Colombian rider Fabio Duarte was just 18 when he siezed the lead at the 2006 Vuelta a Colombia. Riding for the Orbitel-EPM team (aka Une-Orbitel or just Une), the baby-faced Duarte took the leader's jersey on stage 8 and thus, it seemed, loudly announced his precocious and promising talent. Perhaps to his detriment. Over the next stages, a tiring Duarte fought desperately to hold onto the jersey against older, more experienced riders. Eventually he lost the lead on stage 13. Duarte finished the tough 15-stage tour in fourth place overall. At what cost?
As a team, Une was not exactly known as clean. Their team doctor was Dr. Alberto Beltrán, the premier doping doctor in Colombia, whose expertise is not exactly a secret. (Just ask Gianni Savio.) A well-informed observer traveling with the Colombian race in 2006 watched Duarte struggle to keep the lead, and later stated, "Beltrán probably took years off his life during the event to keep him in the race lead. God knows what they pumped him full of: blood transfusions, testosterone, the works. He was eighteen at the time - not child abuse, just." Described as obviously vulnerable and naive by those who have interviewed him, did Duarte even have a chance to escape the doping scourge of his sport? It seems unlikely. Doomed by his talent and love for the bike? Consider also that in 2005, during that year's Tour of Colombia, one of Duarte's training partners, a young rider from his village with whom he grew up, was killed. Can we blame Duarte for taking the rare chance for success when he had it?
After a race in 2007, Duarte was found to have an abnormal T/E ratio. Yet nothing seemed to come of this, with neither the Columbian federation nor the UCI demanding that a doping case be opened. Duarte went on to win the U23 road race at the 2008 World Championships. In late September 2008, Carlos Alberto Vargas, president of the disciplinary commission of the Colombian Federation stated, "In the 2007 Clásica de Girardot, he showed an abnormal T/E ratio, so it was decided to follow the recommendation of the laboratory and do four additional tests, of which three already have been conducted, with totally normal and satisfactory results. The fourth test will be done in the next week once he returns from Italy." Since then, Duarte's case has apparently been archived by the Colombian Federation, which is not exactly known as a bastion of staunch anti-dopers. (Just ask Santiago Botero about that.) It remains to be seen if the UCI will pursue Duarte's case, perhaps by appealing to CAS. One wonders if there are certain cases where a positive test can actually save a rider, from themselves, from an abusive team, from fate, and can rescue them from the dark side of cycling, for two years at least. Yet Duarte is seemingly not destined to be so freed, or so punished, depending on your sympathies. He rides on, the heavy weight of such talent bending his small shoulders. What can the future hold for such a one as this, as cycling's doping battles rage on? Is there anyone to save him from his sport's creeping corruption?
Now it has been announced that Duarte supposedly has signed for the new version of Saunier-Duval known as Fuji-Servetto. The same team which let Ricco self-destruct without lifting a finger. The same team that was totally shocked that Piepoli was less than an angel. Imagine Duarte in the stained hands of Gianetti, in the clutches of Matxin, or left alone among the hardened veterans of Acqua e Sapone if the two teams merge. Like a lamb among lions? Yet perhaps there is a little hope yet left, as recent articles suggest that Duarte is not going to Europe next year after all, but is instead riding again for Colombia es Pasión, a team which at least takes part in the bio-passport and has a cleaner reputation than many Colombian teams. Perhaps fate has better things in store for Duarte's future, after all. Perhaps after his harsh initiation into cycling's realities, he deserves the chance to first mature as a man and as an athlete without the dark side of cycling consuming his youth without recompense or mercy. Perhaps Duarte's tale represents an object lesson on the real importance of serious anti-doping efforts. Done right, it can save the 18-year old from the syringe, from forcing his body into inhuman efforts, from sliding down a dark path. It can spare the golden dreams of the young athlete. I hope.
