29 out of the 45 first and second division’s teams are members of the Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible (MPCC). This is a big part of the international peloton. Many of them are first class riders, including world champion Peter Sagan, Giro d’Italia winner Tom Dumoulin, and 2nd and 3rd of the last Tour de France: Rigoberto Uran and Romain Bardet.
All the MPCC team members commit on a voluntary basis to “take responsibility for withdrawing immediately from a race a rider that would receive the first advise of a positive or abnormal control”.
On the 18th of December 2017, following the announcement of 4 times Tour de France winner Chris Froome’s abnormal control, the MPCC and its board asked Team Sky to “immediately suspend the rider until the end of the procedure, without waiting for the final decision. That would help both the rider and the team to implement a defence strategy with serenity, avoiding any irritation coming from other staffs and riders.”
Team Sky chose not to suspend its rider until the end of the procedure as Christopher Froome took part in the Ruta del Sol’s first stage on the 14th of February.
The MPCC takes full notice of this decision from team Sky.
The MPCC also takes full notice of the Ruta del Sol’s organizers’ decision to welcome Chris Froome warmly.
The board formally asks UCI and WADA for a standardization of the procedures and that a rider facing a pending antidoping enquiry should have to stop racing systematically. The MPCC also recalls its requests for a ban of the corticosteroids and tramadol use in competition.
In order to maintain cycling’s image and credibility, it is of great importance that when facing the situation of a positive or abnormal antidoping control result, the procedure remains the same whether the rider is part of a MPCC team or not.
Waiting for a change in the official rules, the board presently asks the UCI to change its World Tour rules: organizers should be able to exclude from their races a rider that would be facing a pending enquiry following a positive or abnormal control.