UCI ANNOUNCES CREATION OF BLOOD PASSPORTS

The Union Cyclist International (UCI) is to create individual biological passports for each member of every registered professional team in time for next year's Tour de France, according to French newspaper 'Le Monde'.

The passport will be launched in 2008 and will feature the rider?s complete blood profile, including haematological and steroid levels. The UCI claim that it will make blood manipulation and steroids in the blood stream easier to identify.

Autologous blood transfusions, which are currently undetectable, will also be found by analysing the variations in a rider?s haemotological profile. The results of each of the annual six blood test results will also be included on the passport.

Head of anti-doping at the UCI, Anne Gripper, said: ?It?s a new approach to eliminating doping from our sport. Our goal is to fix individual limits. The number of tests, especially out of competition, will be significantly increased to ten blood tests and four urine tests per rider. A sufficient number of controls will be performed to allow the biological passport to be up and running for the next Tour de France.?

According to Gripper the aim of the passport is to fix individual limits, by establishing a ?normal? range for each rider. However, the possibility of suspension is still undecided.

?We?ve been working with WADA since 2006 so that the biological passport will be validated and quickly, it will be possible to serve sentences of two years?, announced Gripper.

According to Le Monde, WADA will announce the establishment of the blood passport at the Anti-Doping summit that takes place in Paris next week.

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