The Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC) has announced that there has been ‘sharp rise’ in doping cases in cycling for 2019.
The number of cases revealed in 2019 amongst cycling’s professional elites has nearly doubled and cycling has risen from 13th to 5th in the list of sports most affected by doping.
Seven of these cases were a result of Operation Aderlass, a police operation carried out with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which revealed an international blood doping network involving several sports.
“A year ago, we were writing that data for cycling doping, from one year to the next, was not suggesting any real trend in the medium term, unlike other sports where an ever-increasing number of cases were revealed”, the MPCC stated.
“This year, we’re noting a clear break with the recent past. This sudden increase was equally observed in men’s and women’s cycling, whether it was track cycling or road cycling (all things considered).
“While cycling had kept plummeting in the list of sports most affected by doping, it rose again from 13th to 5th in the span of just one year.”
The organisation cites two hypotheses they currently have that explains the increase. The first is that 2019 saw an increased interest in doping from those involved in the sport, and the second is that better-targeted doping tests are now available.
