Former EF rider Lizzy Banks has opened up about her battle to clear her name after returning an adverse analytical finding in a UK Anti-Doping test last July.
The British racer was notified by UKAD of a positive test for asthma medication Formoterol as well as a low level of the diuretic Chlortalidone "indicative of a contamination".
As a result, Banks has spent much of the past year attempting to clear her name, with UKAD insisting on handing her a two-year ban, she wrote in an entry on her personal website.
Banks wrote that following the two positive tests, she had "spent the last nine months of my life investigating, researching, and writing my submissions to establish how the contamination event occurred" before the case was eventually passed to a tribunal.
She wrote that UKAD changed their position just five days before the tribunal, concluding that Banks was "not at any fault and had exercised an extremely high level of care at all times in order to avoid ingesting a prohibited substance."
After months of preparing for and fighting her case, UKAD eventually came to the conclusion that Banks bore "no fault or negligence" for the positives and would therefore avoid any sanctions as a result.
"This process has cost me a huge amount, literally and metaphorically. My husband and I spent every penny of our savings and the huge mental toll has left deep scars," Banks wrote.
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"But somehow, through it all, I knew I had to fight. Right from the start, I learnt of other athletes in the similar situations with a contamination of chlortalidone, whose lives and careers were also being torn apart.
"This process pushed me right to the edge and my fear that an athlete would go beyond that edge is what drove me to try and incite essential positive change. With my background in medicine, my good fortune in life to have had an excellent education and finally my dogged determination, I truly believed that if I couldn't fight the injustices in this system, then no athlete could."
Lizzy Banks in action for EF at the 2022 Dwars door Vlaanderen (Image credit: Getty Images)
An interview with Banks published by The Telegraph on Tuesday states that Banks and her husband estimated that they have spent over £40,000 fighting the cases, adding that she's now ending her career as a result of the ordeal.
In the interview, Banks says that she "couldn't risk putting her family through something like this ever again" should she return to racing. Her retirement is official as of today.
Banks estimates that 316 athletes may have tested positive as a result of contamination in 2019, pointing the finger at WADA for ignoring the problem.
"WADA have known there was something up here for years, and yet they've not done anything about it," she said.
"How does WADA compensate athletes that have been wrongly accused of cheating? How do they give them back those two years of life? Repay them for all the lost earnings and legal fees? Repair their shattered mental health? The short answer is, they don't."
Now, without a cycling career to return to at the age of 33, Banks hopes that making the UKAD's reasoned decision on her case publicly available can help other athletes going through the same thing in their own similar cases.
You can read Banks' in-depth breakdown of her story and the fight against the cases at her website, lizzybanks.co.uk.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
