Gianni Bugno getting ready for a helicopter flight for Italian TV.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Alessandro Petacchi with two time World Champ Gianni Bugno(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Two-time World road race Champion Gianni Bugno aboard a Bianchi(Image credit: Bianchi)
The professional cyclists’ union (CPA) has welcomed WADA’s recent clarification of its stance on the nighttime doping controls that were suggested by its independent observers in their recent report on drug testing at the 2010 Tour de France.
CPA president Gianni Bugno had already written a personal letter to UCI president Pat McQuaid outlining his organisation’s opposition to any such testing and the CPA supported this position in a meeting of its management committee, which was held in Milan.
“It should be remembered that if this practice were actually introduced into UCI regulations, it would be in contravention of European privacy laws,” read a statement from the CPA, which highlighted that riders were already available for testing from 6am to 10pm.
Tuttobiciweb.it reports that the CPA is, however, taking steps to prevent riders who are serving a doping suspension from accessing the union’s solidarity fund for unemployed riders.
The CPA has also agreed to set up an athletes’ commission, a body which the IOC has requested be established by all sporting federations. It is understood that each member nation of the CPA will have a rider on the commission and the riders’ union will forward its nominations to the UCI in the coming days.
It is understood that the CPA is also set to ask the UCI to examine the practice of riders being given independent contracts, something which is illegal in many European Union countries. The union says that it leads to a gross disparity between riders’ tax and social insurance, according to the country in which they are resident.
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Barry Ryan was Head of Features at Cyclingnews until 2024. He is currently Editor-in-chief at Domestique. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.
