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André Cardoso vs. the UCI

Help André Cardoso fight his unfair punishment by the UCI! 

In November 2018, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announced that they found André Cardoso guilty of an anti-doping rule violation – despite inconclusive evidence and a report on his B Sample coming back as “doubtful but inconclusive." The case began over a year ago, when a sample collected in an out-of-competition control on 18 June 2017 returned an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) for Erythropoietin. 

André complied with the out-of-competition test, even though it was outside of his designated time slot. Within the rules, he would have faced no punishment for not answering the door, but because of the rider's lifelong commitment to the fight for clean sport, he was happy to oblige. But when the initial tests came back positive, he missed out on riding his first Tour de France, and due to a provisional suspension, effectively lost his career as a professional cyclist. 

According to the rules, a negative B sample should override a positive A sample, but because the lab recorded Cardoso’s result as “Atypical,” it was left open to interpretation by the UCI. So undeterred by the lack of conclusive evidence, the UCI decided to punish André, suspending him for four years. 

Now, André wants to keep fighting to clear his name but to do that, he needs help. And that's what this GoFundMe page is for. We're raising funds to help André hire the lawyers he needs to take the UCI to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and fight what was an unjust and arbitrary punishment for a violation that the UCI cannot prove occurred. 

An expert opinion 

After the initial A sample tests, André commissioned impartial examinations from Douwe de Boer, Phd, an anti-doping expert based in the Netherlands, to investigate what triggered the UCI's Adverse Analytical Finding.

De Boer said: “Sport doping control is being performed to protect the basic sporting principles, and numerous examples in cycling and elsewhere justifies such a policy.

“Anti-doping authorities are fighting a hard battle with true doping offenders. Unfortunately, as in every battle, there are innocent victims. Those victims also have rights and must have the possibility to prove their innocence and clear their names.

“In this specific case,” continued De Boer, “there are sound reasons to investigate the cause of this apparent doping offence. Such an investigation requires time and efforts from all parties involved, but I hope that André Cardoso will also get the opportunity to accomplish this examination. After all, it is my belief that innocent victims in the doping battle must be prevented at all costs.”



Read André's open letter in reaction to his punishment. 

Organizer

André Cardoso
Organizer
Gondomar, Povoação, Portugal

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