Cycling chiefs said on Friday that from 2021 they will hand responsibility for anti-doping to the International Testing Agency (ITA), a non-profit body created with support of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Since 2008, the International Cycling Union (UCI) has worked with the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF) on drugs issues.
The conditions of the transfer will be formalised in a contract to be ratified at the next meeting of the UCI steering committee from June 10 to 12, said a spokesman.
“The UCI has been one of the leading federations in the domain of anti-doping for a long time,” said UCI president David Lappartient.
“The collaboration with the ITA will enable us to be stronger than ever in this sector and to thus bolster our defence of clean riders and the credibility of our competitions and all of our sport’s stakeholders.”
Friday’s developments come in the wake of the ‘Aderlass’ scandal which erupted last year.
Professional cyclists suspended as a result of the investigations include Austrians Stefan Denifl and Georg Preidler, Slovenian Kristijan Koren and Croatia’s Kristjan Durasek.
“The decision (to switch to the ITA) was taken in a context (the Aderlass affair for example) where it has become clear that doping is part of an environment that knows no barriers, neither between sports, nor between countries, and where, in parallel with testing, information (intelligence) has become the central element of any efficient anti-doping programme,” added a UCI statement.
“By joining the ITA, the UCI, a pioneer in the domain, again demonstrates that it can take decisions necessary to be constantly at the forefront of the fight against doping.”
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