The International Olympic Committee says it's "very unlikely" cycling will be stripped as an event for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, despite the fall-out from the Lance Armstrong doping affair.
The fall of the disgraced Texan has thrown the spotlight on the sport's governing body, the International Cycling Union (UCI), which has been accused of covering up for the American and helping him evade positive tests.
"During the last years, the UCI have battled strongly in the fight against doping. An eventual exclusion of cycling from the Olympic program is very unlikely," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told AFP on Wednesday.
A day earlier, IOC member Dick Pound suggested cycling could be dumped from the Olympics if Armstrong implicated the sport's governing body in covering up widespread doping.
Pound, a former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told Reuters: "We could say, look, you've clearly got a problem why don't we give you four years, eight years to sort it out.