Oct 5, 2009, 15:56 GMT
Paris - A report charges that Lance Armstrong's Astana cycling team was given 'special treatment' by the International Cycling Union (UCI) during this year's Tour de France, the online edition of the daily Le Monde reported Monday.
The daily cites a report drawn up by the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) about the way doping tests were administered during the three-week race, in which Armstrong finished third. His Astana teammate Alberto Contador won the race.
According to the 10-page report, Astana riders were given 'the latest morning doping tests' and did not respect the requirement to present themselves immediately to AFLD testers on at least one occasion.
This followed the intervention of UCI inspectors, who refused the presence of AFLD escorts, the report charges. As a result, there was a 45-minute delay between the arrival of the inspectors and the time the riders made themselves available for the tests.
'Such a tolerance, accorded without veritable justification... does not allow, in the absence of escorts, to ensure the perfect regularity of the procedure, notably that no manipulation was carried out,' the AFLD report states.
In addition, blood tests of Astana riders scheduled for July 25 were not carried out because the UCI inspectors underestimated the time it took the riders to reach their hotel, the report says.
The report further notes that to help carry out tests in the run- up to the Tour de France, the UCI provided information to the AFLD about the whereabouts of all the teams, except for Astana.
'A withholding of information that is not in the spirit of the fight against doping,' the report declares.
However, UCI anti-doping head Anne Gripper was quoted as effectively dismissing the allegations on the cyclingnews website later on Monday.
'The UCI is confident that there was no preferential treatment given to any team during the Tour,' she said. 'It was an issue raised and dealt with while the Tour was happening. There's nothing further than we can say on this matter.'
There were no doping positives during this year's Tour, which led many experts to conclude that riders were using new doping substances for which tests have not been established.
AFLD head Pierre Bordry told Le Monde after the race ended that he was convinced that 'two new products were used during the Tour, two substances not yet on the market.'
The two drug are believed to be hematide, a third-generation blood-doping substance similar to EPO, and Aicar, which aids in the transformation of fats into energy.
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