While they may disagree about the structure of the ProTour, race organizers, team representatives and the UCI joined in what they called “a sacred union” to fight doping by excluding suspect riders and stepping up random drugs tests in the run-up to the grand tour season.

Representing their respective constituencies, UCI president Pat McQuaid, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme, and Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevere said there is near universal agreement that teams will at least temporarily bar riders formally implicated in the Spanish 'Operación Puerto' doping investigation.

Prudhomme said the meeting was a demonstration of "political will" in an attempt to wipe out the notion that the sport was rotten and dominated by doped riders, "because it's not true."

"We can only break out of that if we are together, and the presence of the three of us on this issue is precisely the proof of a sacred union in the fight against doping," he added. "Cycling already has more measures than all the other sports together in terms of fighting doping."

"So if there was a miracle, the problem would have been solved ten years ago. But we didn't, and that shows there's a need for (greater) will."

McQuaid said the two-pronged agreement, despite other differences between teams, race organizers and cycling's governing body, was a defining moment for the sport.

"Cycling is suffering, it's suffering hard now, with all the affairs going on with Puerto, with Ullrich and with (Ivan) Basso now... We've got to get all these affairs behind us, we've got to get to the end of Puerto,” he said.

Teams, race organizers and the UCI will mount a joint legal offensive in Spain to ensure that the Puerto case is pursued and the evidence – especially 6000 pages of files -- is made available to the sport.

Spanish magistrates have ruled out use of evidence from their investigation for disciplinary cases by sports bodies until it is completed.

Lefevere said most teams -- about 90 percent -- were ready not to select about 50 riders formally implicated in the Puerto affair but cautioned that there were legal issues involved.

"We will call on the teams to take their responsibilities," he said, adding that he could hardly imagine that the remaining 10 percent of teams would line-up controversial riders in the Tour de France.

The number of random and out-of-competition tests, said McQuaid, will be increased for the rest of the year.

"One front is Puerto. We all agreed we must get to the end of Puerto, we must find out exactly who is involved in it,” McQuaid said. "The other side is the fight against doping currently... so that if any riders are thinking about it will think twice."

Despite the exclusion of riders, said McQuaid, cyclists have to be considered innocent until proven guilty by full legal or disciplinary proceedings.

Prudhomme said none of the riders formally listed in Puerto started the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic last weekend.