AG2r rider Tadej Valjavec has proclaimed his innocence following the announcement of abnormal values in his Biological Passport that led to a provisional suspension by the International Cycling Union yesterday. Valjavec, 33, doesn't hold up much hope for his cycling career now, and blames team doctors for their lack of documentation.
"The [team] doctor has not done his job. The UCI was not notified of my health problems, so they began a process against me," he said on his website. The Slovenian explained that he was sick for much of last year, but the AG2r medical team failed to report his condition to the sport's governing body.
Valjavec was suspended by his team yesterday, and finds himself doubting the process as well as the likelihood of returning to the sport after a two-year suspension.
"I'm speechless. My career is over. I do not understand how it is possible that the system works."
He also admitted to missing a doping control last year when he was at the hospital for the birth of his daughter. Understandably, he had to turn off his cell phone during the time his wife was in labor. "I'm not stupid enough to not make myself available [to out of competition controls], so I do not understand what is happening, I am a small guy," he said.
The UCI maintained yesterday that Valjavec, along with the two other riders named yesterday for Biological Passport anomalies - Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas-Doimo) and Spaniard Jesús Rosendo Prado (Andalucía-Cajasur) - were not to be determined as guilty until the final determination has been made.