Drugs 'the enemy of cycling'

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme is battling to rescue the image of cycling ahead of the 2008 race.

During a visit to London to discuss another possible visit by the Tour de France to Britain, Prudhomme says he is determined to beat the drugs he called the "enemy" of the sport.

And he dismissed suggestions that the race was simply too hard to compete in without resorting to drugs.

"Ben Johnson took drugs to run 100 metres, so it's not the race or design of the course. If you staged a sack race, I'm sure some people would take drugs to be the best in a sack race," he said.

"People take drugs for the glory and the money, but doping and drugs are our enemy, they are the enemy of cycling."

The world's premier cycling race all but collapsed under scandal last year after the leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark was thrown out and sacked by his Rabobank team for lying about why he missed drug tests.

With the previous year's winner, American Floyd Landis, also disgraced by positive doping tests and stripped of his 2006 title, the race is battling against a widespread view that it is dominated by drug cheats.

Prudhomme was in London for talks with Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, after hosting the "Grand Depart" opening and the first stage of the 2007 Tour de France.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.