Barbados’ most celebrated cyclist called it quits yesterday.
Barry Forde, who has won gold at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games and silver at the World Championships, ends his stellar career under a cloud of controversy.
He has once again been accused of doping by the sport’s governing body, the Union Cycliste International (UCI).
Forde’s retirement beats a life-time ban from the sport.
“I want to make it abundantly clear that I have not now, or at any time, committed any anti-doping violation in pursuit of my sporting career,” the cyclist said.
In a statement prepared by his management team, he added: “I returned to international competition on March 1, 2008 after serving a sanction of two years and two months, which was the end result of a battle I fought to try and prove my innocence of an anti-doping violation levelled at me in 2005.
“Since returning to the sport, I have monitored my every activity, to the point of paranoia, in order to avoid any recurrence. It would seem that all my efforts were in vain.”
According to Forde, on September 21, last year, doping control officials presented themselves to him and advised that they were collecting samples for EPO testing, which he provided.
“In the interim, I competed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India in October. I had also registered for competition in UCI World Cups slated for Cali in December, 2010, Beijing in January 2011, and Manchester in February 2011. The test results subsequently stated that the blood result was “negative” and the urine result stated “no result”.
The cyclist added that on March 10, this year, he was informed by the UCI that the lab analysis report they received on November 23, 2010 indicated that the urine sample had tested positive for recombinant EPO.
“While my instinct is to fight this latest accusation, I have come to terms with the fact that as far as this system is concerned, not only am I already considered guilty, but also I will never be able to prove my innocence,” Forde stated.
