Franco Pellizotti banned by CAS after being cleared in Italy

Franco Pellizotti may have been forgiven, for thinking he’d got off scot free, after the UCI brought him to court for abnormalities on his biological passport.

The Italian has been convicted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, after the UCI appealed the original decision. Pellizotti was provisionally suspended, before the 2009 Giro d’Italia, and has had all of his results since then removed.

He had been cleared by an Italian court in October and even went as far as threatening to sue the UCI. The cycling governing body has managed to get their own back, after the CAS lumped the Liquigas rider with an 115,000 Euro fine. The UCI are applauding this as a success for the biological passport; as much as it is a success, it is another case of one court saying one thing and another saying something else. If a rider is to be banned, they should have a total ban, and there shouldn’t be so many decisions turned over.

Alberto Contador’s ban was turned over with shocking speed; he was banned before the season started and allowed to ride again not too long after it started. I know I was one of the people protesting his innocence, which I still believe. I do think though, decisions should be more considered so that less of these are so quickly dismissed.

Inconsistency was at its height during the banning of another Spaniard, Alejandro Valverde. The Caisse D’Epargne rider was banned in Italy, but remained free the ride around the rest of Europe and the world. It wasn’t until Valverde appealed and failed his ban, that the UCI went to the World Anti Doping Association to have the ban spread the rest of the world.

Cycling really needs to come up with some way to make the banning of rider much more consistent. It is as damaging to the reputation of the sport and riders being charge with doping in the first place. If we can’t convict the riders who do dope, properly, than people won’t respect the sport; the UCI need to find a better solution.

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