http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/cycling/bradley-wigginss-mentor-admits-to-cheating/story-fn8sc2wz-1226504884870
SEAN Yates, the former rider who helped mastermind Bradley Wiggins' Tour de France win in July and was Lance Armstrong's mentor, has become the latest victim of the sport's doping scandal.
Yates has stood down from his position as senior sporting director with Wiggins's Team Sky after admitting to doping during his riding career. Dutch coach Steven de Jongh is also understood to have left the team.
The departure of Yates comes within days of Team Sky's American coach Bobby Julich quitting after admitting to doping between 1996 and 1998.
Team Sky team principal Dave Brailsford declined to comment specifically on Yates and de Jongh when contacted. Nor would Shane Sutton, the Australian-born former rider, who is effectively Brailsford's number two.
"We set out (from the very beginning) with a zero tolerance policy, so we said that anyone who has had a doping conviction from the past or proved to have been involved in doping hasn't got a place at Team Sky. That's our policy," Brailsford said.
Yates, 52, rode professionally between 1982 and 1996, first with Peugeot, before switching to 7-Eleven and Motorola in 1991.
During his final year at Motorola, it was Yates who took on a mentoring role with Armstrong and is credited with teaching the Texan how to descend on mountain stages.
In 1988, Yates won stage six of the Tour de France, a time trial at Wasquehal where he recorded the fastest average speed in the race's history to that point.
Meanwhile, five European newspapers have published a manifesto to reform cycling in the wake of the affair, saying the sport is mired in a "terrible mess".
Britain's The Times, L'Equipe in France, Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport, and Belgian papers Het Nieuwsblad and Le Soir joined forces to promote an eight-point manifesto designed to fix both cycling's governance and its reputation.
"The authorities have lost all credibility and there can be no new beginning for the sport without a radical sweeping away of those who are associated with, and responsible for, a regime that allowed cheating on its watch," The Times said.
A damning report two weeks ago by the US Anti-Doping Agency concluded Armstrong helped orchestrate the most sophisticated doping program in the history of sport. The five newspapers were "coming together to promote a manifesto to repair the governing structure of professional cycling and redeem its reputation before it is too late".
They demanded an overhaul of its structures, rules and leaders.
The manifesto called for an independent and neutral commission, under the responsibility of the World Anti-Doping Agency, to investigate the Union Cycliste Internationale's role in the Armstrong affair to see if there was any complicity.
It said drug-testing structures should be instigated by WADA and enforced by national anti-doping agencies.
It called for harsher penalties, saying teams should not employ riders suspended for more than six months for a supplementary period of two years.
All teams should accept that a rider implicated in a doping probe should automatically be withdrawn from competition pending the investigation's outcome.
It called for reform in the World Tour of leading races and its points system, proposing that team licences should be awarded to sponsors and not team managers, to defeat the "closed shop".
It said the UCI should publish an annual report clarifying its activities and progress.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AFP
SEAN Yates, the former rider who helped mastermind Bradley Wiggins' Tour de France win in July and was Lance Armstrong's mentor, has become the latest victim of the sport's doping scandal.
Yates has stood down from his position as senior sporting director with Wiggins's Team Sky after admitting to doping during his riding career. Dutch coach Steven de Jongh is also understood to have left the team.
The departure of Yates comes within days of Team Sky's American coach Bobby Julich quitting after admitting to doping between 1996 and 1998.
Team Sky team principal Dave Brailsford declined to comment specifically on Yates and de Jongh when contacted. Nor would Shane Sutton, the Australian-born former rider, who is effectively Brailsford's number two.
"We set out (from the very beginning) with a zero tolerance policy, so we said that anyone who has had a doping conviction from the past or proved to have been involved in doping hasn't got a place at Team Sky. That's our policy," Brailsford said.
Yates, 52, rode professionally between 1982 and 1996, first with Peugeot, before switching to 7-Eleven and Motorola in 1991.
During his final year at Motorola, it was Yates who took on a mentoring role with Armstrong and is credited with teaching the Texan how to descend on mountain stages.
In 1988, Yates won stage six of the Tour de France, a time trial at Wasquehal where he recorded the fastest average speed in the race's history to that point.
Meanwhile, five European newspapers have published a manifesto to reform cycling in the wake of the affair, saying the sport is mired in a "terrible mess".
Britain's The Times, L'Equipe in France, Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport, and Belgian papers Het Nieuwsblad and Le Soir joined forces to promote an eight-point manifesto designed to fix both cycling's governance and its reputation.
"The authorities have lost all credibility and there can be no new beginning for the sport without a radical sweeping away of those who are associated with, and responsible for, a regime that allowed cheating on its watch," The Times said.
A damning report two weeks ago by the US Anti-Doping Agency concluded Armstrong helped orchestrate the most sophisticated doping program in the history of sport. The five newspapers were "coming together to promote a manifesto to repair the governing structure of professional cycling and redeem its reputation before it is too late".
They demanded an overhaul of its structures, rules and leaders.
The manifesto called for an independent and neutral commission, under the responsibility of the World Anti-Doping Agency, to investigate the Union Cycliste Internationale's role in the Armstrong affair to see if there was any complicity.
It said drug-testing structures should be instigated by WADA and enforced by national anti-doping agencies.
It called for harsher penalties, saying teams should not employ riders suspended for more than six months for a supplementary period of two years.
All teams should accept that a rider implicated in a doping probe should automatically be withdrawn from competition pending the investigation's outcome.
It called for reform in the World Tour of leading races and its points system, proposing that team licences should be awarded to sponsors and not team managers, to defeat the "closed shop".
It said the UCI should publish an annual report clarifying its activities and progress.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AFP
