FRANCE/FILE: CYCLING - Tour de France director defends leaked UCI suspicion index as an important tool in the fight against doping in cycling

Record ID: 721428

  • Title: FRANCE/FILE: CYCLING - Tour de France director defends leaked UCI suspicion index as an important tool in the fight against doping in cycling
  • Date: 14th May 2011
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (MAY 13, 2011) (REUTERS) L'EQUIPE NEWSPAPER HEADLINE (IN FRENCH): UCI'S SECRET LIST SUB HEADLINE (IN FRENCH): HOW WAS THE SUSPICION INDEX DEFINED? LYON, FRANCE (MAY 13, 2011) (RMC SPORT)
  • Embargoed: 29th May 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA8X0QHHSZTMLTMJIYLT6ATFO50
  • Story Text: The head of the Tour de France welcomed news on Monday (May 13) that cycling's governing body had drawn up a list in which it had estimated the 'doping risk' of each rider at last year's event, saying it proved how serious his sport was about fighting illegal substance use.
    French sports daily L'Equipe unveiled the doping suspicion index, in which riders are given a rating of suspicion scaling from 0 -- not suspicious -- to 10 -- highly suspicious.
    The UCI said the list is a working document helping to steer testing, not a list of riders who have done any wrongdoing.
    "There isn't a secret list. There is a list put together by one of only three international federations to have adopted the biological passport. That's a tool which is an asset in the fight against doping," said Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.
    "It's because cycling is at the forefront of this, with its governing bodies that there is a list -- not a secret one but a working document," he told reporters.
    The average index of the 198 riders from the 2010 Tour de France is 2.434.
    The index is a summary from the rider's biological passport's data and a blood test carried out on July 1, two days before the start of the Tour.
    The biological passport is a record of a rider's test results which can be used to map out the rider's normal readings. It is designed so that abnormal changes in a rider's profile can be spotted.
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