Lance Armstrong's participation possible thanks to USADA's rules regarding investigations
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) will handle anti-doping testing for its country's top race, the Tour of California in May. The decision is meant to strengthen controls of cyclists prior and during the event.
Travis Tygart, chief executive of USADA, said that his group would remove any bias. The International Cycling Union (UCI) administered the anti-doping tests for the past editions.
"The fox watching the hen house," Tygart said in a teleconference, referring to the UCI's role at past editions and the potential conflict of interest of a governing body controlling its top stars.
"At this point, it's frankly difficult to both promote and police your own sport. There's this natural tension when the sport attempts to police itself of enforcing firmly and fairly the rules versus the other interest, which is to promote and raise revenue for the sport," he explained.
The Tour of California faced criticism in its first year, 2006, for not testing for Erythropoietin (EPO). Amgen sponsored the race then and continues to do so now. It is a California company that produces artificial EPO for cancer patients.
The race toughened its rules subsequent to that first edition. In 2008, it prohibited three Rock Racing riders from participating, including American Tyler Hamilton, as they were linked to Spain's Operación Puerto doping investigation. With the USADA in charge for the first time, however, riders who are under investigation but yet to be sanctioned are still able to race.
Lance Armstrong will have noticed the critical change. He is under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over claims that he doped during his his career, including the period when he won the Tour de France seven times. The FDA has opened a grand jury investigation and subpoenaed several of Armstrong's team-mates and business partners.
Armstrong is part of the 12-man list that team RadioShack submitted to the Tour of California organiser, although he has not yet confirmed if he will take part. Teams are requited to submit a list of 12 possible cyclists that will be used to select their final eight-man team.
USADA may begin pre-race anti-doping testing on those riders starting on February 15, three months before the race, May 15 to 22.
"The Tour," Tygart said, "is taking great strides in supporting clean athletes and actively advancing efforts for the integrity of competition."
Prior to this year, testing only began 10 days prior to the race.
The stage race is part of Armstrong's final year. He participated his last international event at the Tour Down Under in Australia last month. The Tour of California and Colorado's new stage race, the Quiznos Pro Challenge, in August are likely his last two events.
Australian Michael Rogers won the Tour of California last year for team HTC, but is this year racing for Team Sky.
Armstrong's team-mate Levi Leipheimer won the race three times, from 2007 to 2009. Leipheimer, Armstrong and several others cyclists faced doping allegations last year during the race by Floyd Landis. Landis' e-mails of doping allegations became public during the race and ramped up the FDA's investigation into teams and individuals in pro cycling.