Cycling’s international governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale said Monday it will investigate reports of positive drug tests at the 1999 Tour de France, but stopped short of specifically naming seven-time winner Lance Armstrong. The allegations, which surfaced last week in the French daily sports newspaper L'Equipe, said Armstrong used the performance-enhancing drug EPO to help win his first Tour de France in 1999. Armstrong has denied the allegations.

The UCI said it regretted the breach of confidentiality in the disclosure of samples, but said it was pressing ahead with its own assessment.

The release went on to say that the UCI "will communicate its conclusions on this case within the next 10 days."

L'Equipe reported on August 23 that a review of urine samples from the 1999 Tour showed that 14 had tested positive for the red blood cell booster erythropoietin (EPO), including six from the eventual winner.

The drug was on the list of banned substances at the time, but there was no effective test to detect it. The paper's investigation was based solely on B samples - the second half of samples used in doping tests. The A samples were used up in 1999.