UCI looks to ITA to boost cycling anti-doping battle

Lausanne - Cycling's governing body the UCI said on Friday it was considering working with the International Testing Agency (ITA) as a way of "ensuring and enhancing protection for clean cyclists".

An association with the agency set up by the International Olympic Committee and World Anti-Doping Agency last year would represent a step towards greater independence for doping controls.

Based out of Lausanne, the ITA was conceived at the height of the Russian doping scandal triggered by state-sponsored cheating at the 2014 Sochi Games.

It is in charge of the anti-doping programmes for over 40 federations, and will be responsible for doping controls at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The UCI said it was reaching out to the ITA after doping investigations such as Operation Aderlaas into organised blood-doping showed "one more time that doping knows no boundaries, neither between sports nor countries".

The UCI said that in response it had discussed "working with the ITA on anti-doping" at its meeting at the road world championships in Yorkshire last month.

Any partnership would begin from 2021, with next year's anti-doping programme remaining the responsibility of the UCI's Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation.