Albert Soler, the Director General of the Spanish Sports Council (CSD) has responded to a statement made by International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid that his country is soft on doping, according to Europapress. McQuaid, said Soler, did not “exactly” say that, and that he knows “full well that there is no soft hand” against the problem in the country.
McQuaid’s comments came in reaction to recent non-negative tests from Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, Vuelta a España second place Ezequiel Mosquera and his teammate David Garcia, and five-time mountainbike World champion Margarita Fullana.
The Irishman was speaking at a press conference in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday, when he said that Spain should: “first, recognise that there is a problem with doping. Fifty percent of our doping cases come from Spain but the government doesn’t seem to have the will to eradicate it.”
His comment come just days after it was announced that Apnish authorities my be about to close the file on Operación Puerto, which would mean that all the evidence from the Guardia Civil investigation would be destroyed. This would mean that a number of as yet unproven dopers (in a number of sports as well as cycling) would go forever unpunished.
Soler reacted to the comments, saying that McQuaid “knows that this is not true. I had a conversation with him, not just because of this but because we were both in Melbourne and he told me that he had not exactly meant what he said in those statements.
“Certainly, we had three positives out this week,” he admitted, “but he knows there are no ‘soft hands’, or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) would not have re-elected Jaime Lissavetzky [the Spanish minister of Sport] to its executive. He knows and understands our zero-tolerance policy and knows that there is no permissiveness.”
Soler admitted that there was some doubt about the innocence of Contador, he said that “there are studies commissioned by the UCI”, and that the UCI must decide whether to suspend the rider or not.
“We must await the results, which will come later this week.”