Oscar Pereiro can't yet be crowned last year's Tour de France champion. Reuters
Spaniard Oscar Pereiro is officially the champion of the 2006 Tour de France. Sort of.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has declared Pereiro the winner after arbitrators upheld results of a test that showed American Floyd Landis, who had finished first, used synthetic testosterone.
"Following the decision of
the competent American authority to sanction the American cyclist Floyd Landis for doping, and in accordance with the International Cycling Union's regulation, the Spanish rider Oscar Pereiro is declared winner of the 2006 Tour de France," a UCI statement said. "The UCI has informed both the rider and the organiser of the event."
But Tour de France organisers say Pereiro will not get his crown quite yet, until it becomes clear whether Landis will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He has a month to do so.
"Oscar Pereiro will be the winner of the 2006 tour as soon as all the appeal procedures will be over," said Christian Prudhomme, the Tour de France race director. "We feel a bit like Oscar Pereiro, who said himself that he would have preferred to have won under different circumstances," Prudhomme said.
The decision by arbitrators means Landis, who has denied using performance-enhancing drugs, is also subject to a two-year ban, retroactive to January 30.
The Landis case has dragged on for 14 months, and Prudhomme said he hoped cycling authorities would learn to handle such cases more quickly.
He also said that a summit on doping in cycling in Paris on October 22-23 was "essential for us".
What was crucial was to say "in front of everybody, with the authorities in France, with the World Anti-Doping Agency, with the UCI, with the organisers, with the cyclists, with all the major players of the cycling world, '(doping) is no longer possible'," he said.
