Tour of Spain unveils extensive plan to combat doping

MADRID, Aug 8 (Reuters) Tour of Spain organisers said today 247,800 dollars were being invested in an extensive programme to combat doping before and during next month's race.

''This proves the importance the cycling family and the Vuelta puts on the credibility of our sport. There is no other sport that makes as big an effort in this field as professional cycling,'' Unipublic said in a statement.

''Despite the large number of controls, the number of positive tests are no greater than in any other sport.'' Throughout August there will be a series of random tests on riders registered for the race.

On top of the usual tests carried out with the collaboration of the World's Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the state agencies and federations, Unipublic and the International Cycling Union (UCI) will fund a minimum of 80 further unannounced tests, of which at least half will be for the blood booster EPO.

On Aug. 30, when all the riders are assembled for the start in Vigo, a medical team will submit every participant to a health and doping test.

The health test samples will be analysed by the University of Lausanne while the doping samples will be sent to a laboratory approved by Spain's government-run Sports Council.

During the race from Sept. 1-23, organisers said they would carry out the number of blood and urine tests they felt were necessary.

Last month's Tour de France was marred by a number of high-profile doping cases.

REUTERS BJR HT2047