn’t happen three times in a year. The last one being a family emergency (though we don’t know the details) is just one of those things.

Fact is, her goal is to be one of the best cyclists in the world, they aren’t necessarily the brightest or most organised of people, and the system needs to deal with that.

It’s whose, not ‘who’s’… tsk.

Hmmm, I think if she had been called Petrova Dodgymissedtestovitch we might be seeing a wee bit more criticism…

It’s whose, not ‘who’s’… tsk.

Lucky for Armitstead that CAS are more lenient than the STW grammar police.

She missed one test and provided a sample the following day, one missed test was anulled and one test they said was a real miss. So really she missed one test not three.

It was the first missed test that was anulled; the second was a fair cop admin failure and the third was a sudden change in plans due to family illness, so again a fair cop.

The issue is that the first should have been a pass; the tester didn’t make sufficient steps to contact her (called at a team hotel, didn’t identify himself correctly so the hotel refused to give him her room number, and so he called the mobile which was on silent as she was asleep)

The issue is also that given this was a failure by UKAD why it wasn’t challenged and overturned at the time. I imagine it’s because she / her team thought that they’d stay whiter than white in the meantime so it wouldn’t matter. The counter is that you don’t want ANY smoke whatsoever so if you had an incorrect missed test you’d want it cleared, which is why when she got a second strike shortly after the decision not to challenge the first is even more questionable.

Thing is – it is a very onerous system as the Fordyce article shows (although, it’s part of the deal of being a top athlete) and we don’t know how many are living with one or two strikes at any time – maybe it’s accepted that occasionally screw ups are made and it really isn’t a biggie until you get caught out. Like points on a driving licence – do 3 points really matter, you only start to worry when you have 6 or 9?

FFS, these people ride bikes for a living, sticking to a schedule to get tested to prove your not cheating is not hard.

Every single day ? It would seem easier to me to just get a pee test every week.

Hmmm, I think if she had been called Petrova Dodgymissedtestovitch we might be seeing a wee bit more criticism…

Plenty of critisim flying around here already

A significant difference between this case and the russian ones is the whole state sponsored and manadated doping thing.

No idea if anything dodgy going on or not, but those seeking to imply she’s had an unusually stellar year are very wide of the mark. She’s been at or near the top for ages, and let’s not forget that her wins have coincided with the absence of Marianne Vos.

Hmmm, I think if she had been called Petrova Dodgymissedtestovitch we might be seeing a wee bit more criticism…

Have any Russians ever been banned under the whereabouts rule ?

Actually it would give a pretty good indication of a countries anti-doping agency if we knew how many missed tests they recorded.

A significant difference between this case and the russian ones is the whole state sponsored and manadated doping thing.

Which we didn’t know anything about for years until the whistle got blown 😉

Every single day ? It would seem easier to me to just get a pee test every week.

Would be nice and easy to plan your doping around a once a week regular test.

UKAD statement reads that they don’t understand why the first violation wasn’t annulled. Looks like a case of Hanlon’s Razor:

“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”

To be honest, I’m more interested in who is doing the leaking from British Cycling and what they seek to achieve. Should have rightly remained confidential since she has not received any punishment.

I don’t know but do we really think that elite level sportspeople are clean or its just a game of avoiding the testing if there is a risk of anything showing up? You just need to look at a few of the boxers/ufc fighters to see they are on the juice.

It’s not a test every day, it’s you have to inform the AD agency of your whereabouts for availability for testing each day. They could test two days in a row or not test for three months.

To be honest, I’m more interested in who is doing the leaking from British Cycling and what they seek to achieve. Should have rightly remained confidential since she has not received any punishment.

Is that right? If the case went to CAS and UKAD are awaiting the publication of the Reasoned Decision, I think this is a document that gets published for all to see on the CAS website.

Quite a few cases of British sports people get exposed when they should be treated under the confidentiality clauses and before the point that it was due to be public knowledge.
Examples that spring to mind include; Simon Yates, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, Mo Farah, Christine Ohuruogu, Chris Froome’s TUE

All ended up in the papers before it was supposed be released or in cases where it wasn’t due to be released at all

To be honest, I’m more interested in who is doing the leaking from British Cycling and what they seek to achieve. Should have rightly remained confidential since she has not received any punishment.

First line of INRRNG piece…

Lizzie Armitstead has won an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport

You’re not suggesting CAS decisions are/should be confidential?

… she was tested again the next day and was clean.

Well yes, but there is a reason there are unannounced out of competition tests, as well as the expected ones at the end of races …

I don’t know but do we really think that elite level sportspeople are clean

Well I can’t speak for everyone, but personally I don’t believe that all of them are clean – or that all of them are doping.

Honestly, it stinks. It may be that she’s clean, it may be some genuine mistakes but it still stinks. And if, later down the line, it turns out she’s not clean then it also implicates by association her fiance Philip Deignan who rides for Sky.

As someone who watched the whole US Postal/Lance thing almost destroy the sport I love I find this both worrying and indeed upsetting. I would be asking some very serious questions at British Cycling and Sky right now.

You’re not suggesting CAS decisions are/should be confidential?

Not sure, perhaps acquittals on unpublished confidential accusations should be. You can’t prove a negative, after all. See arguments regarding allegations of sexual abuse (which I also think should be confidential).

I can’t understand why the first was not revoked immediately and there would be no issue. And I can certainly understand that even in an ordered life, events just turn that order upside down sometimes (and allowances are made).

There is no way I could manage that discipline in my life!

But getting a ban for missing a test because you are racing at the time and ther team didn’t fill in the form properly – now that is beyond ironic! (not LA btw)