02/11/2022

Samuel Sanchez on his doping accusation - "The system is wrong, if you have a lot of money, you can defend yourself. Or nothing"

In the Escapa podcast, Samuel Sanchez discussed the unfair ban that forced him to retire. In the end, the Spaniard proved his innocence after a long fight.

In 2017, during Vuelta a Espana he tested positive for GHRP-2. "It took a long time and a lot of tests, but after two years, I was able to prove the truth. They recognized that it was food contamination, but the minimum suspension was two years by regulation, although it had been proven that I had tested positive without doping. In fact, they did not even sanction me with a financial fine. I have a clear conscience," said Sanchez

Nevertheless, after the disqualification, the Spaniard had already decided to hang up his bicycle. "The system is wrong: if you have a lot of money, you can defend yourself. Or nothing. From the first moment, the lawyers told me that the defense would cost me a lot, but I was convinced that I had done nothing wrong. From an emotional point of view, proving that it wasn't my fault, that I hadn't taken drugs, would have given me peace of mind," explained Sanchez.

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He also advised UCI to update its regulations and always keep a margin of error. "In the case of some substances, you have to quantify the threshold that can lead to disqualification. Because below that value, they are not producing performance improvements," he said.

While food contamination ended his career, he doesn't want others to go through the same tiresome and lengthy process and questions UCI's response to the situation."The rules on food contamination need to be updated if you think about what happened to me, Contador, Michael Rogers and many other athletes. These things lead you to face so many bad situations. I had to retire when I didn't want to. If it had happened to me when I was 30, maybe I would have gone back to racing and it would have seemed forgotten. It wasn't like that and for me it was the end of my career," concluded Sanchez.