WorldTour team Bahrain Victorious appears to have retracted comments about its new signing Robert Stannard after the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) released a statement rejecting the team and rider’s claims about the Australian’s recent doping case.
Stannard, 25, was announced as Bahrain Victorious’ rider on Tuesday, joining the team with immediate effect following the conclusion of a lengthy anti-doping investigation. Both the rider and the team openly rejected the ruling in a press release confirming the news.
Stannard was provisionally suspended by the UCI on August 2, 2023 due to irregularities in his athlete passport (ABP) from 2018 and 2019. On June 4 of this year, the UCI issued its ruling in the case and imposed a retroactive four-year ban on Stannard, starting from the date of the first abnormal sample in August 2018. His results from this period were all annulled, but his ban has now been served.
His most recent team, Alpecin-Deceuninck, parted ways with the rider at the end of 2023, but he was signed by Bahrain Victorious for the remainder of 2024 and 2025. In announcing the news, the Bahraini team made comments on his case, suggesting that they disagree with the UCI’s decision.
“We are delighted that Robert is joining us. Robert has had a difficult time with a lot of confusion, but we are supporting him and the analysis of our medical teams has not shown us any wrongdoing,” said Vladimir Miholjevič, Bahrain Victorious’ performance manager, in a team press release on Tuesday.
Stannard himself also commented in the press release, expressing his joy at being able to race again after making the “decision” to accept the ruling rather than “fighting to clear his name” and arguing against the UCI’s decision.
“They claimed it could only have been caused by ‘illegal means’ but throughout the entire process they presented no evidence of any wrongdoing. No evidence of doping was collected or needed to reach this verdict,” he said.
However, the team has since deleted that part of the press release from its website and the UCI responded on Friday to reaffirm its findings and “correct” the “misleading” statement.
“The UCI is surprised by the content of the statement – even though it has since been removed from the team’s website – and would like to clarify some points,” it said in its press release.
The governing body subsequently confirmed that the decision taken in June was final and that Stannard had not provided an explanation for the anomalies in his ABP.
“Robert Stannard had the opportunity to provide supporting written statements and expert evidence both in writing and during a hearing. The Tribunal rejected the rider’s statements and found that he had used a prohibited substance and/or method, as evidenced by his biological passport. A four-year suspension was imposed in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code and the UCI Anti-Doping Rules (UCI ADR). However, the start of the suspension was anticipated by the Tribunal due to delays in the proceedings that were not attributable to the rider or the UCI,” the statement said.
The team subsequently explicitly condemned the comments it made earlier this week.
“In this sense, the allegations made by Bahrain Victorious, such as ‘it was never made clear whether the driver was accused of taking a prohibited substance or a prohibited method’ and ‘through the analysis of our medical teams we were unable to identify any wrongdoing’, are clearly false and misleading.
“It is regrettable that the UCI is put in a position to correct statements made by a UCI WorldTeam on such an important issue as the fight against doping.”
Bahrain Victorious’ press release, currently available on their website, is now only two sentences long and contains no reference to Stannard’s case or any quotes from the driver.
“Team Bahrain Victorious is pleased to announce the immediate addition of Australian climbing and classics specialist Robert Stannard to the squad. The 25-year-old has signed until the end of next season,” it said.
Other than the removal of the original comments, there appear to be no further consequences for Bahrain Victorious, as the UCI stated that it would not comment further on the case.
Stannard is yet to return to racing but is scheduled to compete in the Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain starting next Monday.
