Have no faith in federations. Or the current other cycling bodies. I say that in terms of the larger int'l games that I've been involved with where positive tests have come up. I can't speak from personal experience specifically of positives in the newer era pro peloton (the teams I worked with always fired riders on the first positive A sample, and then would wait and see...). And I'd like to caveat this with this all being almost twenty years old... But I still figure that a lot of the same 'boy's club' mentality persists.
Bear in mind that this was in the 'old days' when pros were pros, and only 'amateurs' could compete in the various int'l Games.
I know of a rider that tested positive after winning gold at a games. Everything was lovely, his career and reputation improved, all was good. A couple of years later an internal movement in the federation was gaining speed to try to get rid of the less savoury and less useful members of the entrenched bureaucracy based on a slack attitude towards doping, misconduct at races, corruption, misallocation of sponsor equipment etc. etc.
This was gaining speed, had the support of pretty much all the young up and coming riders, was getting media attention, and so they approached the 'winner' to get his support as he had previously spoken out about all the previously mentioned misdeeds of the federation. He initially was on-side, then abruptly dropped all contact with the group trying to make this happen.
The changes that the riders were working for ended up going nowhere (although I think some staff got some sweet buy-outs to end their contracts).
A couple of years later I was talking to the now ex-wife of the winner, and she told me how hard it was on him to not be able to stand in solidarity with the group he really did want to support.
Here's the kicker: the federation had a positive test from the games that he won. They kept it quiet, no ban, nothing. UNTIL he started speaking out against the federation, then they told him to keep his mouth shut or they wouldn't keep their's shut. That's right, blackmail...
I'm not sure if the chain of disclosure is still as closed as it was then, but I sure wouldn't put any faith in the UCI and federations being all that better now. No one wants to be disgraced and risk losing funding.
As for me, I'd love to see it all torn up and started all over again. Hopefully with some sort of independent 'civilian' body that can oversee where the money's going.
We can all implicate DSs, soigneurs, drs, prepatores, etc for the pro scene, but every young rider is going to have to deal with their federation at some point. Clean that one out, too...
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram