WADA says doping threatens future of the sport

By Julien Pretot

NIMES, France (Reuters) - Cycling faces the risk of disappearing if the sport does not get rid of doping, the general director of the World Anti-Doping Agency said on Friday.

The Tour de France has been hit by drug failures in the past week, with Italian Riccardo Ricco and Spaniards Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado testing positive for the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO).

"It's a great disappointment for cycling and the cyclists," David Howman told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"Responsibility has to fall on those who are doping and not on those who are fighting against it.

"After ten years of cheating it looks as if it is a disaster. If it goes on like this, it (cycling) won't even be a sport anymore."

However, Howman praised the work of the Tour de France organisers and of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD).

"I think that the people involved in the Tour are not responsible. They have a very good anti-doping program," he said.

Tour organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) put their race under the jurisdiction of the French cycling federation and of the AFLD because of a long-standing row with the International Cycling Union (UCI).