Anti-doping on agenda for UCI consultation

International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid speaks to media during a news conference on the Lance Armstrong doping scandal in Geneva October 22, 2012.

REUTERS - Anti-doping will be one of four discussion topics for the International Cycling Union's (UCI) stakeholder consultation to be launched next year, the sport's governing body said on Thursday.

The consultation, announced following the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, will look at the future of cycling. Globalisation, riders and the sports calendar are the other subjects to be covered.

"All cycling stakeholders were consulted on the issues to be discussed," UCI President Pat McQuaid said in a statement.

"We must all work together to recover from the damage which the Armstrong affair has undoubtedly done to our sport, the sport we all love and cherish."

The consultation will be extended to cycling fans using social media such as Facebook and Twitter, the UCI said.

It is separate from the independent commission set up to review all the issues from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) report on Armstrong and the U.S. Postal team.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life after USADA concluded the now-retired rider had been involved in the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

(Writing by Alison Wildey in London; Editing by Julien Pretot)