By Julien Pretot
PARIS, May 18 (Reuters) – Cycling’s anti-doping authorities are working towards a possible 2028 launch of a “power data passport” that would use riders’ performance files to help target testing and investigations, International Testing Agency director of testing Olivier Banuls said.
The project, currently in a feasibility phase and led by the ITA with academic partners including the University of Kent in England, would not be used to sanction riders directly in the way the Athlete Biological Passport can support anti-doping rule violations.
Instead, the ITA wants to assess whether power data can help build rider performance profiles and guide decisions on who to test, when to test them, which samples to store for future re-analysis and where to open intelligence-led investigations.
“The idea in the long term is not using the power data to sanction the athlete,” Banuls told Reuters and the Athletic.
“It will only be used to monitor the athletes and to inform anti-doping strategies — target testing, long-term storage, re-analysis. We may also identify some patterns in the team, between colleagues, and that would be very helpful to initiate some investigations and gather intelligence.”
Cycling has long relied on biological data, whereabouts information, intelligence and targeted testing to detect doping, but the addition of power data would bring a new performance-monitoring layer into the system.
Banuls said the ITA monitored performances from television and public data but wanted access to more complete information used internally by teams.
“Power data is extremely useful. It is part of the life of the athlete, part of the core activity of the teams,” he said.
VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION
The project is based on voluntary participation, with Jayco, Visma, Decathlon, Picnic, Cofidis, Uno-X and Tudor supporting the study. Around 60 riders from five teams are already involved.
If the results are positive, the ITA hopes to move to a second phase before a possible 2028 launch, subject to approval by cycling’s governing bodies.
“What we have envisaged is 2028, ideally, if it works and is approved… to have it live as of 2028,” Banuls said.
The system would initially cover men’s WorldTeams and ProTeams, with women’s WorldTour teams potentially added later.
Any mandatory version of the project would require amendments to International Cycling Union (UCI) regulations and approval from the UCI executive committee.
The biological passport monitors selected blood and steroid markers over time and can itself form part of the evidence in an anti-doping case. Power data, by contrast, would be used only as an intelligence and targeting tool.
Banuls said it could help the ITA decide when to collect samples, which samples to freeze for long-term storage and where to deploy re-analysis when new testing methods become available.
“If we have suspicion on an athlete, we need to take a sample, we put it in the fridge,” he said.
“Based on the profile of the athlete, if we have identified some excesses in performances in the past, and if we have any sample in long-term storage, we may do some re-analysis.”
The project comes as power estimates and performance analysis have become a staple of cycling debate on social media, where commentators and fans regularly use calculations to question exceptional displays.
Banuls said one aim was to move away from speculation based on incomplete information.
Power data, he said, was widely used by teams and athletes but also by people online who make their own calculations and then claim to know who is or is not doping.
“That is unfair for the athletes and for all the work that is put into this project by the teams and athletes,” Banuls said.
PELOTON SCEPTICAL
The idea has already generated scepticism inside the peloton.
CPA (the union of professional riders) riders’ president Adam Hansen warned in comments reported by Cyclingnews that power meters were not reliable enough for anti-doping purposes, saying devices could be significantly inaccurate and that missing or inconsistent files could easily be misinterpreted.
Frenchman Pavel Sivakov also questioned the usefulness of the concept, saying differences between devices made comparisons difficult.
Other riders have embraced a broader culture of transparency around performance data, however, with top riders such as Tadej Pogacar regularly publishing ride files online.
The project is being reviewed by an advisory panel including engineers, scientists, coaches, WADA representatives and experts with experience in cycling power.
The power data project forms part of a broader strengthening of cycling’s anti-doping programme since the ITA took over operations from the UCI in 2021.
Banuls said the programme’s budget rose by 35% across 2023 and 2024, bringing annual funding to about 10 million euros ($10.8 million).
“We do a lot of testing but we don’t do mass testing,” he said. “To do mass testing is to throw money out the window.”
Banuls rejected any suggestion that the absence of recent high-profile Tour de France positives meant the sport should consider itself clean.
“We are not blind,” he said. “We are not naive. We are doing the best possible job to protect the sport and the clean athletes, and to try to find those who cheat.”
(Reporting by Julien Pretot, editing by Ed Osmond)
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