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news
Lars Boom © Graham Watson 2Lars Boom to start Tour de France despite failing cortisol health test
Dutch rider, Lars Boom, is to start the Tour de France despite failing a cortisol test. Boom, who won last year’s cobbled stage, should have been removed from the Astana team according to the rules of the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC). Sky Sports reports that this has not happened, throwing the team’s continued membership of the group into serious doubt.
Boom posted an abnormally low cortisol level after UCI tests on all riders due to take part in the 2015 race. The team duly notified MPCC, a voluntary self-regulatory body and a statement on the group’s website reads:
“Following the cortisol level tests carried out by the UCI on all the riders competing in the 2015 Tour de France, MPCC has received notice of the anonymous results of its 14 team members starting the race, on Friday afternoon.
“Its results having shown an abnormally low cortisol level, Team Astana has immediately reported Roger Legeay, President of MPCC, the identity of the rider concerned (Lars Boom).
“According to article 9 of MPCC regulation, in case of abnormally low cortisol levels, competition will resume after an additional 8-day rest minimum, and back-to-normal cortisol levels.
“MPCC would like to remind that cortisol level tests are carried out within the framework of health, not antidoping.”
Although low cortisol levels can be indicative of cortisone use, they may also signal a health problem or fatigue, which is why MPCC demands that riders rest. Treatment with cortisone – which can result in low cortisol levels – is permitted for medical reasons, but in these circumstances MPCC rules again demand that the rider takes eight days rest.
According to L’Equipe, Astana asked the UCI whether they could replace Boom, but the request was denied because the test results arrived after the cut-off point for registration of riders.
It therefore seems that Boom will ride. UCI president Brian Cookson explained that the Dutchman has a healthy and permissible level of cortisol according to UCI standards
"Lars Boom has not broken any UCI or Wada rules, the issue of cortisol and cortisone has been referred to Wada's scientific experts and at the present moment they have not recommended we or anyone else take action to include that within our rules.
"It's not included in the Wada rules so I can say Lars Boom is free to start the Tour de France under UCI rules, he hasn't broken any rules."
However, Astana’s decision does mean that the team are highly likely to exit the MPCC. Last month, both Bardiani-CSF and Lotto NL-Jumbo also left the group after taking issue with its rules on cortisol levels.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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7 comments
I hate to defend Astana here... but the MPCC may want to look at updating their rules - if a test result comes in too late to replace the rider, then its too late. Asking teams to just loose a rider at the start of a 3 week grand tour - the biggest race of the year - voluntarily, is not going to work.
but tests are late to alert to issues. So if the MPCC have tougher rules thats good, Astana and others just ignore tougher rules we know why they do that.
They signed up to the MPCC but as soon as they got caught they took their toys away and this is Astana we are talking about with known dopers all over the team and management.
Well, it was a UCI test for all Tour riders, and obviously if a rider actually tested positive for a banned substance they'd be substituted easily enough, and every team would presumably have reserves in mind ready to race in case of injury etc. Astana could blatantly have replaced him if they wanted to (probably with another doper), but that would require actually having to put their money where their mouth is.
You're right to say that asking them to withdraw him voluntarily isn't going to work, but that's what they signed up for, so they don't really have any excuse.
No they couldn't - that's what they tried to do and were told "no, it's too late". Not defending the team whole-sale, but rewriting history isn't particularly useful either.
I realise that this seems to be an issue with the MPCC but aren't Astana on a yellow card?
And surely the rule could be bent about substituting in another rider, especially given the circumstances?
Looks like another credibility fail for the UCI however you look at it.
The mpcc is independent of the UCI so its completely different.
However the UCI lost their credibility when they didn't kick astana out by revoking their licence
Although we all probably wished for a different outcome, the UCI might have found themselves in a tricky situation (legal apart from anything else I think was being hinted) if they had stopped Astana after the ruling from the license body - they might be the ones to question. It's a shitter but not entirely the fault of the UCI.