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Posted at 6:41 a.m., Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Cycling: 12 ProTeams agree to tougher doping rules

Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Twelve ProTeams agreed to tougher doping measures Wednesday in an effort to clean up cycling's battered image.

The measures are the "strongest possible," said Gerrit Middag, the general manager of the International Professional Cycling Teams.

The teams agreed to submit each of their riders to at least 15 blood tests and 15 urine tests next season.

"This will add up to at least 600 tests per team," the teams said in a statement after meeting at the Eneco Tour in the Netherlands.

The teams are Liquigas, Team CSC, T-Mobile, Rabobank, Euskaltel, Caisse d'Epargne, Saunier-Duval, Quick-Step Innergetic, Lampre-Fondital, Team Milram, Predictor-Lotto and Gerolsteiner. Bouygues-Telecom, Credit Agricole, Cofidis and AG2R did not attend Wednesday's meeting.

Middag said he hoped "others will eventually join."

The new doping rules will start in January, with 80 percent of the new testing out of competition.

The statement said tests will be carried out by an "independent body in close conjunction with the International Cycling Union" within the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the UCI.