Tour de France : Taking responsability
For its 113th edition, the Tour de France will feature 45 individual members of the MPCC at the start, representing around a quarter of its participants, committed to the fight against doping. That said, our movement also wishes to encourage discussion around the second chances being granted with increasing frequency to certain riders who have previously served doping sanctions.
The most eagerly awaited event of the season has finally arrived. The Tour de France is the great celebration of our sport and its main showcase. For three weeks, the best athletes in the world of cycling will compete in what promises to be a spectacular and intense race. However, the sporting and cultural appeal of the Tour must not divert attention from what the MPCC has firmly championed since its foundation: the fight against doping.
By encouraging all stakeholders in cycling to take an active role in tackling this scourge, the MPCC brings together riders – the key protagonists of our sport – as well as teams, sponsors, support staff, race organisers, federations and fans, who line the roads and inspire our champions to excel. Among the youngest spectators, there is undoubtedly a future cycling enthusiast who shares the MPCC's values.
As such, 45 riders, representing 15 countries, will line up at the start of this 113th Grande Boucle as members of our movement. This is an opportunity to reiterate that involvement in the MPCC has always been voluntary, reflecting the desire of riders, teams and support staff to publicly commit to the values that underpin our movement. We hope that even more riders will choose to take this step in the future, recognising the responsibility we all share to protect our sport.
The MPCC believes that everyone deserves the opportunity to rebuild their career after serving a sanction. However, second chances should also be accompanied by responsibility, transparency and sufficient time to rebuild trust. This principle is reflected in one of our ten cardinal rules, under which member teams commit not to sign a rider who has been suspended for more than six months for doping until at least two years have passed after the end of their suspension.
Against this background, we note that four riders will start this year's Tour de France having previously served doping bans of more than six months. None of these riders are individual members of the MPCC, nor do they ride for MPCC member teams. For two of them, their suspension ended within the last three years, highlighting that different parts of our sport continue to take different approaches to rehabilitation and responsibility.
As for the teams, 12 of the 23 squads which lined up in Barcelona on Saturday are members of the MPCC: seven WorldTeams and five ProTeams, including the three teams invited by ASO, the Tour's organiser, which is itself a member of our movement.
We therefore encourage all stakeholders in cycling who have not yet chosen to make a clear commitment against doping and ethically questionable practices, including the exploitation of "grey areas", to join us. By working together, we can continue to strengthen the credibility of our sport and help ensure a fair and healthy future for cycling.
Credibility Figures : The fight goes on
Following a particularly eventful year 2025 on the anti-doping front, 2026 has begun in relative calm. Nearly 170 cases of doping and sports fraud were uncovered across more than 30 sports during the first quarter of the year; only five were in cycling. Despite these figures, the fight against cheating remains a pressing issue.
For several seasons now, the number of doping cases involving World Tour riders has been in steady decline: 4 in 2019, 4 in 2023, and just 1 in 2025, according to the latest figures published in the Credibility Figures. Thus, in the first quarter of the year, only five professional cyclists tested positive or were suspended for breaching anti-doping rules.
- 1 rider from a Pro Team who tested positive out of competition
- 2 riders competing at Continental level who were caught out by their biological passport
- 1 female rider competing at Continental level
- 1 athlete sanctioned for breaching whereabouts rules
These figures are consistent with the trend noted over the past several years, namely between 20 and 30 cases of doping and/or sports fraud per year. Whilst the majority of cases recorded in the Credibility Figures involve Continental-level riders, the rider of the Pro Team serves as a reminder that cheating might not have vanished at the top level of cycling. At the end of the first quarter of 2026, cycling was also the ninth most frequently quoted sport in doping and sports fraud cases, far behind athletics (33), tennis (13) and powerlifting (12).
But behind these figures stand several realities. Admittedly, the biological passport, which has been mandatory for all professional teams for nearly 20 years, has proven its effectiveness, having recently helped to uncover the latest doping case in the elite of our sport (pending a final decision regarding the rider in question). Growing budgets have enabled the hiring of increasingly qualified technical staff to monitor athletes’ performance, improvements in training methods, from the study of riders’ biomechanics by specialist staff to tailored, even personalised nutrition for each rider, and the reduction in the number of race days per rider have made it possible to better support and maintain athletes’ health in the short and medium term. It is crucial that while we have seen some steps forward, we must continue to evolve and improve our anti-doping systems to make them more robust and more advanced than those who are willing to cheat.
GREY AREAS IN QUESTION
These technical—not to say scientific—advancements bear witness to the ever-increasing professionalisation of our sport, and perhaps mark the end of so-called “old-school” cycling, which was inward-looking and reliant on training methods inherited from decades of empirical practices. Whilst cycling has chosen the path of progress, it must not do so at any cost. Because other realities have come to light over the past decade and have been the reason for the MPCC’s uncompromising and unyielding stance on doping practices : the over-medicalisation in some teams (notably the use of painkillers such as Tramadol, which is now banned in competition), the use of substances that enhance performance or recovery, such as ketones, and the health effects of which are far from having been scientifically validated, and the use of performance-enhancing methods considered to be ‘grey areas’ (inhalation of carbon monoxide in altitude training camps, hypoxia masks), which border on doping. It is crucial that the major stakeholders of the sport develop clear boundaries on what this so-called grey area is, to protect the health of athletes who do not wish to put their health at risk in taking medicines intended to treat sick people, with a view to increasing their performance.
COMMITMENT FROM RIDERS
The efforts made by those involved in cycling following the various scandals that have marred the sport’s history have been immense. Team managers, riders, race organisers, governing bodies and sponsors, in particular, have been actively working to eradicate doping and to put an end to a kind of ‘culture’ that has gone unpunished for far too long. The results are there, but caution must remain the order of the day in the face of the fast changes that have been taking place over the last few years. The credibility of riders and their team managers must be at the heart of our concerns, as it is this credibility that has enabled the restoration of cycling’s image, its development and its expansion, particularly into women’s cycling.
With nearly 400 professional riders signed up as individual members, the MPCC has a broad base of support for its values. But its members can do more by spreading these values to as many stakeholders as possible – whether they are non-member teammates or fellow riders – and by speaking out publicly on issues of physical and mental health. Faced with rapid changes in professional cycling, the new generations of riders also have a role to play as they represent the future. They are therefore strongly encouraged to join our movement to remain at the forefront of credible cycling.
Commit to MPCC, join us
Be players in the fight against doping !
Giro d'Italia : A call for the youngsters !
First Grand Tour of the season, the Giro d’Italia is back to its geographical boundaries after spending the first three days in Bulgaria. With 20% of the Giro peloton being individual members of the MPCC, our movement is calling on young riders to take a stand against doping and « grey area » practices.
In 2007, the MPCC was founded to raise awareness amongst those involved in cycling of the devastations caused by doping : on riders’ health, the viability of professional teams – whose fragility remains a concern in 2026 – and, beyond that, on the very credibility of the sport. Our movement has set itself the guiding principle of being open to all, allowing people to share our values on a voluntary basis.
Since 2018, numerous riders, staff members, sponsors and race organisers have joined us, approving our belief that unity is strength when it comes to fighting cheating and giving cycling a more solid foundation. At the start of this 109th Giro d’Italia, the first of the season’s three Grand Tours, 38 of the 184 riders in the starting line-up set off as individual members of the MPCC. These athletes are spread across 20 of the 23 teams at the start of the race, a sign that membership is voluntary and not imposed by employers, reflecting the sole rider’s commitment to the credibility of cycling.
Nevertheless, following an all-time high set in 2024 with 53 riders, the number of MPCC members at the start of a Giro d’Italia has dropped significantly, with only 43 taking part in 2025. At the same time, 7 of the 18 World Tour teams and 4 of the 5 invited Pro Teams are MPCC-certified. Our movement therefore hopes that other riders, led by a sense of responsibility, will do their bit, particularly the younger ones. The average age of MPCC starters is 28.1 years (the same as the average of all participants) and we also encourage the youngest among them, who make up nearly a quarter of the Giro peloton, to get involved.
They are the first to witness the changes taking place in our sport. Protecting them from risky practices means safeguarding their future and that of cycling. Let them therefore play an active role in the fight !
Vuelta Femenina : Still room for improvement
Following the classics season, the stage race season kicked off on Sunday with the start of the 12th Vuelta Femenina a España, from the coast of Galicia. 126 riders representing 18 teams and 30 different nationalities set out to tackle 7 stages and 819.5 kilometers of racing.
A sign of the growing popularity and respect for women’s cycling, the famous Angliru climb, with its steep gradients, will be on the program. While at the top of the pyramid, women cycling seems to be going well, there is still a long way to go to consolidate the benefits made in previous years for female athletes : increased TV coverage over the past five to ten years, a minimum wage for female riders in both professional divisions, and paid maternity leave.
And like their male counterparts, women’s teams are fighting to ensure their survival year after year, but this rapid growth must be supported by solid foundations, particularly at the lower levels of competition. This is a message the MPCC has been advocating for several years. Thus, 8 of the 18 teams competing in the Vuelta are committed to our cause, as are 14 of the 126 riders who started the race.
This is still too few to carry the voice of women’s cycling that is aware of the challenges it faces : its organization, its structure, and a stance that remains as uncompromising as ever against doping. For all these reasons, we enthrust teams and riders who are not yet members of our movement to join us in taking on the many challenges ahead.
Credibility figures : strengthening the fight against doping
At the end of 2025, the MPCC noted a slight decrease in the number of doping cases in professional cycling. This assessment shows that our sport is far from being among the most affected disciplines, but it must remain particularly cautious. Cycling must both question the significant development of certain medical practices known as « grey areas » among the elite and tackle « traditional » doping, particularly at Continental level.
Providing an overview of the fight against doping around the world and in most sports, the Credibility Figures offer a snapshot in which cycling appears to be a model student after having been considered a weak link for many years. Over the course of 2025, 20 cases of doping were recorded among professional cyclists. This figure indicates that the number of cases revealed has been on a downward trend since 2022, when 29 cases were made public.
Cycling was only the tenth most quoted sport in doping and sports fraud cases last year, far behind athletics (163 cases), weightlifting (63) and tennis (46, including 27 for sports fraud). Athletics remains at the top of this list, despite allocating significant resources to tracking down cheating. The presence of MMA in fourth place, as mentioned in our previous publications, will be also something to watch out for in the coming years. Caution is also advised for our sport, as for the first time in two years, a World Tour rider has been suspended. This rider, who is not a member of our movement and rides for a team that is also not registered with the MPCC, was caught out by his biological passport, one of the cornerstones of the fight against doping.
Although relatively few World Tour riders have tested positive in recent years, this does not mean that the elite of our sport is 100% clean. The MPCC has always sought to question the effectiveness of anti-doping efforts, even when progress was being made. Our position is further reinforced when many teams play with the « grey areas » and increase the medicalisation of our sport. A dozen years ago, Tramadol, which we fought against, was considered a « grey area » because it alleviated riders' pain. This substance was eventually banned, for the good of our sport and the health of the riders.
Soon, our movement took a stance on the use of certain substances in the peloton, such as ketones, and was highly critical of certain practices, including the widespread use of painkillers, which potentially endanger the mental health of riders. The MPCC's actions have yielded results, with tramadol being added to the list of substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the repeated inhalation of carbon monoxide being banned over a year ago. The UCI first banned this practice in February 2025 before the WADA responded by extending this rule to all sports from 2026 onwards.
WHAT ACTIONS FOR AMATEUR LEVEL ?
Of the 20 cases recorded in professional cycling, 9 were at Continental level, the equivalent of the world's third division. The MPCC therefore invites those involved in cycling to question the antidoping policy at a lower level, as several dozen cases were recorded at amateur level in 2025. For example, 25 riders were serving bans or have been provisionally suspended by the Colombian anti-doping agency in mid-December 2025, more than half of whom compete in amateur and/or semi-professional structures.
Ensuring clean cycling at the professional level also means ensuring that it remains clean at its roots. Our sport cannot afford to be careless when it comes to the scourge of doping, within the structures that form the basis of our competitive practice, particularly with regard to its youngest athletes, who are being recruited at an increasingly early age and are better and better prepared for the demands of professionalism, particularly in terms of technique and nutrition. From the bottom to the top of our sport, all stakeholders in cycling must be involved in the fight against doping. And the MPCC is one of these stakeholders.
BROADENING THE BORDERS OF CREDIBLE CYCLING
These practices are not only contrary to fair sport, but can also be dangerous to the physical and mental health of riders, who are the main protagonists in races. The MPCC not only takes a stand in the fight against doping, which is an ongoing battle, but also wishes to broaden the issue of ‘credible cycling’ to include riders health, support for the fast growth of women's cycling, the safety in races, etc.
These additional issues also highlight what kind of actions we should take to maintain responsible cycling, between the budgets allocated to the ITA, the main agency in charge of anti-doping controls in professional races; the promotion of safety measures among riders, teams and race organisers; and the financial participation of those involved in cycling. All these realities reinforce the MPCC in its positions and actions. We therefore encourage those who are not yet members of our movement – riders, teams, team staff, race organisers and national federations – to join us.
Women's World Tour wild cards & MPCC memberships : some kind of status quo
At the end of the 2025 season, 61% of the wild card in Women's World Tour races were granted to MPCC team members. This figure, which is slightly down on 2024, hides some inconsistencies between organizers, a proof that women's cycling is still developing.
A year ago, the MPCC drew up the situation considering the invitations granted by the organizers of the Women's World Tour races. In 2024, nearly two-thirds of these wild cards were given to members of our movement. But at the end of the 2025 season, this figure fell slightly to 61%, while the organisation of women's cycling evolved with the creation of a Pro Team level, set between the elite, the Women’s World Tour, and the traditional Continental level.
Seven teams were registered in this new level of competition and were all team members of the MPCC, which in theory guaranteed a significant proportion of MPCC teams among the invitees. However, there were significant disparities between races, with some inviting only one or two teams labelled as « MPCC teams ». This can be explained by the fact that the UCI capped the wild cards in Women's World Tour races to the two best Pro Teams from the previous season. In addition, in 2025 there were only three MPCC team members at Continental level, leaving the organisers free to invite the teams they want. For example, the two Chinese World Tour races (Tour of Chongming Island and Tour of Guangxi) featured only 5 elite teams out of a maximum of 15, and invited 12 other teams at their own discretion, only 2 of which were Pro Teams and so MPCC members.
These differences show that the Women's World Tour circuit is still looking for maturity and seeking balance within. Although it was founded by and around men's teams nearly two decades ago, the MPCC has constantly encouraged those involved in women's cycling to commit to credible cycling, while maintaining an ambitious approach to the development of a coherent and sustainable calendar. While at the highest level we can be satisfied with no fewer than 12 « MPCC teams » in the World Team and Pro Team ranks, we still have a lot of work to do to convince Continental level teams to join us and go on making a credible cycling together.
Our movement therefore fosters teams and their riders who are not yet members of the MPCC and who share our values to join us in defending women's cycling, in its stance against doping and its will to be proactive in its development.
World Tour wild cards & MPCC memberships : closer to 100% !
After reviewing the women's invitations to the biggest races, the MPCC is now reviewing the wild cards granted for the men's World Tour races.
Over the years, the MPCC has set itself the goal of presenting all its member teams competing at Pro Team level among the wild cards in every race of the men's World Tour calendar. A 100% rate success would have several meanings: it would show that these teams, on the cusp of cycling's elite, are committed on the long-term to the fight against doping and that the organisers of the best races in our sport are sensitive to the teams members of our movement and the values they defend.
At the end of the season, a total of 205 wild cards were granted in the 35 races that make up the World Tour calendar. Of these 205 invitations, 193 were going to MPCC member Pro Teams, representing an invitation rate of 94%, a slight increase compared to 2024 (92%). This figure can be explained mainly by the fact that all Pro Teams in the 2025 season, with the exception of one team, chose to be active in the fight against doping and in promoting credible cycling.
On the other hand, organisers such as Amaury Sport Organisation (owner of the Tour de France, Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, La Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Critérium du Dauphiné) and Flanders Classics (owner of the Tour of Flanders, the In Flanders Fields, formerly known as Ghent-Wevelgem, and the Amstel Gold Race, among others) have proven their determination to only invite MPCC team members for several seasons now, and we thank them for that exemplary stance taken against doping. However, a few races, including some held by RCS Sport (Giro d’Italia’s owner), are not yet following this line of conduct.
The MPCC therefore hopes that by 2026, all World Tour race organisers will choose to only invite teams that are committed to our movement. We also hope that the only non-member Pro Team in 2025 and the two teams that have obtained their Pro Team licence for the coming season will join us to consolidate the MPCC's actions.
Credibility Figures : the fight is far from over
At the end of the third quarter, the Credibility Figures underpine the MPCC's stance on vigilance against doping. In addition to the setbacks looked in some sports and countries in this fight, recent data on cycling also indicates that the battle is far from over.
Committed to the fight against doping since its inception, the MPCC has always expressed the need to « keep the light on » in the face of this scourge, both for cycling, which has made considerable efforts, and for sport in general. In recent months, our movement has taken a clear stance on new practices that jeopardise the credibility of cycling : the use of a new generation of painkillers such as Tapentadol, the use of ketones, whose long-term impact on health remains poorly understood given the various studies published on the subject, and the inhalation of carbon monoxide, which is potentially lethal if not strictly supervised.
We welcome the swift action taken by the International Cycling Union (UCI) on some of these practices, without waiting for any decisions at the highest level by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). While it took WADA a decade to place Tramadol on the list of prohibited substances, the agency should be much more responsive to the repeated use of carbon monoxide, as its ban is set to take effect on 1 January 2026. The MPCC welcomes this ban, which demonstrates that those involved in the fight against doping must be determined in their efforts.
Keeping the light on
Is MMA in the crosshairs of anti-doping efforts ?
Nevertheless, this battle is far from won, as illustrated by the Credibility Figures. As of 30 September, we had recorded nearly 600 cases of doping or sports fraud among elite athletes worldwide. The breakdown by country and sport leads us to several conclusions. Athletics, which is often the sport most closely monitored by national and international anti-doping agencies, has the highest number of cases with 108 athletes testing positive, ahead of weightlifting (38) and MMA (35).
The MMA's situation is interesting in more ways than one due to the competitive structure of the sport, set between international federations (GAMMA and IMMAF), which have chosen to entrust their testing policy to a major player, the ITA (International Testing Agency), and private leagues, mainly American and considered to be the most competitive in the world, whose attitude towards doping remains ambiguous. In fact, in 2024, the UFC, and just a few days ago, the PFL, decided to no longer delegate their testings to the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and sought out other so-called « independent » organisations. These changes are all the more questionable given that the sanction scale imposed by these agencies are much more lenient than WADA’s. In France, four fighters have already been sanctioned by the AFLD (the french agency) this year following bouts organised by the Ares league. The evolution of the figures for MMA in 2026 will therefore be particularly worth following.
India must make efforts
At a national level, India tops the list of the most affected countries with 94 cases of doping and sports fraud revealed after the third quarter, ahead of Russia (71) and France (41), a case on which further details are needed. The trend we are seeing is in line with WADA's findings, which list India among the countries most at risk from doping (more than 200 cases in 2023 according to the agency). This situation is all the more problematic as India is busy bidding to host the 2036 Summer Olympics. The local Olympic committee (IOA) has therefore decided to reorganise the disciplinary panel of NADA India, the national anti-doping agency, to strengthen its controls.
In France, not all 41 cases involve doping, as 11 French athletes have been sanctioned by the ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency), for sports fraud, most often for failing to report or participating in sports betting, a scourge that has plagued the sport for many years. These French players are all ranked below the 200th place in the world, at a level where making a living is difficult and the temptation to cheat is therefore particularly strong.
Finally, we cannot conclude this overview by country without mentioning the continuing delicate situation in Kenya, which has been under WADA’s scrutiny since an audit carried out in May 2024. Its national agency, the ADAK, was at risk of being declared non-compliant with the World Code, which could have resulted in the country's absence from several international competitions. Actually, several members of the Kenyan agency indicated that it was mainly budgetary restrictions imposed to control public debt that were jeopardising its proper functioning. After putting ADAK’s operations at risk at the end of 2024 with a projected budget reduced by a factor of 20, the Kenyan government finally granted the equivalent of $2 million for 2025-2026. This is a reasonable budget, but a significant decrease compared to previous years. This saga is a sign of the challenges ahead in the fight against doping.
7 new cases in cycling
As for cycling, it has not been spared from a resurgence of cases, with seven riders provisionally suspended or sanctioned during the third quarter. One of them, Giovanni Carboni (Unibet Tietema Rockets), is the first Pro Team athlete to be caught out by his biological passport in three years. His team, a member of the MPCC, quickly applied one of our fundamental rules by removing him from its roster, even though it claims that the period in question for the anomalies predates his recruitment.
After the first nine months of the year, 16 professional road, track, BMX and mountain bike riders were suspended. The figure is in line with those recorded over the past decade, with around 20 doping cases per year. However, the MPCC cannot be satisfied with this status quo and reiterates that cycling must remain flawless and proactive in the fight against sports fraud. Its stakeholders have a duty to remain united and to give themselves the means to consolidate cycling as the healthiest, most professional and fairest sport possible.
Commit to MPCC, join us
Be players in the fight against doping !
Update on professional cyclists suspended
The MPCC has published a new update on professional cyclists who have been suspended to date. This overview highlights the situation at the Continental level, which is the level of competition most affected by doping cases.
Intended to be an add to the Credibility Figures, this overview of professional athletes suspended to date provides a broad picture of the state of the fight against doping in our sport, worldwide and by discipline. It also illustrates the efforts and actions undertaken by the various institutions responsible for ensuring the credibility of competitions, whether they be national federations or national anti-doping agencies. This inventory is divided into several categories: cases by country, by level of road competition, by discipline, by products detected during testing, by suspension end date, and by gender.
After counting 75 professional cyclists serving bans for anti-doping rule violations at the end of August 2024, we now have 68 athletes banned from all competition as of 31 August 2025. Colombia remains the most represented nation in this list with 12 riders suspended, closely followed by Portugal (11), and Italy (7). It should be noted that, in Portugal, five riders involved in Operation « Prova Limpa » and sanctioned by the Portuguese Anti-Doping Agency (Adop) served their suspensions last July. However, the advanced age of most of them is unlikely to allow them to find an other competitive team at the highest levels of sport. On the other hand, a number of riders, caught out by their biological passports, which have been extended to continental teams by joint decision of the Portuguese Federation and the Adop in 2023, remain provisionally suspended and are therefore awaiting a final sanction.
Reveal – Blow the whistle
The Continental level remains the most affected
The biological passport, in use since 1 January 2008, a few months after the MPCC was founded, has been an important tool in the fight against cheating, but its scope is limited as it is only mandatory for World Teams and Pro Series teams. In fact, 65% of those suspended are from the men's and women's Continental level, an increase of 14 percentage points compared to September 2024. This increase is a trend already described in our previous Credibility Figures, where doping cases at this level remain frequent.
EPO tops the list of detected substances
Since 2021, the most frequent cases of doping in cycling reported by the MPCC have involved both Continental-level riders and positive tests for EPO or its variant, EPO Cera. This hormone, which one might think had fallen out of favour a quarter of a century after the Festina case, remains the leading cause of suspension for 43% of banned athletes. One fact illustrates this trend : three of the last six professional riders sanctioned by the UCI tested positive for EPO or Cera and were riding for Continental-level teams. The use of steroids ranks second among the substances detected in 19% of cases. Finally, the term « use and possession of prohibited substances and/or methods » accounts for 19% of current suspensions, but can sometimes correspond to a rider's biological passport failing, which officially accounts for only 7% of sanctions.
The average length of suspension (except lifetime bans) remains at four and a half years, which is roughly in line with the penalty scale for the use of methods and/or substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Finally, 88% of athletes sanctioned are men, compared to 12% for women.
Keeping the light on
These figures require some clarification:
- Six suspended riders were riding at the World Tour level when they tested positive, as in 2024, but four of them are serving a lifeban.
- The number of athletes whose suspension end dates fall between 2026 and 2028 has increased significantly since our first publication, but due to our methodology, which only counts ongoing sanctions, except the provisional suspensions. Some riders were notified between 2022 and 2024 but have only recently been suspended, sometimes because of lengthy legal proceedings (analysis of B samples, appeals, second-opinions, etc.).
- To date, no cyclist has been sanctioned under the ‘retesting’ system, which involves re-analysing samples stored for up to 10 years.
These figures provide a perspective, in time and space, of the fight against doping waged by the MPCC, the UCI and the teams. Although the figures may seem dry, they are nevertheless one of the keys to detecting cheating, a task entrusted to the International Testing Agency (ITA), which does difficult and necessary work for our sport. These figures remind us that each and every one of us must play an active role in the fight against doping.
Commit to MPCC, join us
Be players in the fight against doping !
A roundup of the Vuelta startlist
At the start of the Tour of Spain, which began on Saturday, the MPCC had 41 individual member riders. This race is also an opportunity to highlight the efforts made by member teams over the years in the fight against doping.
Starting with its female counterpart in mid-May, the grand tour season is currently concluding with the men's Vuelta, which started on Saturday in Italy. The Vuelta is an opportunity to give credit to our four MPCC member teams from the Iberian Peninsula, which have been committed to credible cycling for several years. However, when our movement was established in 2007, Spanish cycling was going through one of the worst crisis in its history, following Operacion Puerto. A rethink was necessary for Spain, a stronghold of international cycling, to put an end to all the excesses committed and to survive.
In order to make this challenge possible, it was necessary to be actively involved in the fight against doping. This is the very essence of the MPCC's commitment. Today, all those involved in our sport, whether managers, riders or technical staff, are invited to continue this fight against cheating, for the credibility of cycling. As a result, 41 of the 184 riders who started the Vuelta are individual members of the MPCC. They compete in 18 of the 23 teams taking part in the race, as was the case in the last Tour de France. This figure reflects the diversity of positions taken by riders within the peloton and reminds everyone that the membership is voluntary, based solely on the rider's free will.
Being active in the fight against doping
However, only 12 of the 23 teams participating in the Tour of Spain are members of the MPCC : our seven World Tour teams and the five wild-card Pro Teams (Israel – Premier Tech, Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, Lotto, Caja Rural – Seguros RGA and Burgos - Burpellet – BH). In addition, a rider who has been suspended for at least six months in the past is also participating in the race for a team that is not a member of our movement. Indeed, one of its fundamental rules is that a team must not hire a rider who has been suspended for at least six months until two years after the suspension. The rider in question was recently sanctioned and would therefore not have been able to ride with one of our member teams.
This fact shows how far we still have to go before the values upheld by the MPCC are shared by the majority. Nevertheless, we are pleased to see these riders and member teams formally taking a clear stance against doping and hope that other stakeholders in cycling will join us in the fight.