Zomegnan asks McQuaid to clarify

Angelo Zomegnan, events director of RCS Sport, is asking for clarification of the decision made by the International Association of Cycling Race Organisers (AIOCC) on April 27, in Liège. Two days before the start of the 93rd Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the race organizers sided with the Tour de France organizer ASO by asking teams not to include its riders who have been named in Operacíon Puerto in races.

Zomegnan explained in an open letter to UCI President Pat McQuaid that there is confusion in regards to that Liège meeting. "The directive of the International Association of Cycling Race Organisers [AIOCC - ed.] that confirmed its fight against doping by inviting the teams to not include implicated riders is still not clear. But now it is the turn of the UCI, the entity which supervises cycling, to take suitable responsibility and make it known who can race and who can not," wrote the Italian, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

RCS Sport is the organizer of the Tirreno-Adriatico, Milano-Sanremo, Giro di Lombardia and the Giro d'Italia, which starts in eight days, and it is concerned which riders should not line up for its biggest event.

The organizers issued a statement after the meeting. "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," read the statement, according to AFP.

The immediate fallout of the April 27 decision was the excluding of Koldo Gil (Saunier Duval-Prodir), Giampaolo Caruso (Lampre-Fondital) and Constantino Zaballa (Caisse d'Epargne) form the Liège startlist, which already excluded riders like Ivan Basso (Discovery Channel).