But for all the dirt hurled at cycling by certain people looking for easy targets, it's a sport that's been doing more than others to clean itself up.

Initially when Pat McQuaid, president of the UCI, met with Spain's Secretary of State at the Department of Sport Jaime Lissavetzky, he was told in a private meeting there were more than 200 names involved in the Fuentes scandal. Sources indicate the Spanish Secretary mentioned that roughly 30 per cent were cyclists, 30 per cent were footballers, 20 per cent were tennis players and the rest were from other sports such as athletics and basketball. Fuentes later confirmed this in an interview and French newspapers linked five Real Madrid players and tennis star Rafael Nadal with the scandal.

"I'm really angry, " Fuentes has stated. "There are names that have come out that I don't know. And there are others that have not come out and I don't know why.

Many names, there has been selective filtering, I don't understand why, because some have come out and others have not. There will be names of cyclists coming out, but from other sports also, such as athletics, tennis or football, to mention just some."

But leaks to the media - mainly El Pais, a Spanish newspaper alleged to have close political links with the Spanish government - involved cycling and no other sport. It's unlikely that will change. When the press in Spain turned its attention to the other athletes involved, Lissavetzky issued a communique stating there were never any tennis players or footballers involved to begin with. This directly contradicted what sources say he told McQuaid off the record weeks earlier and the comments made on record by Fuentes.

"It's very frustrating when cycling gets all the attention and other sports involved in that Madrid blood transfusion scandal have and are being completely ignored, " says McQuaid.

"But there is little we can do about it and I, at the minute, have enough to deal with in my own sport and trying to get it in order. We're not looking to put down any other sport but all I can say is that from the very beginning the leaks that were going out in Spain were referring to large numbers of athletes being involved. We got 58 cyclists' names. No other federation has the names of anyone and I cannot for the life of me believe that there were only 58 cyclists involved in that affair given the press stance and the doctor's comments."

McQuaid has not spoken to Lissavetzky since, although such talks are unlikely to bear any fruition as he is refusing to move on his latest statement that is clearing other sports. And it appears the other federations have done little either, although if McQuaid has his way, that will change. "I have written to the president of ASOIF [Association of Summer Olympic International Federations] and I've asked him to make contact with the president of Wada [World Anti-Doping Agency] and make sure the president of Wada deals with every other sports involved fairly and equally. I can't speculate about other sports but if you asked me to, I would think there are other high-profile sports persons involved.

"All this is inadvertently hurting cycling because if everyone else looked into their own sports to the extent we do, people would say it's not just cycling. Other sports have serious problems and are in denial. These other sports do get away a lot lighter.

"That is something I've been reflecting on since the Spanish affair and the Landis thing has convinced me even more that I need to follow this particular strategy and that is to do a complete audit on professional cycling at the top level . . . on all the elements in it, all the teams, riders, organisations, events and get some experts involved in different areas and ask them what their considerations and advice is so we are left with a sport where there are no excuses as to why guys might cheat. It's something I hope to make an announcement on in about 10 days time."

As for announcements from other sports' governing bodies? About as likely as Landis's claims of innocence.