Colombia has won all three grand tours since 2016, showcasing top-tier riders who are national heroes. It is a brightness that contrasts with the cases of doping that affect, above all, its internal competitions. The list of Colombian positives is one of the longest in the world and the fight against this scourge is limited.
It is difficult to find another country in Latin America with a passion for cycling that even comes close to what is experienced in Colombia. It is a feeling that goes hand in hand with a talent to train top-level cyclists, who are measured horizontally with the main international figures on the elite stages.
Colombia is experiencing a golden age of cycling. In 2019, Egan Bernal became the first Latin American to win the Tour de France, one of the most demanding events in sport. This nation has the privilege of having conquered the three Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España) in the last six years. Only three other countries have won these three competitions so far this century: Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.
But on the coffee roads there is an enormous challenge. As of the date of publication of this report, the Colombian Cycling Federation has 32 sanctioned. Only between January and September 2022, seven cyclists have been suspended for failing to comply with anti-doping regulations.
“That can’t be,” says Luis Fernando Saldarriaga, a renowned coach who has seen cyclists of the stature of Nairo Quintana (winner of a Giro d’Italia and a Vuelta a España) and Sergio Higuita (champion of a Volta a Catalonia). “A cycling that is truly potential has to be potential from an ethical point of view,” he says from the Bogotá velodrome.
Saldarriaga knows what he is talking about. He was in charge of the Manzana Postobón team, a historic squad in the country that in 2017 disputed the Vuelta a España. Two positive cases forced his disappearance.
Of the 32 sanctioned that the Colombian Cycling Federation counts, seven of them also appear in the suspended list of the International Cycling Union (UCI).
A dark invitation to fall into doping nets
France 24 heard the testimony of a Colombian cyclist sanctioned for doping. It is an anonymous story, at the request of this runner who assures that revealing his identity would put him in danger. This professional level rider denounces that his sports director encouraged him to dope.
He says that before preparing for a race in Colombia, his main technician summoned all the members of the team. This subject offered his cyclists a suitcase with EPO (Erythropoietin).
The technical director made the proposal to them with the following words: “Well guys, there is this. I already got good advice from doctors, from cyclists who have already used it”.
The cyclist claims to have been surprised by the situation, but after having doubts, he agreed to inject himself. “What led me to make that last minute decision? It’s. I had to bring food home.” Then a real nightmare began.
According to the testimony of this anonymous cyclist, his sports director offered him and the rest of his team to dope themselves with EPO for a race.
Days later, a control detected the doping substance and the cyclist was suspended for several years. In his desperation, he tried to seek help through his sports director, with an answer that was not what he imagined. “I expected the man to be there with one and say, ready, I’m going to help him. But what did he do? Handwashing”.
Then a hitherto unknown facet of his coach appeared. “If we want to go the hard way, we go the hard way. You have a family,” he replied to the cyclist. According to this story, this trainer is well known in cycling in Colombia and Latin America.
There was, then, no other solution for this cyclist than to start serving his sentence and enter the list of sections. He recounts that he entered a dark time in which he thought about retiring, but finally decided to hold out the hope of one day returning.
“That is a very painful moment. I cried a lot. I went into a kind of depression where I spent the whole time crying. I didn’t sleep, I didn’t eat because I think I was in the best moment of my sports career. She was glowing. Where there was a lot of sacrifice to have gotten to where she was and that, due to a mistake, for believing some people that nothing was going to happen, everything collapsed ”.
The challenge of fighting doping in Colombia
The National Anti-Doping Organization (ONAD) is the arm of the Ministry of Sport when it comes to combating doping. Currently its strategy is based on out-of-competition controls. And it is that today, cheaters already seem to have several tools to try to evade fair play.
Recognizes Orlando Reyes, coordinator of the ONAD: “They can do some treatment with prohibited substances before the competitions in such a way that already in the competition they arrive and practically the substances can be undetectable or present in very small concentrations and are difficult to detect. ”.
According to Reyes, 60% of the anti-doping tests they carry out are done out of competition, compared to the 40% they take in tournaments.
But that fight has an obstacle. In 2017, the Bogotá laboratory lost its accreditation by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This center was the only one in the country that had such recognition. This is the only certification that allows the preparation of tests suitable for the Athlete’s Biological Passport, a document that monitors athletes in order to detect any anomaly.
The AMA explains that the center of the Colombian capital did not meet international standards. That is why today Colombia must send its tests to laboratories abroad that are certified, such as the one in Salt Lake City, in the United States, or the one in Montreal, in Canada. This increases the risk of deterioration of the samples and the cost of the examination.
How does the trafficking of these substances work?
Among the 32 sanctioned by the Colombian Cycling Federation due to anti-doping regulations, there is only one person who appears in the “Administration or attempted administration” section. His name is Jhoann Robayo.
Jhoann Robayo is the only person sanctioned by the Colombian Cycling Federation for “administration or attempted administration” of doping substances. Bogotá, Colombia, July 2022. France 24.
France 24 spoke with him at his residence in Bogotá. Robayo presents himself as a manufacturer of sportswear and a former cyclist. He admits that at some point he profited from selling doping substances. “I got you that because he was a merchant. It’s a very natural business, it makes me sad, but that’s the way it is”.
His sanction began on March 26, 2019 and ends in 2023. A four-year punishment that did not completely remove him from his sport. With his clothing brand he sponsors a women’s cycling team with which he won the 2020 Tour of Colombia with the Ecuadorian Myriam Núñez.
According to Robayo, the sale of prohibited substances is something of his past. However, he reports that it is “easy” to access them in Colombia. Outside the coffee-producing country, in nations like Argentina or Chile “there is no anti-doping control” and the “market is fierce,” he says.
France 24 found several unrelated sources among them, who claim there is an alleged system of corruption in Colombia that would allow the reduction of doping sanctions in exchange for large sums of money. However, none of these sources accepted that France 24 recorded these complaints.
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