Paolo Bettini (Photo: capture-the-peloton.com)

MILANO, Oct 30 (CP) - Olympic and World Champion Paolo Bettini told Italian sportspaper Gazzetta dello Sport that asking riders for DNA samples is unacceptable. Uptil now, the UCI ProTour teams planned to ask new riders for DNA samples, and only ask olders riders to deliver such a sample if their names are linked with doping cases. But the teams now plan to ask every rider to provide them with DNA samples. "Our personal freedom is being threatened. It's unacceptable," said Bettini, who feels that the riders are being compared with "serial killers".

© Jonathan Roorda