June 23, 2007 — Both the Association of professional Italian cyclists (ACCPI) and the Spanish cycling association have attacked the UCI’s efforts to have cyclists sign an anti-doping pledge reports AFP. The ACCPI classifies the pledge as “being unclear” and “criminalizing the cyclists.” The president of the Spanish Association, José Gomez, says that his lawyers are studying the document to determine if it is legal.

Spanish cyclist, Egoi Martinez (Discovery Channel) says that he will not sign the pledge because he finds that it is “excessive,” adding that he would rather miss the Tour de France. Both the UCI and the TdF organizers have indicated that cyclists who do not sign could be excluded from the TdF.

The pledge declares that cyclists will forfeit their 2007 salary if found to be in violation of the anti-doping rules and are granted “a standard sanction of two years or more.” The pledge also gives Spanish authorities and the UCI permission to compare the signatory cyclist’s DNA to samples of blood seized in the Puerto Affair.

The full text of the pledge is available here.

Meanwhile, only about 20 ProTour cyclists have signed the UCI anti-doping pledge to date. It looks like the full team roster has signed for Credit Agricole, but many other teams still have no signatures posted at the UCI website.

Some other cyclists have indicated that they will sign, including Kazakh cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) according to AFP. In an interview in the French daily l’Equipe. Vinokourov, a favourite to win this year’s tour, is rumoured to be one of the half-dozen “men in black” suspected dopers being targeted by the UCI.

The entire roster of CSC is also expected to sign, but it seems only a small fraction of the some 600 ProTour cyclists will have signed by the July 7 deadline.

To see the list click here.