Cycling head: Positives not a bad thing

SAINT-PAUL-TROIS-CHATEAUX, France -- The head of cycling's governing body says a positive drug test or two at the Tour de France wouldn't necessarily be a "bad thing" as it would suggest anti-doping efforts are working.

International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid tells The Associated Press that if cycling's premier race went two years without a positive test, then "you'd probably say there must be something going wrong here." McQuaid spoke yesterday on the Tour's second rest day before riders set off toward the Alps and the Paris finish on Sunday.

The Tour, which just a few years ago was plagued by numerous doping cases and suspicions of cheating, has just one positive test in this edition.

Alexandr Kolobnev dropped out of the Tour last week after the UCI said a urine sample collected from the Russian rider on the day of Stage 5 tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide -- a banned diuretic that can also be used as a masking agent.

Three-time Tour champion Alberto Contador tested positive during last year's Tour for the banned muscle builder clenbuterol. He is currently seventh overall while he awaits a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

McQuaid says the fact that unheralded Thomas Voeckler is leading with several riders close behind suggests the sport is becoming cleaner, however he doubts cheating will ever be totally eradicated.

"I don't think it's ever possible, not just in cycling but in any sport, that you're going to get no cheaters," McQuaid said, adding that an isolated positive test isn't a cause for panic.

"It's not a bad thing, it shows that the system's working, it shows that you're catching people, and it shows that if a rider does take a product that is an illegal product that it can be caught and found in the system," he said.