Cycling is changing after the doping scandals which
have tarnish the sport in the past, Tour de France director Christian
Prudhomme said Wednesday.
"A movement has started a few years ago and it must go on.
Everybody must work on it," Prudhomme said before organizers unveiled
the route for next year's 100th edition of the race.
The announcement came in the week that the International Cycling
Union stripped Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and
banned him from cycling for life.
Prudhomme said anti-doping tests were working.
I remind you that we lost two winners in five years recently (over
doping)," he said in reference to Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador
being stripped of their 2006 and 2010 victories after failing dope
tests during the race.
On combating doping, Prudhomme said team managers had a
responsibility to ensure their riders did not take banned substances.
"The world of cycling has been working for a number of years for a
real cultural shift but it hasn't gone far enough," he said.
"Team managers are an essential cog in the machine. They should be
the safeguard in the real sense of the word.
The 2013 Tour route is more mountainous, including an
unprecedented double ascent of the Alpe d'Huez, which commentators
said might make it harder for Britain's Bradley Wiggins to retain his
title.
The whole of the Tour is within France, starting on June 29 for
the first time in the Mediterranean island of Corsica, with a
night-time finish three weeks later on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
