UCI rejects future collaboration with AFLD

by VeloNation Press at 9:49 AM EST

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Categories: Fall Classics, Doping

The UCI has once again stated that it is not willing to work with the French anti-doping agency AFLD on next year’s Tour de France, and wants to do the controls itself.

“In the 2009 Tour, we tried to collaborate with the AFLD, but it undermined our position when it released a report that should have been internal,” he told L’Equipe yesterday.

“Therefore, with regards the AFLD, the UCI has no confidence. We are not willing to take risks to jeopardize all the efforts we in cycling have made in the fight against doping by putting new work into the hands of this agency, "he said.

In a report issued in the run up to the launch of the 2010 Tour de France, the AFLD blasted the UCI in several areas, saying that its testers had shown bias towards several teams, had not stored samples correctly and generally didn’t behave as professionally as would be expected. The UCI rejected this, making its own allegations against the French anti-doping agency.

McQuaid said that the UCI doesn’t have problems like this with any other national agency. He has however expressed his confidence in the Chatenay-Malabry anti-doping lab in Paris, calling it “one of the best in the world.”

The AFLD had sole responsibility for testing during the 2008 Tour de France and unveiled a surprise new test for the substance CERA. A number of riders tested positive for this, including Riccardo Ricco (Saunier Duval), Stefan Schumacher and Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner). There were no positives from this year’s Tour.

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