Tour de France bars two riders investigated in suspected doping cases
SAINT-LEONARD-DE-NOBLAT, France (AP) — The Tour de France headed for the higher ground of the Massif Central on Tuesday without two riders who were ejected because of doping investigations.
Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc said Stefano Casagranda of the Saeco team and Martin Hvastija of Alessio were no longer welcome.
The ninth stage, which takes riders on a 100-mile route to Gueret in the Massif Central area of central France, started in Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat, the hometown of Tour great Raymond Poulidor.
A rider from the 1960s and 70s, Poulidor is still adored in France as the cyclist who always came in second. He had eight podium finishes between 1962 and 1976.
Hvastija was 124th overall, and Casagranda 155th when they were kicked out despite their protests.
”I don't understand such a cruel decision,” Hvastija told The Associated Press. The Slovenian suggested that he and Casagranda were unfairly picked on because they are not top performers.
He said Italian investigators bugged a conversation he had with a teammate during the 2001 Tour of Italy about a recently banned substance. He did not reveal the name of the other rider or the product, but said it had been legally used before.
Gabriele Coppola, a spokesman from Casagranda's Saeco team, said the team is prepared to take legal action.
”That is our right,” Coppola said.
Meanwhile, Tour organizers have contacted judicial officials in San Remo, Italy, about an article in the French newspaper Le Monde that said one of Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service teammates — Czech Pavel Padrnos — has been summoned to appear before an Italian tribunal for allegedly taking doping substances during the 2001 Tour of Italy.
Johan Bruyneel, the Postal team director, dismissed the report last week.
”There is no case. It's not even worth considering having any doubts about this boy because we're not speaking about any forbidden substance,” he said.
But Leblanc said the Tour was prepared to exclude Padrnos and the other rider, Italian Stefano Zanini of Quick Step-Davitamon, if race organizers confirm their involvement in the Italian doping case.
”Perhaps the same thing will happen as with the two others,” Leblanc said. ”If tomorrow, or in three days or in five days, we get a reply that says I confirm these riders are implicated in a doping affair, we'll still follow the same line.”
Before the Tour, organizers said all riders ”implicated in a judicial inquiry or under police investigation” would be barred.
David Millar of Britain and Cedric Vasseur of France, two of six Cofidis team members under investigation for suspected doping, and Danilo Di Luca of Italy have already been banned from the race. Last week, Belgian Christophe Brandt was expelled.
Hendrik Redant, coach of Brandt's Italian team Lotto-Domo, said Brandt was sent home after testing positive for methadone, a drug typically used to help recovering heroin addicts.
Brandt suggested that a laboratory error might be to blame and said he was awaiting results of a follow-up test.
Meanwhile, Armstrong's team and other riders underwent blood tests Tuesday, but nobody showed signs of any abnormalities that could give suspicion of doping.
Armstrong, aiming for a record sixth Tour win, is sixth overall, 9 minutes, 35 seconds behind French leader Thomas Voeckler. Armstrong's chief rival, the Germany's Jan Ullrich of T-Mobile, is 20th, 55 seconds behind the Texan.
Tuesday's stretch began without French rider Samuel Dumoulin, who dropped out with injuries sustained in a fall caused by a dog scampering into the pack of riders on Sunday.
Associated Press Writer John Leicester contributed to this report.