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Drug testing station sign - Source: Reuters -
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The French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) will target certain riders for testing in this year's Tour de France, AFLD president Pierre Bordry told reporters.
The agency also plans to introduce a new test on the Tour, which has been marred by doping scandals in recent years.
Asked if the French agency had a list of targeted riders, Bordry said: "Our director of testing knows very well (who we will target)."
He declined to name them or say how many riders were involved.
"We are not going to warn people a fortnight before but (International Cycling Union president) Pat McQuaid said there were around 50 of them," he said.
Those riders have been targeted because they are either top contenders or because their biological passports have raised suspicions, McQuaid told reporters this month.
Since last year, the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have been collecting blood samples from all professional riders to create a medical profile, or passport, to compare to the data registered in doping tests.
The UCI started disciplinary proceedings against five riders this month after discovering suspicious data in their passports.
"There is plenty of information coming to us. Some people talk but not only that, there are many other sources," Bordry said.
"This passport is a tool that can be improved but which is very useful to target (riders)," he added.
BLOOD SAMPLES
During the Tour, which starts in Monaco on Sunday, the UCI and AFLD will work hand in hand to select which riders to test.
The AFLD has tested many riders training on French roads since the beginning of June.
All competitors must give blood samples two days before the race starts, which will be analysed and stored for possible further testing. Those samples will also help AFLD target riders showing abnormal data.
"That is what we did on last year's Tour de France... We took two blood samples (from all riders) and some were showing suspicious data compared to a normal blood profile," Pierre Bordry said.
"Our priority is to target and not to test according to rules set in advance," he added.
For the first time, riders in the 2008 Tour were not just randomly tested along with the overall leader and the stage winner but also picked by the AFLD.
Italian Riccardo Ricco, Austrian Bernhard Kohl and German Stefan Schumacher tested positive for the new generation of the banned blood-boosting EPO called CERA, either during the race or after retroactive testing.
Riders did not know at the time CERA could be detected.
Bordry said the AFLD would use a new test in an effort to catch another previously undetectable banned substance.
Asked if riders could be surprised in the same way some of them were during last year's Tour, Bordry replied: "Yes. I clearly answer yes."
"There is a substance we know how to detect and that riders think we don't," he added.
"But if I say that, it is possible that no rider tests positive... My aim is that banned substances don't get through to riders."
