Sigfried and Roy, bad luck and sulphur, competitive sport and doping. Certain things are always mentioned in the same breath because they only occur in combination anyway and therefore seem inseparable. Anyone who thinks that there is no doping in competitive sport, especially in cycling, is naive or ill-informed. In road cycling, the situation is clear: no rider who won the Tour de France in Paris between 1996 and 2009 was able to defend his yellow jersey, or rather his clean slate, in the anti-doping courts afterwards. With the exception of Evans and Nibali, all other Tour winners from 2010 onwards were at least publicly accused of doping. No one was ever convicted. And what is the situation in the Mountain Bike World Cup? There have been no more significant doping cases since Roel Paulissen tested positive in 2010.
Current: Doping case among German mountain bikers
But things are bubbling under the surface. The rumour that the BDR has several positive doping findings from 2018 has been circulating in the racing scene for some time. But no information has yet been made public. When asked by BIKE, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) is keeping a low profile. For data protection reasons, they do not want to give any details before a legally binding judgement. They won't even confirm the existence of positive doping findings. The Freiburg public prosecutor's office is also keeping quiet about whether a mountain biking doping case is currently being investigated in its specialised doping department. After repeated enquiries, at least the German Cycling Federation has now admitted: There has been a positive doping sample from a BDR MTB athlete since January 2018.
Names of potential doping offenders are not yet published
However, the names of the potentially doped mountain bikers will not or may not yet be named. Even if positive A and B samples exist, the doping findings are not yet legally binding. The athlete concerned can still defend himself in court and explain how his doping sample may have been contaminated. Irregularities in doping control or manipulated food have helped many athletes in the past to pull their heads out of the doping noose. To protect the athletes, names are therefore only mentioned after a legally binding judgement.
Not all countries take data protection so seriously. Austria, for example, follows the requirements of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and publishes the names of athletes immediately after a positive B sample test. In Germany, according to experts, it takes an average of one year to 18 months for the names in question to become public.
BIKE researches further
As long as no facts are known, the presumption of innocence applies to all German mountain bikers. BIKE is continuing to investigate the case and will publish all news on www.bike-magazin.de and in the printed edition of BIKE. However, there is a small piece of positive news for clean athletes: people with ongoing doping proceedings will be suspended, at least for the time being.
