The International Cycling Union (UCI) has been blackballed from this year's Tour de France by Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), the race promoter, as the fallout from last year's scandal-stricken race rumbles on.

The feud between the ASO and the UCI culminated in a bitter public spat between Pat McQuaid, the UCI president, and Christian Prudhomme, the Tour director, over the presence of Michael Rasmussen, the Danish rider, in last year's peloton. Each blamed the other for Rasmussen slipping through the ethical net, after it became clear that the Dane has missed a series of out-of-competition tests.

This year, McQuaid and his UCI medical team will not be present and, instead, drug controls at the Tour de France will be run by AFLD, the French anti-doping agency. The AFLD's testing procedures will be supported by the gendarmerie and by the French cycling federation. In addition to the standard blood and urine tests for doping products, a test for human growth hormone will be introduced for the first time.

The ASO has extended its roster to include significant interests in races such as the Tour of California and the Tour of Spain. McQuaid said: “ASO have an objective and we can now see what that is - it's to kill the UCI. They want to set up another international federation with their own races, their own rules, their own anti-doping. They're getting support from Nicolas Sarkozy [the President of France] down to the French Sports Minister.”

Prudhomme was unapologetic for the decision to ostracise the UCI. “We needed to make changes,” he said. “In other sports when we see something fantastic, we don't have any doubts. Cycling must rediscover its credibility and rid itself of suspicion.”