Kurt-Asle Arvesen and Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank) (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Chris Anker Sørensen of Team Saxo Bank received an official warning from Anti Doping Danmark this summer for not being available for an out-of-competition doping control. The 25-year-old publicised the incident in his book Debutante's Diary, which is being published this week.
He said that after a race at the end of July in Kjellerup, Denmark, he spent the night in the town instead of returning to his parents' house as planned. Anti Doping Danmark showed up at the family home the next morning to conduct an unannounced out-of-competition doping control, and found that the rider was not there, though he had indicated on his whereabouts form that he would be.
“I have chosen to tell stories about my drug warning because I have nothing to hide,” Sørensen told the Danish newspaper Berlingkse Tidende. “I have great confidence that people can distinguish my case from a man like Michael Rasmussen.” Rasmussen was suspended two years for lying about his whereabouts in 2007.
He noted that “It's a way to show how easy it can go wrong, and how careful you must be to comply with schedules and agreements not to risk getting a warning if the anti-doping controllers cannot find you at a given address."
The whereabouts requirement is extremely time consuming, Sørensen acknowledged. “Every day I check whether things are as they should be. You can easily be afraid of writing something wrong or missing something.”
Sørensen, who crowned his season by winning the Japan Cup last month, confessed his failure to team boss Bjarne Riis. “Bjarne knows it was a mistake, so he took it gracefully. I don't think I will have any further problems.”
Riders may receive two warnings in an 18-month period for missing out-of-competition doping controls. If they receive a third in that time period, they are subject to a two-year suspension
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