Iljo Keisse(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
"It's the end of a bad part of my life" said Iljo Keisse after his victory(Image credit: Tour of Turkey)
Six-Day champion Iljo Keisse spends some time behind the derny at a Gent velodrome as part of the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team presentation.(Image credit: Photopress.be)
Iljo Keisse and Niki Terpstra celebrate their victory at the 2014 Rotterdam Six(Image credit: Wouter Roosenboom)
A Belgian Court of Appeals decided today that the UCI must pay Belgian cyclist Iljo Keisse (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) a fine of €100,000 for wrongfully banning him from competition.
The court made this same decision in March, 2012, but the UCI appealed.
The ruling is but one more in a long series of court cases that dates back to the positive doping test that Keisse returned at the Six Days of Gent in November 2008.
He was initially given a two-year ban by the Belgian federation, but then that same federation lifted the ban at the end of 2009 after Keisse argued the tests, which showed him positive for two different substances, were the result of a cold medicine and contaminated supplement. They chose not to take any disciplinary action.
The effective date of his suspension took into account 11 months already spent out of competition awaiting the verdict of the Belgian federation, and his ban was to end August 6, 2011.
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Keisse continued to race following the decision, competing in the Gent Six Day in November, 2010. The UCI then informed Keisse that the court's deliberations only allowed him to continue racing in his own country, keeping him out of competition in several overseas track events in the winter.
The Brussels Court of Appeals decided in May, 2011 that Keisse must serve out the remainder of his CAS-imposed ban, but the rider then sued the UCI for €100,000 on grounds they did not have the right to keep him from racing in that interim period.
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
