updated 11:21 a.m. ET June 21, 2007

LONDON - Cycling deserves to remain in the Olympics despite the spate of doping scandals that have damaged the sport’s credibility, IOC president Jacques Rogge said Thursday.

Rogge said cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, is making progress in tackling the drug crisis and should not be punished for doping violations by individual riders.

“You should not throw the baby out with the bath water,” Rogge said in a conference call. “It is not the UCI who is cheating. It is the riders who are cheating. As long as the UCI will do the utmost effort and have the same zero tolerance as the IOC, they will have their place at the games.”

Rogge said he was “very heartened” by recent measures announced by the UCI, including plans to increase out-of-competition tests and target specific riders suspected of cheating.

“I believe they are doing their best,” he said. “It is a struggle, an uphill battle, but we want to keep them.”

On other issues, Rogge predicted a “very close” vote next month on the host city for the 2014 Winter Games, and reiterated the IOC will not pressure China on human rights or other political issues ahead of the 2008 Olympics.

Cycling, one of 28 sports on the summer Olympic program, has been torn by repeated drug scandals and investigations.

The 2006 Tour de France is still without an official champion after American rider Floyd Landis tested positive for synthetic testosterone. He is awaiting a decision from an arbitration panel on whether the victory will stand.

More than 50 riders have reportedly been implicated in Operation Puerto, the Spanish investigation into a blood doping network.

The International Olympic Committee recently opened a disciplinary investigation into allegations of doping in Jan Ullrich’s former Telekom team. If Ullrich is found guilty, the IOC could strip him of his Olympic gold medal in the road race from the 2000 Sydney Games.

Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France champion, retired in February after being fired by his team, T-Mobile. U.S. cyclist Tyler Hamilton was stripped of his 2004 gold medal after a failed drug test.

Rogge urged Spanish authorities to allow the IOC, UCI and other sports bodies use the evidence from the Puerto investigation to punish any riders, managers, coaches and others implicated in doping violations. So far, the Spanish judge has refused to let the material be used for sports disciplinary action.

“That is the big sticking point,” Rogge said. “We would really hope that the sports movement would be given the permission to go further.”

Otherwise, he said, the case will “poison” the upcoming Tour de France — which starts in London on July 7 — and the world anti-doping summit in Madrid on Nov. 15-17.

“We would only hope the judge would realize the sports movement is very keen in cleaning up, and the sports movement is giving the same penalties of a fair trial as you have in justice,” Rogge said.

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