AURILLAC, France — The Tour de France just got dirtier.
Veteran Spanish rider Manuel Beltran was kicked off the scandal-ridden Tour and was in police custody Friday after testing positive for EPO.
Liquigas cycling team spokesman Paolo Barbieri said Beltran was suspended from the team and that police were searching other Liquigas riders’ rooms. If a second backup sample is also positive, Beltran will be fired, Barbieri said.
“When are these idiots going to learn that it’s over?” Pat McQuaid, chief of the International Cycling Union, told The Associated Press by telephone. “They continue to think that they can beat the system. They’re wrong. The system is catching up all the time.
“It is very damaging to the sport. Once more, the sport suffers.”
Beltran tested positive on July 5 after the first stage.
“There are not just traces of EPO, there is EPO,” Pierre Bordry, leader of the French anti-doping agency, told the AP. “Whether there is a lot or a little, EPO is forbidden.”
Bordry said Beltran had been targeted after his “parameters were abnormal” during pre-Tour blood testing July 3-4.
“Yes … that was why he was tested on Saturday” July 5, he said.
He said other cyclists with “suspicious” parameters from the pre-Tour tests also had been targeted, but he would not say who they are.
Race organizers had pledged a tougher approach to combatting drug cheats at this year’s Tour. Eight specially trained chaperones shadow riders after each stage, even climbing onto team buses, to ensure cyclists go to post-stage anti-doping checks.
An official of the police division responsible for public health said police are questioning Beltran about how he got the drug and where he took it. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
A strong climber, Beltran helped Lance Armstrong win the Tour in 2003, 2004 and 2005, often pulling the Texan up the steep climbs.
Beltran is the fourth former Armstrong teammate to test positive for doping; the others were Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton and Roberto Heras.
The Tour was devastated by doping scandals last year, when pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan tested positive for blood doping, Spaniard Iban Mayo was busted for using EPO, and race leader Michael Rasmussen was kicked out just days before the end for lying about his whereabouts to avoid pre-Tour drug tests.
And in the 2006 Tour, American Floyd Landis tested positive for synthetic testosterone after a spectacular comeback ride that set the stage for his victory. He later was stripped of the title after a long court battle.
None is riding in this year’s Tour.
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