By Susan Westemeyer
The UCI has given its seal of approval to Team CSC's anti-doping programme, lead by Rasmus Damsgaard and the Bispebjerg Hospital. The team also announced that it has conducted more than 300 out of competition test since the project started more than three months ago, all of them negative.
According to the team's website, team-csc.com, the UCI's approval means "among other things, that the programme is recognized as an anti-doping authority and with that follows the necessary legal authorization regarding sanctions and the acquisition of test results for official use."
Damsgaard said that the UCI's approval "means the project will receive the status it deserves due to the ambitions which Bjarne Riis and the team have had from the beginning." He also noted that the "UCI has indicated to us that they have used our programme as a model for their own future initiatives, which means a great deal to us, because it gives our sport an even better chance to fight doping on a scientifically sound level."
"It's been our vision all along to create a project, which would set new standards and now we have it on paper," said Bjarne Riis. "Our main ambition has been to show how the sport can regain full credibility and at the same time give the riders the opportunity to win a lot of races without suspicion of doping. We're proud that the UCI is now giving our project their seal of approval and hopefully this will also inspire our colleagues on other teams."
