UCI Meeting is Much Ado About Nothing

A couple of weeks ago, the UCI announced that they would hold a mandatory meeting with the Pro Tour teams.  Nobody knew exactly what would be discussed, but everyone knew it was about doping.  Many people speculated that there would be a list of riders that would be banned from the Tour de France.  As it turns out, there were no bans and no names on a list.  The meeting was an announcement that the UCI wants all riders to sign a statement declaring that they are not involved in doping.  If found guilty after signing the pledge, the rider would be fined one year’s salary.  Also nestled in the declaration is a release that allows Spanish authorities to use DNA and compare it to the bags of blood found in the Operation Puerto doping scandal.  There were several riders that signed the declaration at a news conference following the meeting.

Here is the kicker….The UCI does not have the authority to require a rider to sign this declaration.  They only ask the team managers to take a refusal into account when filling the Tour de France team roster.  Something tells me that a team will not leave a star off of the roster for refusal to sign this document.  I am sure that most riders will sign the declaration, but there will be a few hold-outs.  It will be interesting to see who the hold-outs are, but I don’t expect them to be left out of the Tour.

There is some discussion that there will still be some riders banned from the Tour this year.  If this is the case it will be ASO, the organizer of the Tour, that hands down the list.  Last year it was just days before the race that riders were banned. 

19 June 2007 | News | Comments