Belgian cycling authorities plan anti-doping initiative

The Belgian Cycling Federation (RVLB) announced this week that it intends to launch a plan to fight doping at all levels in the sport, Cycling News reports. The national federation plans to work with the organisations in Flanders and Wallonia (Wielerbond Vlaanderen and Fédération Cycliste Wallonie Bruxelles, or WBV/FCWB) to educate teams, clubs, parents, coaches, riders and race organisers and get them to commit to a doping-free sport. “Various preventive but also forceful measures will be developed, which, depending on the powers of the federations, will be activated,” a statement said. “The project will be submitted to the boards of directors of RLVB, WBV and FCWB, then the actions will be explained.” It follows a similar action by the Dutch cycling federation, which launched an independent investigation into the effectiveness of its anti-doping measures and is seeking to make improvements.