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USA Cycling president and CEO Steve Johnson and board of directors chair Bill Peterson have appealed to the federation's members to come forward and provide assistance to the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) in its investigation of doping and corruption in the sport.
In a distributed email, Johnson and Peterson made an appeal to USA Cycling members to come forward with any information that can assist the CIRC in its inquiry. The email said to members that this is your opportunity to take responsibility for our sport and help it become a sport in which we can have the utmost trust and confidence. The email reads that UCI President Brian Cookson recently announced the formation of the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) to investigate historic doping in cycling and allegations that the UCI has been involved in previous wrongdoing and as we all know, doping is not limited to the sport of cycling, but cycling is among the most aggressive sports in developing new levels of drug testing, and the new leadership of the UCI recognizes that we, as a sport, can only prepare for a better future by learning from the past. The email also stated that the CIRC is a vital part of the process to bring integrity to every level of cycling, but this important commission can only work if the cycling world wants it to and therefore we appeal to any USA Cycling members to come forward with any information that can assist the CIRC in its inquiry.
The independent review was initiated by the world's governing body of cycling, the UCI, earlier this year. The Cycling Independent Reform Commission will investigate doping in cycling between 1998 and 2013 and the UCI could offer reduced sanctions to any rider who comes forward voluntarily and contributes valuable information.
In another development, USA Cycling president and CEO Steve Johnson has refuted claims that he knew of the USPS team's doping regimen. This was after a new book revealed a former rider had expressed concern over the use of performance enhancing drugs to the USA Cycling chief.
In her new book, Cycle of Lies, New York Times reporter Juliet Macur said Dave Zabriskie, formerly of USPS and later Garmin-Sharp, told Steve Johnson about the use of performance enhancing drugs by the USPS team after the admission of PED use by Frankie Andreu in 2006. Macur writes Zabriskie wanted help from one of the most powerful men in American cycling — a man who once had been his mentor — but Johnson remarked Andreu never should have gone public. In a statement, USA Cycling said Johnson was disappointed to learn for the first time of Zabriskie’s allegations in an excerpt from a book written by Juliet Macur, published without her ever having contacted him regarding these claims and added that the conversations, as she has described them, between Zabriskie and him never occurred.
Johnson joined USA Cycling as a high performance consultant in 1999 and served as the chief operating officer before he took the top post of the federation in 2006.