I hadn't heard of this initiative before I just read the article on David Millar over on VeloNews...
""The general idea is the doubling of the sanction. If a rider is sanctioned for one year, they must ride for one year in a continental team," explains Liberty Seguros sport manager Manolo Saiz, who heads the international team's association. "If a rider has a sanction of two years, he has to wait a total of four years to return to the ProTour."
With the 20 ProTour teams assured spots in the grand tours, that would all but guarantee that riders on continental teams won't be racing in the Tour.
"If a rider commits a grave error with hard doping - not something to stop the flu - but something very serious, what we're saying is that once that rider finishes their ineligibility they cannot immediately return to the ProTour," Saiz continued. "They can return to a continental team, and if in this time they regain the confidence of the cycling world, they will return once again to the ProTour."
Regaining that confidence, of course, means racing without failing another doping test. And a second offense would mean a life-time ban."
This seems like a great initiative to me...I particularly like the lifetime ban for a second offense...but the effective doubling of the sanction should give folks pause as well when they consider doping...and frankly, I like that they (at least Saiz) in this case, makes a distinction between an incidental stupid mistake like taking a cold/flu medicine that has banned substances (admittedly, they should know better...but the spirit of the rules is to prevent performance enhancement...not to prevent the treatment of the nasties with a swig of Niquil...)...and "hard doping"...
Of course...having decent sanctions in place and leaving room for rehabilitation of erring riders is only PART of the equation...as the Hamilton case demonstrates...we have to have solid testing procedures in place or the riders will circumvent the process leaving us right back where we started (this isn't a comment on the merits of Hamilton's case or what I believe is the truth in that case...I'm simply pointing out that riders will be prepared to defend their case and find the slightest hole in the testing procedures...so the testing procedures have to be air-tight...)
How about the rest of you...thoughts on this initiative and sanction process...at least for the Pro Tour riders...
""The general idea is the doubling of the sanction. If a rider is sanctioned for one year, they must ride for one year in a continental team," explains Liberty Seguros sport manager Manolo Saiz, who heads the international team's association. "If a rider has a sanction of two years, he has to wait a total of four years to return to the ProTour."
With the 20 ProTour teams assured spots in the grand tours, that would all but guarantee that riders on continental teams won't be racing in the Tour.
"If a rider commits a grave error with hard doping - not something to stop the flu - but something very serious, what we're saying is that once that rider finishes their ineligibility they cannot immediately return to the ProTour," Saiz continued. "They can return to a continental team, and if in this time they regain the confidence of the cycling world, they will return once again to the ProTour."
Regaining that confidence, of course, means racing without failing another doping test. And a second offense would mean a life-time ban."
This seems like a great initiative to me...I particularly like the lifetime ban for a second offense...but the effective doubling of the sanction should give folks pause as well when they consider doping...and frankly, I like that they (at least Saiz) in this case, makes a distinction between an incidental stupid mistake like taking a cold/flu medicine that has banned substances (admittedly, they should know better...but the spirit of the rules is to prevent performance enhancement...not to prevent the treatment of the nasties with a swig of Niquil...)...and "hard doping"...
Of course...having decent sanctions in place and leaving room for rehabilitation of erring riders is only PART of the equation...as the Hamilton case demonstrates...we have to have solid testing procedures in place or the riders will circumvent the process leaving us right back where we started (this isn't a comment on the merits of Hamilton's case or what I believe is the truth in that case...I'm simply pointing out that riders will be prepared to defend their case and find the slightest hole in the testing procedures...so the testing procedures have to be air-tight...)
How about the rest of you...thoughts on this initiative and sanction process...at least for the Pro Tour riders...