UCI chief Pat McQuaid has dismissed as "complete false" a report that cycling could be axed from the Olympic Games.

A senior European International Olympic Committee member told AFP on Wednesday, speaking under anonymity, that the troubled sport risks being ejected from the Games because of the consistent spate of drug scandals.

However, UCI chief McQuaid said Friday that was not on the IOC’s agenda.

"That is completely false and is not on the agenda," McQuaid told France 2 television. "The IOC supports cycling, as it does all federations who are trying to fight agaginst doping. The system is working, we are catching the cheats. Should cycling be sanctioned for that?"

Nevertheless, the IOC member told AFP that cycling had become “a serious point of concern among IOC members” in the wake of the revelation that Kazkh rider Alexander Vinokourov had failed a test for blood doping, adding that cycling was under threat of exclusion at the 2009 session of the IOC in Copenhagen.

"Cycling is now a serious point of concern among IOC members," he told AFP. "There is scandal after scandal and it is in serious danger of exiting the Olympics."

He added that there were several sports - seen to be clean in the eyes of IOC members - that were lobbying hard for inclusion and could well supplant cycling as a sport at the global showpiece.

"Softball, rugby and karate are seen to be clean sports and do not carry the dirt of doping in cycling," said the IOC member. “Cycling is dreadful for the image of the Olympic movement and the Games itself."

For his part, McQuaid said he is ready to work with the Tour de France for the common good of the sport despite his relationship with Tour bosses hitting an all-time low.

After a week of turmoil McQuaid has become a target for Tour organizers over the UCI's failure to stop Michael Rasmussen from racing despite his having been warned four times, by two separate bodies, over four missed random doping tests.

The Dane was on Wednesday thrown off the race by his Rabobank team, which then sacked him.

"The cycling family has to come together and work to eradicate doping,” McQuaid said. "We don't deserve to have been targeted as we have. Cycling has introduced a lot of measures to make sure the Tour has gone smoothly.

"Rasmussen had the right to race. For the UCI, he still did not break any rules."