UCI fully entrusts anti-doping prosecution and results management to ITA "to ensure the independence of the fight against doping in cycling"

In a Monday press release, we learn that the cycling's governing body UCI will no longer stand in the lead of anti-doping control as the role was delegated to the International Testing Agency (ITA) who will continue to will continue the prosecution of anti-doping violations and whereabouts failures as an independent body. This moment marks a completion of a re-structuralization process which begun with the transfer of operational anti-doping activities to the ITA in 2021.

This decision was taken unanimously by the UCI Management Committee at its meeting in Beveren (Belgium) on 29-30 January. It forms part of a long-term strategy endorsed by the UCI Anti-doping Programme’s Funding Committee – which brings together the UCI and representatives of teams, riders and organisers – to further strengthen the independence and integrity of cycling’s anti-doping programme.

David Lappartient, UCI president, said: "The delegation of results management to the ITA represents another major step in a process initiated with the creation of the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation to ensure the independence of the fight against doping in cycling, in order to make it as effective and deterrent as possible."

In 2008, the UCI established the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF) to lead operational anti-doping activities in cycling, and to further strengthen both the expertise and the independence of its clean sport programme through a dedicated entity operating outside the UCI’s internal organisational structure. In 2013, it further reinforced its system with the creation of its Legal Anti-Doping Service (LADS), a unit responsible for results management of anti-doping violations and the handling of whereabouts failures.

"Since the delegation of the operational aspects of its anti-doping programme to the ITA in 2021, the UCI and the cycling community have been able to fully appreciate the professionalism of the independent international anti-doping organisation. It is therefore with full confidence that we are now entrusting results management to the ITA. In doing so, we continue to move towards even greater integrity in our sport."

The ITA brings extensive and proven expertise in anti-doping related legal proceedings and results management activities for over 60 international partners, such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as well as for numerous International Federations across the Olympic and wider global sporting landscape. The ITA will apply the same high standards of transparency for results management and public communication as the UCI has done to date.

"This decision is a powerful signal of trust from the UCI, and one that we take with great responsibility," the ITA's director general, Benjamin Cohen, added. "Cycling has the largest anti-doping programme delivered for an International Federation anywhere in the world, and the UCI’s choice to fully entrust its results management to the ITA reflects both the depth of expertise within our legal and operational teams and the maturity of our partnership."

"Beyond governance structures, what truly matters is what athletes experience on the ground: a system that is independent, consistent and able to act with authority and speed. Through this delegation, the UCI is demonstrating a clear and long-term commitment to providing its riders with the strongest possible anti-doping programme. We warmly congratulate the UCI for the clarity and consistency of its path towards independence and for its continued leadership in protecting clean sport."