I think it’s only fair to admit that maybe I should replace the word “UCI” with the word “testers” in that last rant I wrote. Thanks to Cyclingnews’ plainly insufficient reporting—which did no more than simply translate the term “Vlaamse Gemeenschap”—it was, and still is, unclear exactly what the “Flemmish Community” means.
Frankly, it still doesn’t make any sense—there are too many different meanings to the term, but none of them seems to be a sport drug enforcement body. At any rate, things seem to be going better for Tom—he won’t be fired—and I’ve gotta say, his use of cocaine sounds a lot like my use of alcohol.
But, if Cyclingnews’ garbled game of digital “Telephone” can be trusted, it seems that the UCI recorded an out-of-competition positive for cocaine from Tornado Tom and totally let it slide, as their rules require. So good on you, UCI, for following your own rules.
Now if only you could whip the local authorities into shape to they weren’t banning riders at their whim; remember when CONI up and cleared Basso, despite his eventual confession? Well, now they’ve gone and banned Valverde, despite the fact that he had been previously cleared.
The Flemmish portion of Belgium (the Flemmish Community) operates its’ own testing vehicle. Known as the “Yellow Bus”.
The Yellow Bus will appear at any sporting event in Belgium after race start. They are notorious for being hidden down a side street.
Their authority to perform tests comes from the Flemmish Community (the governmental body – akin to a union of American states) and their sanctions only apply there (missed tests or a positive test results in a ban from sporting events within the Flemmish Community). Sporting bodies in the Flemmish Community are required by law to recognize the findings and apply the bans.
The UCI does not impose sanctions on athletes who have tested positively on the Yellow Bus. I’m not sure that they even “recognize” their testing methods.
Ditto to what M wrote. I’ve seen the “Yellow Bus.” After ‘cross races in Flanders, you’d have to search the parking lots to see if your number was on the little sheet taped to the side. If someone hadn’t told me, I’d never have known.
And without M’s great explanation, I was simply going to say that the best way to understand Vlaamse Gemeenschap, based on my experience, is that it’s the regional government of Flanders. Like a US state government, to a degree.