US cycling team suspended for dressing mechanic as rider to qualify for race

U.S. women’s cycling team Cynisca was punished Monday by the sport’s governing body for trying to enter a race by misleading organizers.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) said this that Cynisca had only four healthy riders competing in the Argenta Classic in Belgium last year, while five riders were needed for a team to participate. The UCI said Cynisca tried to “mislead the commissaires panel into believing that a fifth rider was present and could participate in the event”.

First, the other cyclists on the team lied about the whereabouts of the fifth rider, who was supposedly ill. When that didn’t work, the UCI says the team’s sporting director, Danny Van Haute, told a Cynisca mechanic to dress as a fifth rider and wear a face mask – presumably to conceal their true identity – before he signed the start list for the race. .

“When informed by the commissioners that the team could not participate unless all five riders signed the start form and arrived at the start, Mr. Van Haute instructed the team mechanic, Moira Barrett, to wear rider clothing and a face mask, in order to presents herself at the start and signs the start form as the fifth rider of the team,” the UCI said in the statement on Monday.

The Cynisca team, staff and riders “were therefore all found to have participated in fraud”, the UCI said.

The UCI added that “Van Haute appeared to be the main perpetrator” and banned the veteran American official from the sport until the end of 2025. Barrett is ruled out until August 2024.

Cynisca was fined an unspecified amount and suspended from the next international race in which she was due to participate, the ruling said.

The sanctions for Cynisca were announced a day after rider Lauren Stephens won the one-day Clasica de Almeria in Spain.

The team and staff can appeal the ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.