Cycling: Tour Turns Up Pressure on the Mysterious Men in Black

There may be positive tests among riders who are expected to figure in the Tour de France during the build-up to the event's start in London on July 7, the International Cycling Union's chief anti-doping officer hinted yesterday. Anne Gripper said that out-of-competition tests have produced initial "non-negative" results and the B samples are being tested.

In a move calculated to raise the pressure on drug-takers in the sport, Gripper added that the ICU has been targeting a group of six or seven Tour riders it has identified thanks to abnormal racing results and peculiar blood test readings. Some of the group have been nicknamed the "men in black" because they apparently train in kit without sponsors' logos to avoid identification.

"We have been informed that they are training in strange places in funny kit," Gripper said. Two of them were recently intercepted in an unusual training location and tested.

The group has been identified from a larger "red list" of some 60 professional cyclists who have been targeted this season due to abnormal blood test readings.

The riders, none of whom has been named, have undergone three or four out-of-competition tests in the past few weeks, whereas the norm for professional cyclists is one per season. "They are considered high risk because of their suspicious behavior and because they are likely to want to go well in the Tour de France," Gripper said.

The team managers of the riders involved were apparently informed by the UCI on Tuesday that their men had been targeted, although without names being mentioned, and asked the teams to give information about the cyclists' whereabouts.

The Astana team of last year's Tour of Spain winner, Alexandr Vinokourov, who is among the favorites for the Tour, issued a statement yesterday confirming that its riders had occasionally trained in blank kit. They had done so, the team said, particularly on the Côte d'Azur, to avoid being persistently approached by amateur cyclists "and not to hide anything". Astana added that its cyclists were available for random testing at any time.

The Dutchman Thomas Dekker of the Rabobank team won the sixth stage of the Tour of Switzerland from Ulrichen to Crans Montana, which was reduced from 190.8km to 95km because of heavy rain and hail. Dekker was eight seconds clear of Austria's Gerrit Glomser, with Italy's Gilberto Simoni third. Russia's Vladimir Efimkin took the overall race lead.