Mr Jean-Pierre Strebel, whose appointment as Director General of the International Cycling Union was recently confirmed after a period in this role ad interim, has officially announced the departure of Ms Anne Gripper, Manager of the UCI’s Anti-doping Service since October 2006, and her replacement by Ms Francesca Rossi.

Anne Gripper led several extremely important actions within the UCI. In particular, she managed the implementation of the programme “100% against doping”, contributed to the development and launch of a series of anti-doping prevention modules entitled “True Champion or Cheat?” and personally put a lot of work into the setting up of the biological passport.

Anne Gripper leaves the UCI after deciding, for personal reasons, to return to her home country, Australia, and give a new direction to her career. Ms Gripper, who has expressed the wish to continue her involvement in the fight against doping, in liaison with the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), looks back positively on her work: “The work accomplished in the last few years, in particular with the biological passport, forms a basis which makes me very optimistic for the future of cycling and, more generally, of sport. Today, a change in the fundamental culture is taking place within the teams, which play a major role in this field vis-à-vis the riders.”

The President of the UCI Pat McQuaid paid tribute to “Anne Gripper’s exceptional commitment as well as her qualities, in particular her outstanding human qualities.” He added, “The high quality of Ms Gripper’s work clearly contributed to the setting up of the biological passport, which we can consider as the most significant breakthrough in the anti-doping field in the last 20 years.” The UCI President expressed his wish to continue collaborating with Ms Gripper in one way or another.

Ms Francesca Rossi will replace Anne Gripper from March 5th. She will take up the post of Director of the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF).

Ms Rossi was Administrative and Scientific Manager of the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) for three years. Before that, she was Deputy Director and Routine Activities Manager at the Anti-doping Laboratory in Rome.