ASO distances itself further from UCI

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Patrice Clerc(Image credit: Gregor Brown)

Tour de France Director Christian Prudhomme and ASO President Patrice Clerc met with the press Saturday morning in Cognac to discuss the last three weeks of their Grand Tour. The event was hit with the news of two in-race positive controls and two other pre-event doping-related incidents that left the Frenchmen wanting to distance its race from the UCI (International Cycling Union). Cyclingnews' Gregor Brown was in Cognac before the start of the time trial listen to what the Frenchmen had to say.

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"There can only be one answer for the UCI, either they are incompetent or want to damage the Tour de France," blasted Prudhomme Saturday morning. Former maillot jaune wearer Michael Rasmussen missed two out of competition doping controls in June according to the UCI but Tour organisers were never made aware of it. "The UCI knew about the missed controls, and by the team, and yet the UCI told us he was okay," commented Clerc.

There were two positive results in the Tour, with Alexander Vinokourov (Astanta) testing non-negative for blood doping while Cristian Moreni (Cofidis) tested non-negative for testosterone. Both the Switzerland and French registered squads were asked to leave the event, and did so immediately. "The mistakes from two riders, Alexander Vinokourov and Cristian Moreni, damaged the Tour de France with their behaviour," said Clerc. "Most of the riders are working in a clean way, without using any products. But some of them did not understand that things have changed. Most teams are doing well but some don't understand."

"We will work with the teams, sponsors, and national federations," explained Prudhomme of his plans for ASO's 2008 races, which include Paris-Nice, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Roubaix, Flèche Wallonne and Paris-Tours. "We will meet and work with everyone that wants to help. At our 2008 Tour presentation, this October 25, we will explained our plans and decisions. We will have ethics play the major part of next year's Tour selection, more so than a team's results. We don't want to do without an international institution but we want something better, and something that can fight doping."

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