Just a second . . . No it’s not April 1st this is not a joke. You all remember the name Andrey Kashechkin? If not, well he’s the cheating Kazakh rider, who tested positive for blood doping in August. He’s trying to take the sport to court to ban their rights to dope test. Yes I am serious and he is serious, he believes it violates his human rights.

Rightfully so he was banned for whatever length of time the UCI or whoever heard the case seen fit - I’ve kinda got bored following all these doping cases. You may have noticed little to no blogs on the pro-circuit after the end of the Tour de France, it seemed every piece of news coming out of the pro-tour was regarding drugs and I kind of got bored of it and turned off the TV. But I logged onto cyclingnews.com for the first time in a while yesterday to read and then re-read this nonsense:

In an interview with the AFP news agency, his lawyer, Luc Misson, said that he will base his argument on article 8 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which says that only public authorities can interfere in people’s private lives, and that “the sports authorities are not the public authorities.” Even collecting blood samples violates human rights, he said.

When will some people just accept they cheated, accept the punishment and head to the hills like an Elephant, maybe not to die but to at least never be heard from again. This guy is taking it all to a whole new level however. The scary part of it however is that if there is a law somewhere about all this he could actually win this.

He was also the attorney for Jean-Marc Bosman

He basically found a loophole that ended the way football transfers happened forever. The difference here is that this was something happening for the right. In this case it’s absolutely morally wrong.

So what would be the fall-out from the whole disaster if he actually won this? Well I can only assume it would end drug testing within the sport and we’d just have to sit back and watch some juiced up guys with the veins popping out of them powering up the Alps in the big ring at 20mph. That was all outstanding to watch once upon a time before we found out everyone of them was eating steroids like I eat pizza. Would people actually go back to watching this? I don’t think so. It would be the end of the professional side of the sport.

It’s likely however that all this will be nonsense and wont go anywhere. If the courts and the people in charge of hearing this case have any kind of a soul they will never allow it to go ahead and Kashechkin will be rightfully left to serve out his ban.

I’m off to re-read this article and make sure I’m actually seeing what I think I am. Unbelievable.

The hearing is due to take place before a Belgian court on November 6.

Category: Pro Road Racing » Andrey Kashechkin, This is not April Fools |

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