By Brecht Decaluwé in Pau
Hours before the 'Vino' bomb hit the 2007 Tour de France with news of a positive doping control from one of the sport's biggest names, it became clear that every cloud has a silver lining. Following a meeting in London on July 5, seven teams decided to form a new union called the MPCC (Mouvement pour un cyclisme crédible): AG2R, Agritubel, Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis, Crédit Agricole, Française Des Jeux and Gerolsteiner. The teams united in a reaction against all the doping problems that cycling is currently encountering. For an unknown reason the T-Mobile team, which was present at London meeting, didn't show up during the meeting in Pau, so they are currently not part of the MPCC.
To assure their credibility, the MPCC has bundled a number of measures. They will strictly apply the Ethical Code of the UCI Pro Teams and the internal Code of the UCI Pro Teams. The members will immediately sign - without terms - the letter 'UCI for a new cycling' (managers, directeur sportifs and doctors).
Aside from those provisions, there will be a complete transparency between the members. As a result Marc Madiot from Française Des Jeux could already provide Cyclingnews with some information. "There are no riders with a prescription for corticoid preparations within the seven teams," Madiot said. "I can also tell you that there are no riders who need prescriptions within Gerolsteiner, Crédit Agricole and our team." If riders need corticoids for any reason, then they will be put on non-active status for two weeks. The new organisation invites other teams to join them if they share the same philosophy.
