UCI and ASO still at odds

A new president at the UCI hasn't healed the rift between the cycling's world governing body and ASO, the organisers of the Tour de France. At the presentation of the Tour's 2006 parcours on Thursday, ASO president Patrice Clerc spent a significant amount of time discussing the fight against doping, and implied that the UCI wasn't doing enough to combat the sport's "number one enemy".

McQuaid's reaction was swift, taking the form of a letter to ASO. He criticised the Tour's organising body on "the dangers of the approach adopted in recent years...based more on the effect of the announcements than on the actual effectiveness of the measures required and their feasibility.

"You decided to remove the conditions of serenity and without pressure for the ProTour negotiations," McQuaid wrote, sardonically thanking ASO for its lecture on "how cycling should be run...in front of the public and international media...Under these conditions, I don't see the point in making fun of us and negotiating at the time being."