Editor's Note: As stated below, the UCI held a similar meeting in June, before the Tour de France. Many athletes and teams signed the “Commitment to a New Cycling,” including all four riders connected to doping in this year's Tour – Patrik Sinkewitz, Michael Rasmussen, Alexandre Vinokourov, and Cristian Moreni. This recent meeting was held with continental teams, while the earlier meeting was with ProTour teams.
The President of the International Cycling Union, Pat McQuaid, met with professional continental teams in Geneva today to introduce the “Riders’ commitment to a new cycling†and the “Managers’ and other team staff’s commitment to a new cyclingâ€. The UCI organized a similar meeting with UCI ProTour teams on 19 June.
Pat McQuaid asked the teams (riders, managers and other team staff) to sign the documents.
By adding their signature, riders give their word of honour that they are not involved in the Puerto affair or in any other doping cases, and will not breach the UCI anti-doping rules. They also declare to the Spanish authorities that they are willing to provide DNA samples for comparison with blood samples seized during the Puerto investigations. The riders also ask the Spanish authorities either to arrange for such tests to be carried out quickly, or to allow the UCI to arrange them.
The managers and other team staff members pledge not to encourage their riders to resort to doping, and not to turn a blind eye to any doping practices they may encounter within their team. They also promise to put in place the necessary procedures to prevent the use of doping within their team (managers), to help to implement such procedures and, if necessary, to cooperate with anti-doping authorities.
In order to prove their commitment, the signatories agree, should they fail to keep their commitment, to make over to the UCI’s anti-doping campaign a sum of money equivalent to their earnings for the year 2007. Any funds collected in this way will be administered by the Anti-Doping Council (CLCD), which includes representatives of teams’ and riders’ associations.
The UCI will publish a list of signatories to both documents on its website, and will update it continuously.
To date, 641 riders, managers and other team staff members (UCI ProTeams and professional continental teams) have signed the commitment.
The professional continental teams constitute the second tier of the cycling team hierarchy. The elite level is made up of UCI ProTeams, and the third level by the continental teams.
Pat McQuaid announced that he has asked those UCI ProTour team managers and riders who have not already done so to sign the commitment to a new cycling as soon as possible.
Pat McQuaid also asked the professional continental teams not to sign up any riders who have been dropped by UCI ProTour teams because of their involvement in doping.
Related on FasterSkier.com:
Tour de France 2007: an assessment by the UCI
Source: UCI Press Services
