When a professional cyclist in his career absolute fall trying to carve out a living by training and coaching other athletes, it is nothing less than a disaster to be harvested for doping.
This is what happened to sloveneren Janez Brajkovic, who has accepted a ten-month quarantine for the use of methylhexanamin, although he denies deliberate doping.
His acceptance was due solely to recognition of the fact that he risked an even longer sentence and large economic costs, if he had insisted on the matter run as a regular doping case in the sport legal system.
– There is talk about a substance, which does not really increase performance. You would be extremely stupid and ignorant to use the drug deliberately, writes Janez Brajkovic in an email to Ekstra Bladet.
– There is no research that proves that substance in itself improves a person’s performance. It has rather bad side effects, writes Brajkovic as the further argument that no athlete with his sense in the keep after his conviction would take methylhexanamin with malice aforethought.
As is the case with the Danish landsholdsrytter Mattias Skjelmose Jensen, who also recently assigned to the ten-month quarantine for the intake of methylhexanamin, claims Brajkovic, that the substance has come into his organism through a dietary supplement.
Brajkovic (th) was in 2013 over the moon for Jakob Fuglsang in the Tour de France, but he crashed and had to be deleted before he even had proven its worth. Photo: Tariq Mikkel Khan.
his Career through has Brajkovic used the same supplements, but before the 2018 season, he added a product, which would help him to weight loss, he says on his blog. He checked carefully that all the ingredients were allowed, he stresses. Since the positive test was a reality, it was him soon clear that the manufacturer of the dietary supplement is known for in other products that have used methylhexanamin.
He was not, however, able to prove that the illegal substance in his urine came from the supplements he had taken, and he was going to have to accept the UCI’s settlement.
– There are many unanswered questions in the whole process. I’m not in a position where I can assert that there has been something suspicious, but it is however strange that my test in two months was stranded unopened in Greece, before it was sent to a laboratory in Cologne, writes Brajkovic to Ekstra Bladet.
He has, since he even published his dopingkarantæne on his blog, received a ton of positive feedback, but he has also received many hateful messages.
– I have nothing to lose. When you stand on the bottom, you are suddenly fearless, and ready for everything.
– Thank you for the support. And to all those who hate me: It is o.k. I blame you not do anything, and I love you no matter what, write Brajkovic on his blog.
Janez Brajkovic is today 35 years old. He was professional on the us Discovery crew in 2005 and has also run for Astana, Radioshack, United Healthcare, Bahrain-Merida and by the slovenian kontinentalhold Adria Mobil.
His biggest achievement is the victory in the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2010.