Record 15 Year Ban For Portuguese Rider Pedro Lopes

[Monte Zoncolon]

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/6...s-down-record-15-year-ban-to-Pedro-Lopes.aspx

 

[Libertine Seguros]

To be fair though, Lopes' case is a bit of an extreme one; not only had he tested positive before (in 2004) but he had missed several tests, hence the uncharacteristically long penalty.

What's most interesting here is the case of one of his teammates, Ludovic Baptista, who has also been banned (for two years) for missing tests. Baptista is the son of the former chairman of CC Loulé, and the reason he wasn't turning up to tests was because he had been entered on the team roster solely to circumvent regulations saying that a certain number of riders on the team had to be 28 or under; they had no intention of entering him in any races, hence he didn't avail himself for testing.

 

[D-Queued]

To be fair though, Lopes' case is a bit of an extreme one; not only had he tested positive before (in 2004) but he had missed several tests, hence the uncharacteristically long penalty.

...

In which case, why is a 15 year sentence a record ban when it should have been a lifetime penalty? Is this a record low length?

Dave.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

To be fair though, Lopes' case is a bit of an extreme one; not only had he tested positive before (in 2004) but he had missed several tests, hence the uncharacteristically long penalty.

What's most interesting here is the case of one of his teammates, Ludovic Baptista, who has also been banned (for two years) for missing tests. Baptista is the son of the former chairman of CC Loulé, and the reason he wasn't turning up to tests was because he had been entered on the team roster solely to circumvent regulations saying that a certain number of riders on the team had to be 28 or under; they had no intention of entering him in any races, hence he didn't avail himself for testing.

corruption to the core (sigh)

 

[Andynonomous]

Regardless of the "some still get away with it" excuse, congratulations to the Portugese for doing the right thing in this particular case (it's better to finish last and clean, then first and dirty as far as I am concerned).

 

[Libertine Seguros]

In which case, why is a 15 year sentence a record ban when it should have been a lifetime penalty? Is this a record low length?

Dave.

For the most part, I think bans have never been genuine 'lifetime bans', just long enough to prevent the rider having a career anymore. Tyler Hamilton, for example, was given an eight-year ban for his second offence. The previous highest ban was a 20-year ban for ex-Liquigas espoir Gianni da Ros, for drug trafficking, but this was reduced to four years after appeal to CAS.

da Ros was 23 when the ban was given, so it would effectively end his career, making him 43. Hamilton was 38 when he got his ban, hence no need for such a long ban to effectively end his career. Then again, Pedro Lopes is 35, so a 15-year ban is more a muscle-flexing exercise than anything else, since he'd be 50 when the ban ended.

 

[D-Queued]

For the most part, I think bans have never been genuine 'lifetime bans', just long enough to prevent the rider having a career anymore. Tyler Hamilton, for example, was given an eight-year ban for his second offence. The previous highest ban was a 20-year ban for ex-Liquigas espoir Gianni da Ros, for drug trafficking, but this was reduced to four years after appeal to CAS.

da Ros was 23 when the ban was given, so it would effectively end his career, making him 43. Hamilton was 38 when he got his ban, hence no need for such a long ban to effectively end his career. Then again, Pedro Lopes is 35, so a 15-year ban is more a muscle-flexing exercise than anything else, since he'd be 50 when the ban ended.

Picking a couple of names at random:

Kirk OBee has a lifetime ban.

Genvieve Jeanson has a lifetime ban.

Pretty sure they are not alone.

Dave.