Team High Road is implementing a new comprehensive and independent anti-doping program. The program will be managed by the Agency for Cycling Ethics (ACE), a company that provides monitoring and testing programs to prevent and detect doping.

“Last year we made a strong commitment to fight against doping,” said Bob Stapleton of High Road Sports. “It is the most comprehensive program out there. It is what the team needs and what the sport needs.”

Each of the team’s riders will give a minimum of 26 random blood and urine samples per year, allowing ACE to build profiles of each individual that will help detect small changes in body chemistry that may be caused by blood transfusions or banned substances.

ACE will send test results to the UCI, the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) and the team. The profiles are intended to be used in conjunction with the new WADA biological passports, which the UCI has announced will be introduced for each ProTour rider at the beginning of the 2008 season. The passports will act as a record of all tests for each professional rider to provide more comprehensive blood and urine profiles.

The ACE program is fully endorsed by the UCI, whose Anne Gripper said it helps teams “create a doping-free culture by providing a robust, independent and transparent antidoping program.”

“Bob Stapleton and High Road Sports continue to demonstrate leadership in this regard. By initiating a comprehensive team-based anti-doping program delivered by the Agency for Cycling Ethics, by actively supporting the UCI in their broad anti-doping efforts and most importantly, by actively working to create a doping-free culture within their team, they are a role model for other teams to follow,” Gripper added.

Stapleton said the first testing was conducted at a team meeting in October.

“We are very pleased to see that our riders understand the importance of these strict measures,” he said. “We believe frequent comprehensive testing and using profiles that detect small changes in body chemistry are invaluable tools to ensure the future of the team in the sport. The testing will keep us more informed about the conduct and health of our athletes.”