The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) today unveils its programme to combat anti-doping and technological fraud that it will implement for the upcoming Tour de France (29 June - 21 July).
The comprehensive anti-doping programme deployed at the French Grand Tour will be led by the International Testing Agency (ITA), the body to which the UCI has delegated the operational activities of its fight for clean cycling since 2021. After ensuring a level playing field for all participants at the Giro d'Italia last May, the ITA will once again work with all stakeholders, including the French and Italian authorities, to protect the integrity of one of the world's most prestigious cycling events.
It will be the fourth time that the ITA has taken charge of the anti-doping programme implemented at the Tour de France since the UCI delegated its anti-doping activities to the agency. Within this framework, the ITA is in charge of the overall anti-doping strategy, which includes the definition of an innovative and intelligence-led testing plan. This plan will be applied on the basis of a risk assessment that takes into account a wide variety of relevant factors whilst constantly adapting to new circumstances or information if necessary. The testing plan also considers any relevant information received through the monitoring of the athletes’ Athlete Biological Passports (ABPs) – which include new features implemented by the ITA, such as the endocrine module that can indicate the use of Human Growth hormone (HGh) – or gathered by the ITA’s Intelligence & Investigations Department.
All doping controls at the Tour de France will be targeted and performed at any time throughout the three-week race, not only at the finish line. At every stage, the yellow jersey and stage winner will be tested. This year, all samples will primarily be sent to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited anti-doping laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland.
While around 600 blood and urine samples will be collected during the race, the period prior to the Tour de France is also key to guarantee a level-playing field during the race. Therefore, the ITA will have conducted around 400 out-of-competition tests in the month leading up to the event.
At the end of the race, the ITA will make a selection of samples that will be kept for potential re-analysis over the next 10 years, and will keep monitoring athletes closely after the Tour de France based on all relevant data it will have collected before and during the race.
More than 40 sample collection personnel and ITA staff will be involved in the coordination and execution of the controls conducted on all participants in Florence, Italy, before the Grand Depart of the Tour de France. Doping controls throughout the race will mainly be conducted by the ITA’s own sample collection personnel, composed of 10 doping control and blood collection officers with in-depth cycling experience. For the roll-out of the anti-doping programme, the ITA collaborates with the French National Anti-Doping Organisation (AFLD), which will offer the support of its doping control personnel. Chaperones, tasked with notifying riders that they have been selected for testing and accompanying them to the doping control station, will be provided with the support of the private specialised agency Sports Ethics. The ITA is also in close contact with other relevant French and international actors, for example with authorities at different sectoral levels, for support and information-exchange.
It should be remembered that the last two years have seen a significant increase in funding for cycling’s anti-doping programme. In 2022, the UCI, UCI WorldTeams, UCI ProTeams, UCI WorldTour organisers and men’s professional road cyclists had decided to further strengthen the capacity of the ITA to protect the integrity of the sport thanks to a progressive 35% budget increase – to reach 10 million euros – up until the end of 2024. This funding principally reinforces the areas of Intelligence & Investigations, testing, scientific research, data analysis, long-term sample storage and sample re-analysis.
For cycling's anti-doping programme in 2023, emphasis was placed on strengthening capacities when it comes to intelligence and investigation, testing and science. As planned, the number of tests increased by 10%, with 15,200 samples collected in 2023 compared to 13,800 in 2022, with the emphasis on out-of-competition doping controls.
The Director General of the ITA Benjamin Cohen said: "At the ITA, our commitment to protecting the integrity of sport is unwavering. For the 2024 Tour de France, we are implementing one of the most comprehensive anti-doping programmes to date. By taking advantage of advanced technologies, such as the endocrine module of the Athlete Biological Passport, and working closely with the French and Italian authorities, we aim to ensure a level playing field. Thanks to the increased resources provided by cycling stakeholders, we have strengthened our testing, intelligence and scientific capacities. Our rigorous, intelligence-led approach will not only preserve the spirit of fair play during the Tour de France, but will also deter riders from doping in the future, thanks notably to the storage and re-analysis of samples. This is a crucial step in our ongoing mission to foster a clean and fair competition environment for all riders".
When it comes to the fight against technological fraud at the Tour de France, controls for the presence of any possible propulsion systems hidden in bikes will be carried out with the use of several non-intrusive tools available to the UCI such as magnetic tablets, and portable devices using backscatter and transmission technologies as well as image processing. In 2024, a new non-intrusive inspection tool will be added to the UCI's arsenal as part of the improvement of its detection programme using the latest technology. Further information on this subject will be communicated in due course after the 2024 Tour de France.
Before each of the 21 stages, a UCI Technical Commissaire will be at the team buses to check all bikes being ridden at the start of that day’s stage. These pre-stage checks will be carried out using magnetic tablets.
After each stage, checks will be carried out on bikes ridden by:
the stage winner,
riders wearing a leader’s jersey (yellow, green, polka dot, white),
several randomly-selected riders, and
any rider who gives rise to suspicion, for example following the pre-stage control, or incidents picked up by the UCI Video Commissaire.
These post-stage checks will be carried out using portable non-intrusive X-ray inspection technology and other tools designed to increase the efficiency of the bike check and inspection capabilities. If necessary, the bike in question will be dismantled.
Once the riders have crossed the finish line, the bikes subject to post-stage checks will be quickly tagged, enabling rapid control procedures to be carried out in a matter of minutes of crossing the finish line and completed without undue delay. If further examinations are required – including the possible dismantling of bikes – the UCI Commissaires will facilitate the appropriate notifications.
As a reminder, the use of mobile X-Ray technology is safe for users and riders, and provides a high-resolution X-Ray image of a complete bike in just five minutes. Meanwhile the portable backscatter and transmission technology provides instantaneous high-resolution images of the interior of the sections examined that can be transmitted, remotely, directly to the unit responsible for the fight against technological fraud within the UCI. These images can be examined instantly by the relevant technological fraud specialists. These images are kept for reference and documentation purposes.
For road cycling, the UCI carries out bike checks at all UCI WorldTour events, as well as the UCI Road World Championships, UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, UCI Women’s WorldTour events and the Olympic Games. Controls are also carried out at UCI World Championships for mountain bike, cyclo-cross and track as well as the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup.
At last year’s Tour de France, a total of 997 bike checks were carried out and no cases of technological fraud were detected.
UCI Director General Amina Lanaya said: “The plan put in place by the UCI to fight against technological fraud at the 2024 Tour de France sends out a very clear message to anyone who might be thinking of cheating: it is impossible to slip through the net. With the combination of checks on all the bikes used at the start of each stage and checks on numerous bikes at the finish, based on criteria linked to performance on the one hand and any form of suspicion on the other, and all using the most modern detection tools, we can guarantee the fairness of cycling competition and protect the integrity of the sport.”
The UCI again underlines its firm commitment to ensuring that cycling remains free from threats to its integrity, whether doping or technological fraud. With this in mind, anyone with information or suspicions relating to any form of technological fraud or doping is encouraged to report them - securely and confidentially - on the relevant reporting platform: for technological fraud, on UCI SpeakUp, launched by the UCI in 2021 and which is a key element of the Federation's Cycling Integrity programme; for doping, on REVEAL, the International Testing Agency's (ITA) platform. The UCI issues a reminder that it is everyone's responsibility to rid cycling of such threats. Every piece of information can be useful.