There are various methods to run afoul of the UCI, however it is a new one for us. Apparently after displaying as much as a race with out sufficient riders, an American Ladies’s biking crew was caught making an attempt to current a crew mechanic as their fifth rider.
The “fraud” (UCI’s phrases, not ours) began when UCI Ladies’s Continental Group Cynisca Biking headed right down to take part within the Argenta Traditional – 2 Districtenpijl Ekeren-Deurne. In keeping with the UCI, solely 4 crew members have been current, not the required 5 to take the beginning.
After claiming their fifth crew member was current however ailing, they have been advised that each one 5 riders needed to signal the beginning sheet to qualify for the occasion. That’s the place the crew’s mechanic is available in, and allegedly on the instruction of the crew’s Sports activities Director, wore a masks and rider’s garments to signal the beginning sheet because the fifth rider.
Because of this, all crew members as outlined under have been discovered to “have participated in a fraud beneath article 12.4.008 of the UCI Rules.”
From UCI:
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) pronounces that its Disciplinary Fee has rendered its resolution within the disciplinary proceedings initiated in opposition to UCI Ladies’s Continental Group Cynisca Biking.
The UCI had referred the case to its Disciplinary Fee following a possible case of fraudulent actions by members of Cynisca Biking with the target of enabling the crew’s participation within the Argenta Traditional – 2 Districtenpijl Ekeren-Deurne regardless of not having the required variety of 5 riders to take the beginning.
The Disciplinary Fee discovered that, though solely 4 riders have been current and out there to begin the occasion, a number of members of the crew had participated in a fraud beneath article 12.4.008 of the UCI Rules by making an attempt to deceive the Commissaires’ Panel into believing {that a} fifth rider was current and will participate within the occasion. The crew’s Sports activities Director, Danny Van Haute, instructed the riders current (Anna Hicks, Cara O’Neil, Katherine Sarkisov and Claire Windsor) to lie in regards to the whereabouts of a fifth rider – who was not bodily current on the venue – when questioned by the Commissaires. The riders acknowledged to the President of the Commissaires’ Panel {that a} fifth rider was current however ailing. Then, upon being knowledgeable by the Commissaires that the crew couldn’t take part if all 5 riders didn’t signal the beginning sheet and take the beginning, Mr Van Haute instructed the crew mechanic, Moira Barrett, to put on a rider’s garments and a face masks, to current herself firstly and signal the beginning sheet because the crew’s fifth rider.
The above-mentioned members of the crew have been subsequently all discovered to have participated in a fraud beneath article 12.4.008 of the UCI Rules, with totally different ranges of implication.
Danny Van Haute was discovered to be the primary perpetrator and was sanctioned with a suspension from any exercise in biking till 31 December 2025 in addition to a effective.
Moira Barrett performed an energetic position within the fraud by carrying a rider’s garments and making an attempt to signal the beginning sheet because the crew’s fifth rider. She was sanctioned with a suspension from any exercise in biking till 1st September 2024.
Anna Hicks, Cara O’Neil, Katherine Sarkisov and Claire Windsor have been discovered to have adopted Danny Van Haute’s directions and sanctioned with a reprimand beneath article 12.3.002 of the UCI Rules.
Lastly, the crew was sanctioned with a suspension efficient for the following occasion on the UCI Worldwide Calendar for which its participation is confirmed in addition to a effective.
The choice stays topic to a doable enchantment earlier than the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
