“Boels-Dolmans Cycling Team looks forward to supporting Armitstead and its other eight Olympic athletes in the upcoming road race in Rio”.
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Armitstead concluded her 1,275-word statement by saying: “I love sport and the values it represents”. It hurts me to consider anybody questioning my performances. When I made my retirement statement in January 2013 I knew there would be a significant proportion of the professional peloton, male and female, that would be critical of my stance regarding dopers – that they were stealing (in the criminal sense) the livelihoods of innocent people. “CAS also ruled that there was no negligence on Armitstead’s part”, the statement continued.
Armitstead said the doping control officer did not identify himself to hotel staff and was unable to get hold of her, as her phone was on silent. I am the female road race world champion, I operate in a completely different environment to the majority of athletes in the testing pool.
Armitstead is one of the favourites for the Rio 2016 women’s road race gold medal on Sunday (August 7).
Armitstead has been criticized by fans and fellow cyclists for missing the tests amid widespread allegations of doping by Russian athletes.
Addressing this, Armitstead, who says she now has one filing failure and one missed test to her name, said: “Ukad are allowed a maximum of two weeks to inform you of a “strike”.
Armitstead’s first violation dates back to August 2015 during the World Cup race in Sweden when a doping control officer visited her hotel at 6 a.m.
“I would like to thank British Cycling and the team around me for all of their help and support”.
Armitstead met with UKAD and British Cycling (BC) in December 2015 and Simon Thornton was assigned to check her whereabouts on a bi-weekly basis.
I now have one filing failure and one missed test.
As an 18-year-old schoolgirl I was introduced to the whereabouts system, nine years ago. Along with updating their time slots and whereabouts on a website, by email and text message, they can also have agents or representatives submit information on their behalf.
With so much focus on doping in the run up to Rio, Lizzie Armitstead has clearly chosen the wrong time to be careless.
We are awaiting the Reasoned Decision from the CAS Panel as to why the first Whereabouts Failure was not upheld. “It is clear sensational headlines have a detrimental effect to any legal case”.
The road race course is considered one of the toughest in Olympics history, starting with a long, fast stretch away from Copacabana and along Rio’s coast.
The cyclist, who won silver at the London 2012 Olympics, insisted that she has never tested positive for a banned substance.
She added: “I was advised regular late changes to availability would be noted and would then draw more targeted testing”.
As this person said: “They can call at anytime, as far as I am concerned – if we don’t comply and have these checks in place, it takes all the trust out of sport”, before adding “I always make sure I can hear the doorbell” when the hour of declared whereabouts arrives.
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