Cycling – Team Sky pressed to join anti-doping group

The President of the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC), Roger Legeay, has advised Team Sky to join the sport’s anti-doping group, a voluntary organisation for professional cyclists, the Guardian reports. The President believes that membership of the group is good for the image and gives credibility to its members.

The admonition comes on the heel of the controversy surrounding the failure of the team’s management to report the use of needles to inject legal substances by a member of Team team in 2014. It is alleged that the member in question, Josh Edmondson, admitted to breaking the sport’s “no needle” rule between 2013 and 2014. The case has been referred to the UK’s Anti-Doping for assessment, and the International Cycling Union (UCI) is aware of the claims.

Meanwhile, Team Sky has no plan to join the MPCC as it does not wish to be part of an organisation that does not cover everyone according to them, moreover, they purport to have a stricter policy on doping. However, questions have been raised on their inability to account for all 55 doses of corticosteroid triamcinolone, a performance-enhancing substance, acquired by the team, the Guardian further reports.

If you may recall, one of the biggest doping scandal in cycling was the 2012 revelations involving Lance Armstrong. Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned him for life by the UCI. He was also stripped of the bronze medal that he won in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.