Tour De France Splits From Icu

The row between the Tour de France organizers and the world governing body, the ICU, over which teams ride which races reached its logical conclusion yesterday when the Tour announced that this year's edition, which starts on July 5, will be run outside the aegis of the ICU, under the jurisdiction of the French federation.

As a result of the split the Tour organizers will be able to impose whatever criteria they wish on the teams they select. Earlier this year they asserted their independence by dropping the Astana team, which includes last year's winner Alberto Contador, who recently won the Giro d'Italia.

There is speculation, not confirmed by the Tour yesterday, that teams may be made to sign an anti-doping declaration carrying a strict penalty. They have already been asked to indicate their cyclists' whereabouts for random tests.

The break also means that anti-doping controls on the race will be run by France's national anti-doping agency, the AFLD, rather than the World Anti-Doping Agency. The AFLD will be able to test hair samples as well as the usual blood and urine, but they will not be able to use information gathered by the ICU in its "blood passport" program, which collates cyclists' health data in order to highlight anomalies which may indicate doping.

The Tour organizer, Christian Prudhomme, said yesterday that he hoped the ICU would inform them of any possible starters who may be under suspicion of doping infractions, including missed out-of-competition tests. The ICU's "red list" of cyclists to whom it is paying particular attention for testing, is said to number 23. "I can hardly see the ICU withholding information of this nature and failing to tell people who are concerned," he said.