UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has reduced a two-year sanction given to cyclist Dan Stevens following a recommendation from the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC), which recommended reducing the sanction to 21 months for assisting with its inquiries. Stevens was initially sanctioned with a two-year ban by UKAD on 12 March 2014, after refusing to provide a sample at a 29 January out-of-competition drug test.

Stevens accepted the two-year ban, but then gave information to the CIRC, which in March published a 223-page report after being commissioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to investigate the causes of the pattern of doping that developed in cycling. CIRC told UKAD that the information provided by Stevens had been useful, and recommended a reduction in his ban to 21 months, which UKAD accepted.

UKAD issued a decision on 26 August 2014 that Stevens’ ban should run from 1 March 2014 to 1 January 2016, however Stevens filed an appeal on 15 September 2014. On 15 September 2015, the National Anti-Doping Panel came to its decision, which lists an agreement between UKAD and Stevens that his ban should run from 29 January 2014, meaning that it will expire on 1 November this year.

“The decision was published on our website on Friday 18 September 2015, following conclusion of due process on 16 September 2015”, said a UKAD spokesperson. “It was a lengthy process which included an appeal and information being given to CIRC. As a result, the conclusion of the case took some time and UKAD cannot publish any decision until due process has been completed. As part of the [World Anti-Doping] Code we publish the name of the athlete, sanction, substance / rule violation and the consequence. We can use our discretion to publish a press release / news story, and on this occasion we exercised that discretion. It’s not uncommon for us not to promote a sanction.”