Cyclist Dan Stevens, who claims an Irish doctor prescribed doping products, has given evidence in public about the case.
A cyclist who has claimed London-based Irish medic Dr Mark Bonar prescribed doping products to athletes from a variety of sports believes cycling still has an “endemic” drug culture.
And whistleblower Dan Stevens – himself banned from cycling for doping - has told a UK parliamentary committee the problem has spread to amateur cycling.
Having been the source for a Sunday Times exposé in April on Dr Bonar, which claimed the Irishman was willing to prescribe performance enhancing drugs to athletes, Stevens has now gone public with his claims.
Dr Bonar has strongly denied the allegations, saying anything he prescribed was to combat genuine health problems rather than for cheating in sport.
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He has also said he never had any relationship with pro soccer teams, an allegation The Sunday Times made much of.
Addressing the parliamentary committee hearing yesterday, amateur rider Stevens (40) said some medical practitioners working in the anti ageing field were effectively using it as cover to supply products used in doping.
Stevens has stood over his claims about Dr Bonar but said the Irishman was not “an isolated case”.
"There are a number of anti ageing doctors in the UK advertising that they will provide human growth hormone and testosterone for anti-ageing purposes," he said.
And against the backdrop of more and more positive dope test findings in amateur racing and even Gran Fondos, Stevens said the doping culture was clearly not confined to pro cycling.
Despite this, he pointed to a lax drug testing regime in amateur cycling, where it was clear some riders were making “quantum leaps”.
"I can't comment how much doping is going on because I don't know factually, but what I can tell you that there's not a lot of testing going on in amateur cycling," said Stevens.
"We are a long way behind what athletes could be using at elite level. At amateur level people are potentially using what elites were using 15 years ago. The elites could be using far, far more sophisticated stuff."
Background to Dr Bonar allegations
An extensive report in The Sunday Times in April claimed Dr Mark Bonar prescribed a range of banned performance enhancing drugs to sports stars in pro soccer, cycling, athletics, tennis, cricket, weight lifting and more.
It is important to say Dr Bonar has denied the claims, describing them as false and misleading.
Stevens, an amateur cyclist banned for failing to supply a sample for a test in January 2014, was named in the British media as the source of the claims.
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He had his 24-month ban reduced after UK Anti Doping said he has supplied “valuable anti-doping information” and the Cycling Independent Reform Commission “therefore recommended that Mr Stevens’ period of ineligibility be reduced to a period of 21 months”.
The Sunday Times did not name its source back in April but explained that after he was banned he supplied information about Dr Bonar, claiming he was the medic who put him on a programme of drugs.
The newspaper claimed its source supplied a statement to UKAD along with what he said were prescriptions for EPO and human growth hormone.
I have never prescribed Androgen therapy for the purpose of performance enhancement.. I treat symptomatic men with low Test levels
— Dr Mark S. Bonar (@ZenGrifter) April 3, 2016
The @SundayTimesNews allegations are false and very misleading. I have never had a relationship with any premier football club or player. — Dr Mark S. Bonar (@ZenGrifter) April 3, 2016
The Sunday Times explained in its extensive report that after its source – now identified as Stevens – contacted UKAD to blow the whistle he became concerned over a number of months that his information had not been acted upon.
The newspaper said its source contacted UKAD again to express that concern and was told he needed to make a statement and supply physical evidence.
The reports said he then followed up that request, supplying prescriptions he said were written by Dr Bonar.
However, in January 2015 The Sunday Times source received an email from UKAD stating the evidence supplied had been investigated and that no grounds for action against Dr Bonar had been found.
It appears Stevens became frustrated and approached The Sunday Times, having read its coverage around doping in sport.
Working in conjunction with German TV channel ARD/WDR – with which it has previously cooperated on doping stories – The Sunday Times said it sent a German runner to meet with Dr Boner.
And during that meeting, which was secretly recorded, the newspaper said Dr Bonar prescribed EPO to the aspiring runner, warning him it was banned and to micro dose.
The doctor allegedly said he was recommending the drugs to right the runner’s low hematocrit.
The reports claim the runner desisted efforts by Bonar to administer EPO at one of their appointments but that he left the surgery with prescriptions from the doctor for the human growth hormone Genotropin and DHEA, which the newspaper described as a steroid hormone.
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