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Prudhomme vows to keep UCI out of '08 Tour
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme wants to stop working with the UCI on next year's race, a German daily will report on Saturday.
"One should not make the Tour de France organizers responsible for everything," said Prudhomme in an explosive interview with German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
"Just like in every sport, there is an international organization in cycling, but despite all the respect it warrants, it does nothing. The UCI never really wanted this Tour to be clean, but next year, there could potentially be a clean Tour.”
When asked if he could break with UCI and its president, Pat MacQuaid, the reply was clear.
"Yes, that is what we will do next year — we shall work with the World Anti-Doping Agency and the French agency against doping, hand-in-hand,” Prudhomme replied. "How can anyone still believe in the UCI?
"For example, it did not apply its own rule which says one rider who misses a drugs test before a Tour is excluded automatically," said Prudhomme.
The race director admitted there will always be a chance of a Tour rider failing a drugs test, like Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov, who tested positive for blood doping and was cast out of this year’s race.
But he insisted the unique case of this year's former Tour leader Michael Rasmussen - sacked for repeatedly lying about a missed drugs test - should never be allowed to happen again.
"Of course, a case like that of Vinokourov can - unfortunately - happen again, but a case like Michael Rasmussen? Never. We will not work with the UCI anymore. There will be special rules for next year's Tour," he concluded.
