London wants Tour back, says Livingstone

The capital staged the 2007 Tour's opening stages before the scandals left the reputation of the historic event in tatters.

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But London mayor Ken Livingstone confirmed the capital would seek to retain close links with the Tour.

"It is an absolutely amazing race," he said. "We have made it clear that we want them to come back for the Grand Depart as soon as possible, but that is probably not for another six years.

"We have also been negotiating with them to see if we can get a stage coming through London before 2010."

The success of the Tour's Grand Depart in London - the opening ceremony, Prologue time trial and first stage - now seems a distant memory.

But Livingstone said: "It is a unique event. There are people who break the rules in every profession.

"I do not think that a small handful of riders that are breaking the rules diminishes those riders who finish the course.

"A small group of corrupt riders in the Tour de France - their crime does not diminish the achievement of riders like Bradley Wiggins."

Manchester-based Wiggins, 27, the reigning Olympic pursuit champion and one of Britain's best hopes of Olympic gold next year, was forced to quit the Tour with the rest of his Cofidis team after team-mate Cristian Moreni tested positive for an abnormal testosterone level.

The Moreni incident in this year's Tour followed the expulsion of the Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov for alleged blood doping. Vinokourov, who came third in the 2003 Tour de France, has now been sacked by the Astana team.

This was followed by the ejection of the Danish race leader, Michael Rasmussen, over his Rabobank team's belief that he had lied over his whereabouts when he missed a drugs test.

Wiggins, who aims to finish his career at the London 2012 Olympics, has said he thought of quitting the sport in disgust at the Tour de France drug scandals.

After suffering the indignity of being escorted off the Tour by French police, he described the event as "null and void".

French sport minister Roselyne Bachelot wants cycling to crack down harder on doping cheats.

She met with Tour organisers and the heads of cycling in France yesterday to look at ways of strengthening the fight against doping, and is adamant the sport needs to come down harder on cheats.

She said: "We are going to propose hardened measures.

"It is necessary, for example, that possessing banned substances - but changing them from their original use for use in doping, which are then found in hotel rooms - is punishable in the sport's code."

Ms Bachelot, who also believes there should be better dialogue with the International Cycling Union (ICU), said: "Together, we must work closer with the sporting world, and with the police and justice."

It was announced new measures to counter doping are to be revealed on October 25, the day of the presentation of the 2008 Tour.

This year's Tour was won by Spain's Alberto Contador after Italy's Daniele Bennati claimed the final stage with a sprint victory in Paris on Sunday.