Brian Cookson congratulates Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) on taking the leaders jersey(Image credit: Jonathan Devich)
USADA chief Travis Tygart (R) shakes hands with Senator Arlen Specter at a 2009 hearing in Washington, DC about screening dietary supplements for illegal steroids.(Image credit: AFP)
Cyclingnews can reveal that USADA and the CADF failed to agree on USADA’s preferred option of a desired testing programme for this year’s Tour of California, but that independent efforts will ensure that the race has both a pre-competition and in-competition testing programme.
USADA, who ran the pre-competition testing programme at the race in 2013 pushed for a slot to run drug testing during the race. However they could not agree terms with the UCI and then independent arm of their drug testing, the CADF, due to how the in-competition testing data would be shared and analysed.
Cyclingnews contacted the UCI for comment in regards to the drug testing taking place in California. At first they were unwilling to comment but they revised their position, sending Cyclingnews the following statement.
"USADA carried out the pre-competition tests, and the CADF are doing all the in-competition tests, as it did last year on the Tour of California.
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
