CPA welcomes clarification on nighttime controls

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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.