UCI partners with new independent anti-doping agency
After more than a decade working alongside the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF), a non-profit entity set up to independently execute anti-doping measures within cycling, the UCI has announced a new partnership with the International Testing Agency (ITA).
The ITA has a similar purpose to the CADF, but was set up by the World Anti-Doping Agency to act as an umbrella organization for the anti-doping efforts of all WADA-signatory sports. Like the CADF, ITA is a non-profit, and will operate independently from governing bodies. Both organizations are designed to eliminate the potential conflict of interest that occurs when a governing body oversees anti-doping within the sport it has a vested interest in.
The UCI is making the switch in light of the Aderlass operation, which began in cross country skiing and has led to sanctions within cycling. That operation fostered an understanding that anti-doping efforts are more effective when they are not siloed within a single sport.
“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,” the UCI said in a statement.
Conditions of the transfer will be formalized in a contract to be ratified in the next meeting of the UCI steering committee, which takes place in early June. Once the new deal is finalized, the UCI will no longer use the CADF for its anti-doping operations.
“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.
“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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