La Vuelta startlist : following on from the Tour
Last Grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta featured in Barcelona thirteen teams that are members of the MPCC. As in the Tour de France, nine WorldTour team members and four ProTeams have taken the start of the race.
Fifty-three riders entered in the race last week, as individual members. This is roughly the same figure as that of the Grande Boucle, at the end of June.
The MPCC would like to pay tribute to the long-standing commitment of Caja Rural - Seguros RGA. The team managed by Juan Manuel Hernandez was one of the first ProTeams (formerly Continental Pro) to join us ten years ago. The other Spanish invited team, Burgos-BH, also committed to MPCC, in 2018, two years before being promoted to second division.
It should also be pointed out that the four Spanish ProTeams (Burgos-BH, Caja Rural - Seguros RGA, Kern Pharma and Euskaltel-Euskadi) are all members of our movement. This is a sign of the determination of Iberian structures to restore credibility to cycling’s supporters and audience.
Of the 176 riders who started the Vuelta, only one has been suspended in the past – this rider is not part of a MPCC team. The movement is thus reiterating its teams' commitment, not to recruit any riders who have been involved in doping cases for which they have been suspended for more than six months.
Tour de France 2023 digest : riders on the offense
In the wake of the Tour de France 2023, which saw Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) crowned for the second time, the MPCC is delighted to have seen a number of its individual members take part in action for the three weeks of racing.
Our association would first congratulate the three stage winners who are members of our movement on a voluntary basis : Jordi Meeus, Felix Gall and Jai Hindley. The Bora-Hansgrohe team’s leader won Stage 5 in Laruns, his first victory on the roads of the Tour. The Australian climber also wore the precious yellow jersey for the first time in his career. In contention for a podium until stage 13, Jai Hindley finished his first « Grande Boucle » in seventh place.
Felix Gall, another newcomer, also added a victory on the Tour to his palmares by winning the queen stage (Stage 17), marked by the Col de la Loze climb. The Austrian rider from the AG2R-Citroën team, a member of the MPCC, ranked eighth in the final overall classification.
Other riders of our movement were also particularly aggressive, including Thibaut Pinot, Guillaume Martin, Tiesj Benoot, Ben O'Connor and Victor Campenaerts, elected most aggressive rider. In a particularly demanding edition, around 70% of the MPCC riders who started the race in Bilbao managed to slip into breakaways at least once.
Finally, we are delighted with the prestigious success achieved by Jordi Meeus on the Champs-Elysées. Like his leader Jai Hindley, the Belgian sprinter was taking part in his first Tour de France.
We would like to remind that joining the MPCC, whether as a team or as a rider, is a commitment to cycling – a commitment to abide by rules that are stricter that those of the international bodies. We encourage other teams and other riders, to join us in promoting a sport that remains as popular as ever and is constantly seeking credibility with the general public.
A roundup of the Tour de France Femmes
For the second Tour de France Femmes, the number of women’s teams members of the MPCC which take part in the race remains at ten, including six Women’s World Teams : EF Education – Tibco SVB, FDJ – Suez, Fenix-Deceuninck, Human Powered Health, Team DSM-Firmenich ans Uno-X Pro Cycling Team. Thus, 40% of women’s elite cycling has already joined us.
The other four members, from Continental level, are Cofidis Women Team, Saint-Michel-Mavic-Auber 93, Team Arkea and Team Coop-Hitec Products.
We are also counting 15% of Tour de France Femmes field as individual members of our association. In a peloton more and more outlined in the media, we encourage team managers to spur their riders to join our movement, for the credibility of our sport. We would like to remind that our members (team managers, riders, medical staffs or riders’ representatives) are at the forefront of the fight against doping.
Among those riders who are with us, we have Juliette Labous, 2nd in the Giro Donne a few weeks ago ; Alison Jackson, who won the Paris-Roubaix Femmes last spring ; Lorena Wiebes ; two-time stage winner in the first edition of the Tour ; and Evita Muzic ; French road champion in 2021.
A roundup of the 2023 Tour de France starting lineup
Within few hours from the Tour de France start, the MPCC is making a large roundup of riders and teams taking part in the race.
The 2023 Tour de France will start today from the Basque country with 13 teams, members of the MPCC, out of the 22 participating in the race. From the 176 riders starting in Bilbao, 52 engaged to the MPCC on a voluntary basis and 10 of them are former stage winners at the Tour.
Thus, around 30% of the Tour 2023 peloton has formally committed to cleaner cycling. This rate gradually increased over the years but is still not sufficient to promote a better image of our sport. The MPCC still fosters its team managers and their technical staff prompting their riders to join the movement.
All teams which have been granted a wild card by A.S.O., the race organiser, are also stakeholders of the MPCC. Among them, Uno-X Pro Cycling Team is one of our new members. The Norwegian team will take part in the Tour de France for the first time in its history, after joining the MPCC at the beginning of the 2022. Christian Prudhomme, the Tour race director, has always emphasised his determination to push teams committed to our movement.
Nevertheless, only one rider from this year starting lineup has been suspended for not complying with antidoping rules and during a six-month minimum duration.
The MPCC recalls the engagement of its teams, respected since then, to not hire riders involved in any doping case which have led to a suspension that exceeded six months.
Tudor Pro Cycling Team joins the MPCC
Swiss team Tudor Pro Cycling, squad from the ProTeam level, has become a provisional member of the MPCC. The membership has been granted at the last governing body's meeting on May 24.
Its CEO Raphaël Meyer states : « Our team Tudor Pro Cycling Team officially joins the MPCC, in order to support the fight against doping. We commit ourselves to stick to the rules of the MPCC movement. »
Founded in 2018 as Swiss Cyling Academy, Tudor Pro Cycling Team reached the second level of our sport this season, at the initiative of the former multiple-classics winner Fabian Cancellara. The Swiss team gathers 20 riders including Sébastien Reichenbach (ex Groupama-FDJ rider) and Simon Pellaud (ex Trek-Segafredo rider).
Tudor Pro Cycling Team is currently the 16th out of the 18 ProTeams to bond to the MPCC movement.
Gino Mäder has passed away
Gino Mäder tragically passed away on Friday following a serious crash on the roads of the Tour de Suisse on Thursday afternoon.
The MPCC and its members, shocked by this terrible loss, offer their full support to the Swiss rider's loved ones, family and team.
Fifth in the 2021 Vuelta a España, Gino Mäder had joined our movement as an individual on January 20, 2020, while racing for the NTT Pro Cycling team. The entire cycling family mourns the loss of a rider committed to responsible sport.
Credibility figures: transparency is gaining ground
Since the beginning of the year, an average of 55 procedures per month have been revealed in top-level sport. This figure has been rising steadily for two years.
While more and more international federations are making public the anti-doping procedures undertaken in their disciplines, some national anti-doping agencies remain very quiet on the issue. This is no longer the case for NADA India or ADAK Kenya, which have recently made the choice to be transparent. These revelations obviously have a strong impact on our barometer, which we have published several times a year since 2014. At the end of the first four months of 2023, India is in first place for the first time, in terms of the number of cases revealed, ahead of the usual "leaders": Russia and the United States.
The large number of procedures reported has forced us to analyse each one on a case-by-case basis - as we only include procedures related to high-level or professional athletes, revealed by federations, anti-doping agencies, the courts or the media. Since 2018, we have included cases of fraud and corruption that concern the staff who are involved with athletes, but also match-fixing that may implicate athletes directly.
So far, there have only been three proceedings revealed by the UCI website, concerning continental road teams (Portuguese and Italian). Two of the three riders involved are former World Team and Pro Team members who had signed a contract with a lower level team.
None of the cases revealed involved an MPCC member team. Our movement includes 40 first and second division pro teams (men and women) and only 16 continental teams. We strongly encourage these semi-professional teams to join the MPCC, in order to put their ethics and credibility at the heart of our sport.
The Tour du Finistère, 12th MPCC member organizer
French one-day race, part of the FDJ French Cup, the Tour du Finistère becomes a member of the MPCC.
The Tour du Finistère, whose 37th edition will take place on May 13, becomes the 12th MPCC member organizer. The event, which takes place around Quimper, was won in 2022 by Julien Simon.
Marc Fayet, organizer of the race, explains that he applied for membership in the movement "with the desire to be part of a voluntary approach to fight for greater monitoring of the health and integrity of riders."
"Aware of the essential place occupied by this movement, it seems important to us as an organizer to support it in order to guarantee the greatest possible transparency and to reinforce the credibility of our sport", he develops.
The 12 MPCC member organizers are: Ain Bugey Valromey Tour, Boucles de la Mayenne - Crédit Mutuel, Cholet-Pays de la Loire, Chrono des Nations, Ethias - Tour de Wallonie, GP de Wallonie, Route d'Occitanie - La Dépêche du Midi, Région Pays de la Loire Tour, Route Adélie, Tour de l'Ain, Tour of Japan, and from now on Tour du Finistère.
Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi, 16th women team to join the MPCC
L'équipe basque, créée en 2020, devient membre du mouvement.
There are now 16 women's teams in the MPCC: Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi has joined the movement. A member of the continental women's division, the team is made up of 17 runners, including Eider Merino, 2018 Spanish champion.
Team Manager Ion Lakzano states: "We think that it is important to fight against doping from all points and fields. In this sense, we affirm our commitment to abide by MPCC’s rules of procedure and to have tolerance zero with doping."
Project Echelon Racing joins the MPCC
The American team Project Echelon Racing (UCI Continental division), becomes a member of the MPCC.
Created in 2017, Project Echelon Racing is a team that is made up of 13 riders, including 2022 US Nationals runner-up Tyler Stites.
Team Manager Eric Hill states: "PEC is motivated to join the MPCC in an effort to ensure clean and fair sporting, the health and safety of our athletes, and a desire to grow the credibility, reach, and influence of the sport of cycling. We are committed to upholding the values and rules of the MPCC throughout the entirety of our organization."