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Irish rider banned for four years after positive test for clenbuterol
Posted on: July 27th, 2015
An Irish amateur rider has been banned from racing for four years after a positive drug test at a domestic stage race in 2014.
Ciaran Kelly of the Kildare-based Bikeworx team returned the positive for clenbuterol at the Gorey Three Day race during the Easter Bank Holiday weekend last year.
The four-year ban is believed to be the longest ever issued to an Irish athlete and was imposed because of “aggravating circumstances”.
Kelly failed to abide by a provisional suspension imposed from June of last year; with evidence found that he took part in a Cycling Ireland event in March of this year.
He obtained a licence online but that was blocked and he never received a physical licence. He claimed his riding a Cycling Ireland event while provisionally suspended was an honest mistake.
The authorities also said he had claimed the clenbuterol found in his system came from beef products.
He nominated a named butcher as the source of the meat and a named supplier.
He alleged his regular butcher imported frozen meat from a number of countries, including Argentina, New Zealand, Brazil and Spain and sold it marked as Irish beef; none of which he was able to support with evidence.
The Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel also found he had engaged in “deceptive conduct” when making purchases of meat that he claimed were from the same butcher for a laboratory to test as part of his fighting the process.
It also found the allegations he made “called in to question the reputation of the entire beef industry in Ireland”.
Because of this, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland was forced to launch an investigation that took three of its staff five months to conclude.
He has 21 days to appeal the ruling, which was announced this afternoon.
A press release from the Irish Sports Council and Cycling Ireland issued this evening reads:
Cycling Ireland and the Irish Sports Council jointly announce that the Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (“the Panel”) determined that rider Ciaran Kelly has committed an anti-doping rule violation.
Ciaran Kelly has been sanctioned by a period of ineligibility of 4 years commencing on the 27th July 2015, the date of the decision, subject to rights of appeal within 21 days of that date under the Irish Anti-Doping Rules (“the Rules”).
In a competition test carried out on 20th April 2014, he provided a sample which tested positive for the presence of a prohibited substance, Clenbuterol.
In relation to the increased period of ineligibility, under Article 10.5 of the Rules, the Panel determined that:
“Aggravating circumstances are present in this case which justify the imposition of a period of ineligibility greater than the standard sanction of 2 years, and that the period of ineligibility otherwise applicable should be increased up to the maximum period of 4 years.”
As regards duration of sanction, under Article 10.7.3.1 of the Rules, the Panel determined that:
“Mr. Kelly failed to respect the provisional suspension imposed by Cycling Ireland, and have decided that he should not receive any credit for the period of provisional suspension against the four year period of ineligibility which is now imposed”.
The hearing was held on under Article 8 (Disciplinary Process) of the 2009 Irish Anti-Doping Rules and this announcement is made pursuant to Article 15 (Public Disclosure) of the Rules.
Return to racing
Kelly went into the Gorey Three Day last year as one of the favourites after coming back to racing following a long lay-off. He finished 10th overall.
After stage 1 was brought to a premature close on Easter Saturday due to a traffic accident, Kelly won the stage 2 time trial the following morning.
He beat Robin Seymour – a former Olympian mountain bike rider competing on the road as a veteran – by a huge margin of 30 seconds.
Kelly did not place on stage 3 that afternoon but was 10th on the final stage on Easter Monday and finished in the same spot on the final general classification.
The race is an amateur event and is not open to A1 riders; the top category of four for amateurs racing in Ireland.
Instead, the annual three-day, four-stage, race is open to those competing at A2, A3 and A4 level.
The fact the race is open to the lower categories makes the positive test result unusual and will likely see the case attract significant attention from the mainstream media.
The use of performance enhancing drugs is normally, though not exclusively, used by some riding as professionals, or some top amateurs hoping to make the jump into the paid ranks.
Kelly, now aged 27 years, was a top junior rider and competed in Belgium while a teenager.
In 2005, then aged 17 years old, he enjoyed a number of victories in junior races in Belgium riding for the local Curghem Sportif team and staying in the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy house in Merchtem.
After a stint at the UCI World Cycling Centre and some more victories, this time in France and Switzerland, Kelly got his foot onto the professional ladder the following season.
By then a first-year-senior, he became one of the original members of the Sean Kelly Continental Team.
It has since morphed into the An Post-Chainreaction team and competes all over Europe.
However, during that 2006 season Kelly became disillusioned with the sport and returned home as the season neared a close.
He did not race from that time until early 2014 when he returned to domestic cycling. He immediately took a number of wins in domestic events for riders in the lower categories.
However, after riding the Gorey Three Day at Easter, when the result of the tests became known to him his racing almost completely ceased as he challenged the process.
That process has now come to an end with news emerging today that he has been banned from competing for four years. He will not be eligible to race again until July, 2019.
Where did the name come from?
A stickybottle, put simply, is the knackered cyclist’s best friend. As a rider is being dropped from a group, the team manager or support worker in a following car holds a bottle out the window to hand it up. As the handover is taking place, the rider grabs the bottle tight, as does whoever is handing it up, enabling the rider get a good tow and push from momentum of the car. It’s known as a stickybottle because it appears neither the rider nor the person handing it up is able to take their hand off the bottle; it looks stuck to their hands. But please don’t try this at home. We’ve been slyly cheating this way all our lives; it takes a while to perfect.
Posted on: July 27th, 2015
An Irish amateur rider has been banned from racing for four years after a positive drug test at a domestic stage race in 2014.
Ciaran Kelly of the Kildare-based Bikeworx team returned the positive for clenbuterol at the Gorey Three Day race during the Easter Bank Holiday weekend last year.
The four-year ban is believed to be the longest ever issued to an Irish athlete and was imposed because of “aggravating circumstances”.
Kelly failed to abide by a provisional suspension imposed from June of last year; with evidence found that he took part in a Cycling Ireland event in March of this year.
He obtained a licence online but that was blocked and he never received a physical licence. He claimed his riding a Cycling Ireland event while provisionally suspended was an honest mistake.
The authorities also said he had claimed the clenbuterol found in his system came from beef products.
He nominated a named butcher as the source of the meat and a named supplier.
He alleged his regular butcher imported frozen meat from a number of countries, including Argentina, New Zealand, Brazil and Spain and sold it marked as Irish beef; none of which he was able to support with evidence.
The Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel also found he had engaged in “deceptive conduct” when making purchases of meat that he claimed were from the same butcher for a laboratory to test as part of his fighting the process.
It also found the allegations he made “called in to question the reputation of the entire beef industry in Ireland”.
Because of this, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland was forced to launch an investigation that took three of its staff five months to conclude.
He has 21 days to appeal the ruling, which was announced this afternoon.
A press release from the Irish Sports Council and Cycling Ireland issued this evening reads:
Cycling Ireland and the Irish Sports Council jointly announce that the Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (“the Panel”) determined that rider Ciaran Kelly has committed an anti-doping rule violation.
Ciaran Kelly has been sanctioned by a period of ineligibility of 4 years commencing on the 27th July 2015, the date of the decision, subject to rights of appeal within 21 days of that date under the Irish Anti-Doping Rules (“the Rules”).
In a competition test carried out on 20th April 2014, he provided a sample which tested positive for the presence of a prohibited substance, Clenbuterol.
In relation to the increased period of ineligibility, under Article 10.5 of the Rules, the Panel determined that:
“Aggravating circumstances are present in this case which justify the imposition of a period of ineligibility greater than the standard sanction of 2 years, and that the period of ineligibility otherwise applicable should be increased up to the maximum period of 4 years.”
As regards duration of sanction, under Article 10.7.3.1 of the Rules, the Panel determined that:
“Mr. Kelly failed to respect the provisional suspension imposed by Cycling Ireland, and have decided that he should not receive any credit for the period of provisional suspension against the four year period of ineligibility which is now imposed”.
The hearing was held on under Article 8 (Disciplinary Process) of the 2009 Irish Anti-Doping Rules and this announcement is made pursuant to Article 15 (Public Disclosure) of the Rules.
Return to racing
Kelly went into the Gorey Three Day last year as one of the favourites after coming back to racing following a long lay-off. He finished 10th overall.
After stage 1 was brought to a premature close on Easter Saturday due to a traffic accident, Kelly won the stage 2 time trial the following morning.
He beat Robin Seymour – a former Olympian mountain bike rider competing on the road as a veteran – by a huge margin of 30 seconds.
Kelly did not place on stage 3 that afternoon but was 10th on the final stage on Easter Monday and finished in the same spot on the final general classification.
The race is an amateur event and is not open to A1 riders; the top category of four for amateurs racing in Ireland.
Instead, the annual three-day, four-stage, race is open to those competing at A2, A3 and A4 level.
The fact the race is open to the lower categories makes the positive test result unusual and will likely see the case attract significant attention from the mainstream media.
The use of performance enhancing drugs is normally, though not exclusively, used by some riding as professionals, or some top amateurs hoping to make the jump into the paid ranks.
Kelly, now aged 27 years, was a top junior rider and competed in Belgium while a teenager.
In 2005, then aged 17 years old, he enjoyed a number of victories in junior races in Belgium riding for the local Curghem Sportif team and staying in the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy house in Merchtem.
After a stint at the UCI World Cycling Centre and some more victories, this time in France and Switzerland, Kelly got his foot onto the professional ladder the following season.
By then a first-year-senior, he became one of the original members of the Sean Kelly Continental Team.
It has since morphed into the An Post-Chainreaction team and competes all over Europe.
However, during that 2006 season Kelly became disillusioned with the sport and returned home as the season neared a close.
He did not race from that time until early 2014 when he returned to domestic cycling. He immediately took a number of wins in domestic events for riders in the lower categories.
However, after riding the Gorey Three Day at Easter, when the result of the tests became known to him his racing almost completely ceased as he challenged the process.
That process has now come to an end with news emerging today that he has been banned from competing for four years. He will not be eligible to race again until July, 2019.
Where did the name come from?
A stickybottle, put simply, is the knackered cyclist’s best friend. As a rider is being dropped from a group, the team manager or support worker in a following car holds a bottle out the window to hand it up. As the handover is taking place, the rider grabs the bottle tight, as does whoever is handing it up, enabling the rider get a good tow and push from momentum of the car. It’s known as a stickybottle because it appears neither the rider nor the person handing it up is able to take their hand off the bottle; it looks stuck to their hands. But please don’t try this at home. We’ve been slyly cheating this way all our lives; it takes a while to perfect.
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