Race organisers follow ASO

The international association of cycling race organisers (AIOCC) has lined up with the Tour de France organiser ASO and will ask teams not to line up riders who have been named in Operación Puerto as long as there is doubt about their involvement in the matter.

According to the AFP press agency, the organisation met Friday in Liege, and issued a statement which said, "The AIOCC calls on all persons concerned with cycling for solidarity in the doping question and for the necessary recovery of the credibility of the discipline."

The action seems to bearing fruit already, as four riders who are on the Fuentes list and who were scheduled to ride Liège-Bastogne-Liège have been scratched from the race by their teams, reported Radsport-News.com. Ivan Basso was suspended by Discovery Channel earlier in the week. The official start list, published Saturday, also omitted Giampaolo Caruso (Lampre), Koldo Gil (Saunier Duval) and Constantino Zaballa (Caisse d'Epargne).

"Things are going in the right direction," said ASO's Christian Prudhomme, race director of the Tour de France as well as in Liège. "I wouldn't have believed that we would take a step in the right direction so quickly. That was a constructive week. But everything isn't settled. We are not yet over the hill."