PARIS—The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has withdrawn its support for the International Cycling Union's (UCI) pilot biological passport programme because of its lawsuit against former WADA president Dick Pound.
Last October, UCI and WADA announced they were planning to collect blood samples from all professional riders to create a medical profile that would then be compared to the data registered in doping tests.
In a statement on Thursday, Pound's successor John Fahey said the decision to withdraw support followed UCI's announcement on March 21 that it was suing Pound for "continual injurious and biased comments" against UCI and its vice-president Hein Verbruggen".
Last July Pound said he was not impresssed that the UCI tested only five people a day during the Tour de France
"They are either incapable of dealing with this or disingenuous at best," he said.
Fahey said WADA had agreed to pilot its Athlete's Passport project with the UCI, rather than another sport, in an attempt "to help restore cycling to a cleaner and more credible state".
"This came following a cycling season and Tour de France in 2007 in which cycling was yet again wracked with doping scandals.
"Since October 2007, WADA has supported the UCI, in financial and human resources, with this pilot project. But in light of the UCI's attack on WADA, we now find a partnership with the UCI untenable and will therefore initiate dialogue with other sports in order to advance the Athlete's Passport project."
In a statement the UCI said it noted Fahey's declaration with surprise and added the suit had been directed against Pound not WADA.
"The UCI has always made a very clear distinction between WADA and Mr Pound," it said. "If WADA were unfortunately to decide to withdraw from the biological passport programme, the UCI would nevertheless continue its best efforts to implement the programme."
The UCI have conducted 911 out of almost 12,000 scheduled test for 2008 and the cost of the series of controls at an estimated cost of 5 million euros ($7.89 million).
