Cycling:Cycling's governing body (UCI) has admitted to drawing up a list in which it had estimated the doping risk of each rider at last year's Tour de France but regretted the document had been made public. The doping suspicion index, in which riders are given a rating of suspicion scaling from 0 - not suspicious - to 10 - highly suspicious was made public in France today.
The UCI said the list is a working document helping to steer testing, not a list of riders who have done any wrongdoing.
"The document was meant for the UCI and independent observers of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). We will investigate to see how such a document has leaked," a UCI spokesman said today.
The average index of the 198 riders from the 2010 Tour de France is 2.434. The index is a summary from the individual’s biological passport's data and a blood test carried out on July 1st, two days before the start of the Tour. UCI president Pat McQuaid declined to further comment.
David Millar said that "heads should roll" at the UCI for allowing the leak. "It's shocking. I understand that that list should exist, that's what targeted testing is about," he said. "This list should never have been released. The UCI, some of their people should be fired for this. A major investigation should go on into what exactly they are doing with this model."
Millar, who was suspended for two years in 2004 after admitting he took a banned performance-enhancing substance, said he had a rating of 4 out of 10.
"I understand I'm number four because of my misdemeanours in the past," he said. "But this (list) just does not add up."
Australian Robbie McEwen added on Twitter: "I'm all for catching cheats but draw the line at this sort of thing which could be based on 1 single wayward statistic. And who leaked it??"
Three-times Tour winner Alberto Contador, who is waiting for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to rule on his positive test for the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol, will not make any comment.