Since 2016, Colombia and its cyclists have won the three major Grand Tours (Italy, France, Spain). Its riders are international leaders and true national heroes. And yet, doping cases are increasing, especially in the context of local competitions. The list of Colombian positive cases is one of the longest in the world and the means used to fight this scourge of sport are limited. Investigation.
In America, Colombia represents the undisputed bastion of the passion for cycling. And for good reason, the country is a veritable factory of champions, capable of competing with the best riders in the international peloton.
If Colombia has a long-lived tradition in this area dating back more than 70 years, Colombian cycling is now experiencing a golden era. In 2019, the young Egan Bernal became the first Latin American to win the Tour de France, the most important race in the discipline. The “escarabajos” (beetles, the nickname of Colombian riders) have managed to conquer each of the three Grand Tours in the last six years (Tour de France, Giro de Italia and Vuelta de España). In the 21st century, only three other nations have succeeded: Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.
However, when it comes to local racing, Colombia faces a big challenge today. On the day of publication of this report, the Colombian Cycling Federation (FCC) counted 32 sanctions in progress for doping. Between January and September 2022, seven riders have already been suspended for anti-doping rule violations.
“We can’t go on like this,” says Luis Fernando Saldarriaga, a renowned trainer, who notably took under his wing Nairo Quintana (winner of a Giro and a Vuelta) and Sergio Higuita (winner of a Tour of Catalonia ). “Cycling that has potential must also be irreproachable from an ethical point of view”, asserts the coach, met at the Bogotá velodrome.
Luis Fernando Saldarriaga knows what he’s talking about. He was sporting director of Manzana Postobón, one of the country’s historic teams that won an invitation to participate in the Tour of Spain in 2017. However, two positive tests put an end to it after the withdrawal of sponsors.
Of the 32 riders sanctioned by the Colombian Cycling Federation, seven of them are also on the list of those suspended by the International Cycling Union (UCI).
The case of Nairo Quintana recently hit the headlines. The 32-year-old Colombian, idol in his country, was recently disqualified from the Tour de France 2022, losing his sixth place, for a medical infraction. The cyclist used Tramadol, a painkiller banned in competition since 2019, but not considered a doping product. The climber appealed the sanction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
An insidious incentive to fall into doping
France 24 obtained the testimony of a Colombian runner currently suspended for doping. He agreed to tell his story on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. This professional cyclist claims that his sports director encouraged him to dope.
He says that before a race in Colombia, his main trainer had summoned all the members of the team. The goal: to encourage them to take EPO (Erythropoietin).
The team’s technical director gave them this speech: “Okay boys, here’s the topo. These products were recommended to me by doctors and cyclists who have already used them.”
First surprised, the witness ends up agreeing to receive the injection after some hesitation: “What pushed me to make this decision? I needed money to feed my family.” This was the start of the nightmare.
According to the testimony of this cyclist, his sports director offered him and the rest of his team to dope themselves with EPO for a race.
A few days later, our witness tested positive and was suspended for several years. Desperate, he asks for the support of his sports director. His answer leaves him speechless: “I expected him to be there for me and say ‘Okay, I’ll help you’. What did he do? He washed himself hands !”
He discovers an unknown facet of his coach: “If you want to play hard, we will play hard. You have a family after all”, implied the coach in a thinly veiled threat. According to our witness, this coach is one of the most prominent in Colombian and Latin American cycling.
Our cyclist has no choice but to accept the penalty and be sidelined. It is the beginning of a dark period: in depression, he plans to retire. Finally, the hope of one day being able to resume competition and shine will be reborn.
“It was a moment of great suffering. I cried a lot. I had a kind of depression, I cried all the time. I no longer slept, I no longer ate because I thought it was the best moment of my sports career. I was shining. I made a lot of sacrifices to get here but, because of one mistake, because I trusted the wrong people, it all fell apart.”
Anonymous witness
The challenge of the fight against doping in Colombia
The National Anti-Doping Organization (NADO) is the armed arm of the Colombian Ministry of Sports in matters of doping. Its strategy currently focuses on testing outside of competition, as cheaters now have the ability to conceal their use of doping substances on D-Day.
NADO coordinator Orlando Reyes explains: “They manage to inject treatments with banned substances before competitions so that when they take place the substances are practically undetectable or present in concentrations so small that they are difficult to detect.”
According to Orlando Reyes, 60% of doping controls are carried out out of competitioncompared to 40% during tournaments.
But this desire to fight against these practices comes up against a major obstacle. In 2017, the Bogotá laboratory lost its accreditation with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The center was the only one in the country to benefit from such recognition. This certification makes it possible to produce ad hoc tests for the athlete’s biological passport, a document that allows athletes to be monitored throughout the year in order to detect any anomaly.
According to the AMA, the Bogotá center no longer met international standards. Colombia must therefore now send its tests to certified laboratories abroad, such as those in Salt Lake City in the United States or Montreal in Canada. With the increased risk of deterioration of the tests during transport.
How does the trafficking of doping substances work?
Among the 32 people currently under sanction from the Colombian Cycling Federation for violating anti-doping regulations, one conviction denotes: “Administration or attempted administration” of a doping substance. The sanctioned man is Jhoann Robayo.
Jhoann Robayo is the only person sanctioned by the Colombian Cycling Federation for “administering or attempting to administer” doping substances.
France 24 spoke with the runner at his home in Bogotá. Today, he presents himself as a manufacturer of sportswear and a former cyclist. However, he admits having sold doping substances in the past: “You ask me, I get it. I am a trader after all. It was natural for me. It made me sad but that’s how it is.”
His sanction began on March 26, 2019 and will end in 2023. A four-year punishment that did not completely take him away from his sport. With his clothing brand, he sponsors a women’s cycling team with which he won the 2020 Tour of Colombia thanks to the Ecuadorian Myriam Núñez.
According to Jhoann Robayo, the sale of doping substances is part of his past. However, he says it’s still “easy” to get them in Colombia. And outside: in Argentina and Chile, “there is no doping control” and the “market is wild”, he says.
According to several independent sources interviewed by France 24, a system of corruption exists in Colombia allowing penalties for doping to be reduced in exchange for large sums of money. However, none of these sources agreed to testify in the open during our investigation.
If you have information on doping in Colombia, Latin America or Europe and wish to contact us, you can write to us at this email address in complete confidentiality: [email protected].
This survey has been translated from Spanish. Find the original version here.
