The International Cycling Union (UCI) last night angrily dismissed the results of drug tests carried out by a French anti-doping agency on riders during the Tour de France. The UCI said it stood by the results of its own doping controls and disputed a report by the Council for Prevention of Drug Use (CPLD) that found 45 per cent of riders who provided samples for them during this year's race showed traces of drugs in their systems.
The UCI announced last week that all doping tests carried out during the Tour had come back negative for banned substances.
Three riders, however, were sent home before the start of the Tour after blood tests showed they had illegal levels of hematacrite - which suggests use of the banned hormone erythropoietin (EPO).
"We are following the rules of the IOC. Maybe these people don't know the rules," said UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani. "They (CPLD) have created confusion."
The CPLD said 96 tests had been performed on 71 cyclists during the race. Of those, 28 tests came back positive for cortico-steroids, which reduce fatigue and act as painkillers, and 10 tests were positive for stimulants salbutamol and terbutaline, which aid breathing. Five tests revealed the presence of both types of drug.
In a tersely worded press release, the UCI were quick to point out that 26 of the 28 riders who tested positive for corticoids had medical clearance to use the drug and, as announced in their own press release on August 2nd, they were still investigating the two remaining cases.
The UCI also dismissed the 10 cases involving salbutamol and terbutaline. Of nine tests that found traces of salbutamol, all were within or below IOC approved limits of between 100 to 1,000 nanograms per million. The one positive result for terbutaline was prescribed for the rider and validated in his medical passport. The names of the riders tested by CPLD were not given.
Drug testing during the race has been stepped up since the scandal-ridden 1998 edition. The CPLD, set up by the French government in the wake of that scandal, is an independent body that carries out its own testing. It has the right under French law to impose sanctions on both French and foreign riders if it is not satisfied with the actions taken by sporting bodies.
The CPLD said it would continue to investigate each positive case recorded during the Tour and would make the results known "before the end of the year 2000."
Tour de France officials were not available yesterday for comment on the CPLD report, but the French Ministry of Sport issued a statement saying that the figures confirmed "the necessity to continue the fight against doping".
The ministry said in its statement that sports minister Marie-George Buffet was concerned with the number of high-level sportsmen who use "therapeutic medicine" to help them succeed in sport.
French cycling federation president Daniel Baal, a strong anti-doping campaigner, said: "The fact that 45 per cent of riders controlled had traces of corticosteroids or salbutamol in their systems poses a serious problem."
Baal also said that disciplinary proceedings had begun against an un-named Tour de France rider, although the results would not be known for two weeks and the competitor would not appear before the disciplinary commission for another month.
