The Tour de France will run under the jurisdiction of the French cycling federation amid a long-standing row with the sport’s governing body, race organisers ASO said today.

The row between the International Cycling Union (UCI) and big tours organisers such as ASO centres on whether organisers or the UCI have the final say over who rides in their races.

“We have asked the FFC (French Cycling Federation) that the Tour is organised under their aegis. The AFLD (French anti-doping agency) will therefore be in charge of the doping tests before and during the race,” Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme told a press conference.

In March, ASO decided to organise the week-long Paris-Nice race in agreement with the teams and the French Federation outside UCI regulations, prompting the sport’s governing body to open disciplinary proceedings against FFC president Jean Pitallier for his backing of the event.

Prudhomme added today that ASO also based their decision on the fact that the UCI had not dropped the disciplinary proceedings against Pitallier.

The UCI said in a statement that ASO’s decision was “bad” for cycling.

“The Tour de France being held outside the jurisdiction of the UCI, it will benefit neither from the international stewards nor from the intervention of the anti-doping inspectors of the UCI.

“The riders and the teams who participate (in the Tour) will face sanctions just because of ASO’s executives.”

The dispute between big tours organisers and the UCI dates back to 2004 when ASO, RCS and Unipublic refused to join the UCI ProTour series, which guarantees its 18 teams automatic starts in the sport’s showcase events.

The Tour de France starts from Brest on July 5 and ends in Paris on July 27.

© Reuters 2012

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