KAZAKHSTAN: CYCLE RACING - Disgraced Kazakh cyclist Alexander Vinokourov returns home criticising doping officials

Kazakh cyclist Alexander Vinokourov, who withdrew from the Tour de France race and was dismissed by his Astana team after he tested positive for blood doping, returned home on Saturday (August 18). After being welcomed by fans, Kazakh sports officials and his family, Vinokourov denied using performance-enhancing substances and accused doping control officials of incompetence and human rights violations. Vinokourov won a Tour time trial in Albi on July 21, but then tested positive for homologous blood doping -- a method using the blood from another person -- and was suspended from the race. He denied doping, but was sacked by Astana, the Swiss team backed by Kazakh companies. Kazakh officials are backing his appeal, but if the doping is confirmed, Vinokourov faces a two-year-ban and a fine equal to a year's salary. Another Astana member, Andrei Kashechkin, tested positive this month while in Turkey and was suspended from Astana while waiting for the analysis of the B-sample. Vinokourov told journalists after arriving in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on Saturday: "In the sport of cycling nobody respects (the cyclists') human rights. You have to tell three months in advance where you are planning to be, at what hour and minute. It is not possible. We tried to do it. You know what's happened with Andrei [Kashechkin]. He went on holiday and they [representatives of the doping control body] went there at 11pm. I think it is a clear violation of human rights. The lawyers are working on it. The situation in cycling now is worse than in any other sport. I hope the truth will be found and I am going to fight for it. And I will tell you that I was not and I am not going to end my career like this, so we will fight on."

ITN Source | August 19, 2007

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