International summit on doping for Paris

A high-level summit on doping in cycling offered in July by the World Antidoping Agency (WADA) will convene in Paris on October 22-23, according to AFP. The offer by WADA was made in late July after multiple doping scandals plagued the Tour de France. The meeting will gather representatives of the UCI, WADA, Grand Tours, National Federations and National Antidoping Agencies. Roselyne Bachelot, Minister for Health, Youth and the Sports, announced the date, which comes three weeks before the opening of the world antidoping conference in Madrid (15 - 17 November) where the new version of the world antidoping code will be discussed.

The last half of this year's Tour de France was marked by positive controls of Alexandre Vinokourov (homologous transfusion), Cristian Moreni (testosterone) and Iban Mayo (EPO) as well as the exclusion of the yellow jersey Michael Rasmussen for issues surrounding his whereabouts declarations. The sequence of events led WADA president Dick Pound to proposed to organise an antidoping summit on cycling.

The UCI was initially critical of the move by Pound, but said that it was willing to participate in discussions "in a constructive manner and under acceptable conditions".