Further pressure was heaped on British Cycling when the beleaguered governing body was criticised by the Orica-GreenEdge owner, Gerry Ryan, for its handling of the positive drugs test involving Orica’s British cyclist Simon Yates. Yates, world champion in the points race in 2013 and regarded as a strong hope for the Great Britain road race team in Rio, returned an adverse analytical finding for the asthma drug Terbutaline, due to what was being explained as an administrative error by Ryan’s team.
Ryan told the cyclingtips.au website that he felt his rider had not been permitted due process, and accused the British governing body of leaking the test finding. “Three days ago, someone within British Cycling told an Australian friend of mine, that there’s a rider who tested positive,” Ryan told CyclingTips. “I’m disappointed that Simon hasn’t had the opportunity to put his case forward. I’m disappointed at British Cycling to leak that Simon has tested positive before the case has been heard and there hasn’t been a B-sample [test].”
News of an impending positive involving a British cyclist had been circulating as rumour for 48 hours before the story broke on Thursday night, shortly before British Cycling confirmed that a rider had tested positive. Yates was publicly named in media reports before his name was released by the team around midnight BST. “I am surprised that when we have to go through the process that someone has leaked it to the English press,” Ryan told cyclingnews.com. “That’s where it came from. Once again when something happens like that it goes back from the UCI to the [national] governing body … and here it is, plastered all over the media. I am disappointed it hasn’t gone through the correct procedure.”
“In this case … there is a statement from the doctor, and a statement from Simon and it should go through the process. Simon is to present his case today [as is the team doctor], not because it is out in the press but because of the process.”
Yates remains free to compete as he has not been suspended by the team although he has been unable to race in recent days due to a knee injury. His brother Adam, who also races for Orica, was in action on Friday in the first stage of the Tour de Yorkshire from Beverley to Settle. A statement from the UCI confirmed that Yates had been recorded as positive for Terbutaline but added: “As per the UCI’s anti-doping rules, such [a] substance does not entail the imposition of a provisional suspension. The rider has the right to request and attend the analysis of the B sample.”
Orica-GreenEdge confirmed that the Bury racer had tested positive for Terburtaline after stage six of the Paris-Nice “Race to the Sun” on 12 March. The team offered the explanation that the substance was part of an asthma treatment but that the team doctor had failed to apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption, or TUE, which is required for legitimate use of a medicine that figures on the banned list.
“The substance was given to Simon Yates in the form of an asthma inhaler and accordingly this was noted by the team doctor on the Doping Control form signed at the time of the test,” said a statement from the team. “The substance was given in an ongoing treatment of Simon Yates’s documented asthma problems. However, in this case the team doctor made an administrative error by failing to apply for the TUE required for the use of this treatment.
“The use of Terbutaline without a current TUE is the reason it has been flagged as an adverse analytical finding. This is solely based on a human error that the doctor in question has taken full responsibility for. There has been no wrongdoing on Simon Yates’s part. The team takes full responsibility for this mistake and wishes to underline their support for Simon during this process.
Terbutaline is a fast-acting bronchial dilator, used for rapid treatment of asthma symptoms and to delay premature labour. It is banned in sport except when taken via an inhaler – the other means of ingestion is in pill form – and when the appropriate TUE is presented to confirm that the athlete in question has medical cause to ingest the substance.
Sports doctors consulted by the Guardian confirmed that its performance-enhancing benefits are negligible even when inhaled on multiple occasions. It appears that one reason it is banned is to prevent abuse given some of the side-effects, while another is that there is less research around it compared to Salbutamol, a comparative substance sold under the trademark Ventolin which was recently taken off the anti-doping register. The Guardian was informed by one team doctor that to prevent slip-ups of the type that has embroiled Yates, he advises his riders against Terbutaline.
The UCI guidance on registering a TUE for Terbutaline states that an athlete must provide lung function test results, detailed medical history and clinical review and further tests. The Wada guidelines state there must also be “justification from the prescribing physician as to why permitted alternatives cannot be used”.
