Paris - The 17 retests of samples taken from the 2008 Tour de France were negative, the head of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD), Pierre Bordry, said Wednesday.

"Our aim is not to find something (suspicious)," Bordry told journalists in Paris.

At the conclusion of this year's Tour, the AFLD announced that it would retest the samples of 17 riders for the third-generation blood-doping substance CERA.

In 2008, no test to detect CERA, a new version of the blood booster EPO, had been available. (dpa)