Dubai: Former world road race champion Philippe Gilbert believes cycling’s anti-doping regulations are stronger than any other sport.

Cycling has persistently suffered with bad press due to a succession of cheating scandals involving the use of prohibited substances by riders. However, in recent times a new breed of cyclists has aimed to rebuild the reputation of their sport, including Gilbert, the 32-year-old Belgian from BMC Racing Team.

Gilbert excelled when taking overall honours in the UCI World Tour in the 2011 season, and a year later he won the prestigious World Road Race Championships. But he was accused of abusing Cortisone during this period by an anonymous former Omega Pharma-Lotto teammate — an allegation he strongly denies.

“There’s doping in other sports as well. The only difference may be that in cycling we have strong doping controls and in other sports these controls may be either non-existent or most often the associations are not interested in catching the cheats,” Gilbert told Gulf News.

“In the case of cycling, and it is a very good thing, we have such strong measures that cyclists don’t even get a chance to defend themselves. Everything becomes so public and it is so embarrassing. But all this is because we have such strong anti-doping measures in our sport. I believe that cycling is not worse than other sports.

“I am of the opinion that cycling is already better [in the field of anti-doping], and perhaps if the media stops speaking about the doping then we may be able to do cycling a huge favour and improve its image drastically. I believe this could be a good step for cycling.”

Gilbert, who is one of only two riders to have won the three Ardennes classics — the Amstel Gold Race, La Fleche Wallonne and Liege–Bastogne–Liege — in a single season, had a good day on the Dubai Tour on Friday, finishing in sixth place to lie in eighth place overall, 12 seconds off leader John Degenkolb.

“It’s always nice to win, but I am just about starting my season here. The Giro d’Italia and Amstel Gold are definitely among the two races I would love to win again this year,” Gilbert said.

“This is the first race of the season and I need to get my rhythm. This race is very much part of the process to reach our best for the rest of the season.”