Loosing the Grip

The witchhunt has started, and we're in for another long wait. UCI's decision to take Iban's case to CAS and test in once again in the disgraced Paris lab, has been met with disbelief and laughter in the cycling community. Many are calling for the people at Chatenay-Malabry lab to take an extended holiday, and never return, while some are calling for McQuaid and UCI's anti-doping coordinator Anne Gripper to leave their jobs with immediate effect. Especially miss Gripper's comments about the results in the Gent lab and their testing procedures have got people asking what the UCI's motive behind all this really is. Gripper was quoted as saying that "to ensure that the rider could have the B-sample done more quickly, we transferred the sample, but the Gent laboratory just couldn't get the sample to confirm the Paris result". What, they couldn't get the sample to confirm the positive A-sample no matter how much they tried? What is this nonsense? If a UCI-accredited lab comes up with a different result than the first one, it's simple. It's case closed, finito. The rider will be pronounced innocent. But Gripper's comments just keep getting better and better. "In Gent, they use a slightly different technique (than in the Paris lab)", she said. That's an hilarious statement from an anti-doping coordinator. She's practically saying that Gent's techniques aren't reliable, and that the lab in Paris, which has been found over and over again to use sloppy procedures and to leak confidential info to the press, is the only lab doing things the right way. Makes me wonder what methods they're using in Paris, as two other labs came up with a completely different result. The UCI needs to restore it's credibility, and another false positive will not do the governing body any favours in that respect. And it would be unbelievably embarrassing for McQuaid to admit he was wrong to judge and condemn Iban publicly as a doper without any proof to back it up whatsoever. They UCI really HAVE to find Iban guilty of something, 'cause if not, they'll be made into an even bigger laughing stock than they already are. The UCI will probably test the sample over and over again until they get the result they want; a positive. Legally, they'll never succeed in getting Iban banned for doping, but they'll no doubt succeed in dragging Iban's name through the mud and totally destroy his reputation. At least that's something...