The Lower House in the Netherlands will find money for additional doping controls. That allows the Dutch Doping Authority to do 300 extra checks in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Rio. They will be added to the 1700 tests that are done every year.

"We're going in the right direction, but it's not the solution. I hope that this trend will be extended, " Herman Ram, director of the Doping Authority, told NOS. "The number of checks is still very low. In sport, we want to belong to the top 10 in the world, but in terms of doping controls we are not there yet. Steps still need to be taken. For the top-10, we need to look at a doubling of the number of checks.”

Ram hopes that the extra money will allow him to monitor athletes more often. He also wants to test foreign athletes in the Netherlands. "In the Netherlands we seldom check foreign athletes out of competition even though they are rivals for our athletes. We could do more, also to make foreign colleagues carry out adequate checks," said Ram.

The proposal was discussed in parliament a few days ago. It is not known how many extra control will be made in cycling.