UCI Press release (TdF squabble hots up)

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

[quote]Press release : UCI Management Committee meeting in Denmark

Date:
13.06.2008
Description: The Management Committee of the International Cycling Union (UCI) met on 12 and 13 June in Snekkersten, Denmark.

The 2011 UCI Track World Championships were awarded to Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.

The Management Committee also approved the 2009 calendar for the UCI Nissan Mountain Bike World Cup. The calendar will be available shortly on the UCI website (http://www.uci.ch).

The National Cycling Federations of Somalia and Gambia will be admitted to the UCI at the UCI Congress in Varese this September.

The Management Committee decided to incorporate the biological passport officially into the Anti-Doping Rules. Riders may now be disciplined under the Anti-doping Rules on the basis of the biological passport.

The Management Committee has also adopted a new “no start” rule. Under the new “no start” rule, riders may be prevented from starting a race for a period of 15 days if blood test results show an anomaly compared with values recorded previously in the biological passport.

Further to the Management Committee’s decision to suspend the French Cycling Federation (FFC), applications submitted by the FFC to host the 2012 Track World Championships and the 2012 Cyclo-cross World Championships have been removed from the list of applicants.

The Management Committee wishes to rebut the lies published by the FFC yesterday in its press release. All the stakeholders in the cycling family may express themselves, but this does not give them the right to break the UCI rules.

The decision to suspend the FFC is a legitimate application of the UCI Statutes and Rules in response to the infractions committed by the FFC. No member of the UCI may lend its support to any entity that does not comply with the international rules of cycling. It is the UCI’s duty to defend its own Statutes and Rules: this is a statutory obligation vis à vis the 170 affiliated National Federations.

The strength of the FFC’s reaction does not alter the seriousness of its infractions.

The Management Committee has issued a warning to the FFC: the sanction issued yesterday could be compounded if the FFC continues to flout the UCI Statutes and Rules, in particular by supporting ASO in its organisation of the forthcoming Tour de France outside the UCI framework, as it did for the 2008 Paris-Nice race.

UCI Press Office