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Science isn't just on/off. It takes time to discover how substances might be enhancing performance or risky for athletes.
It was on the 2015 Monitoring List which means it's suspect so she had a least a year to think about its use.
hippy-
Definitely not disagreeing, but until that research and decision has been reached, and I'll include TUE use in that, it's not for the fans or media to apply a selective sliding-scale of morality to riders and teams. As I said pretty much the entire of cycling and professional sport fall into what the article called a 'grey area'. Either they are doping or they are not, and once the authorities decide something is cheating then that is when it crosses over.
And unknown, BALCO-esque drugs are covered by the WADA code
Jimmy_Fingers
Yeah I meant that, she had been using the drug for a fucking long time, her entire career, then it gets banned all of a sudden and she gets popped. So yes she was stupid but it also illustrates the arbitary nature of what is banned and what isn't, and that it can take WADA a long time to decide whether something is performance-enhancing or not, or at least performance-enhancing enough to be banned. If riders shouldn't be using tramadol then the authorities should just fucking ban it, rather than a team or rider's ethics be questioned for using it.
Makes me wonder what other drugs yet-to-be-banned are being used.