Julien Pretot in Aurillac The spectre of drugs returned to haunt the Tour de France yesterday when race organisers revealed that the veteran Spanish rider, Manuel Beltran, had tested positive for EPO.
Julien Pretot
in Aurillac
The spectre of drugs returned to haunt the Tour de France yesterday when race organisers revealed that the veteran Spanish rider, Manuel Beltran, had tested positive for EPO.
Roberto Amadio, the Liquigas team manager, said Beltran, 37, would be withdrawn from the race after he tested positive following the first stage from Brest to Plumelec on Saturday.
"It is a damaging blow," said Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union (UCI). "Once again, it proves that individuals are ready to take stupid risks. I hope there won't be other positive tests in the next two weeks."
"Txiki" Beltran has three Tour stage wins to his name, all of them team time trials with Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal and Discovery Channel teams in 2003, 2004 and 2005. He also won the Tour of Catalunya in 1999. He was lying 26th in the overall standings after yesterday's seventh stage from Brioude to Aurillac.
Liquigas said in April they had hired Italian Ivan Basso on a two-year contract. Basso is serving a two-year suspension after being implicated in the Operation Puerto blood doping scandal in Spain and cannot race until October.
Yesterday's stage went to Luis Leon Sanchez, who made an enterprising solo escape in the final five kilometres.The Spanish national time-trial champion had been in a breakaway group with David de la Fuente for much of the day and when they reached the peak of the Cote de Saint-Jean-de-Donne, Sanchez pushed away from the chasing pack, finishing six seconds ahead of Stefan Schumacher.
It is the 24-year-old Caisse d'Epargne rider's second major stage win of the season, after a similar victory in stage seven of Paris-Nice.
Schumacher, of Gerolsteiner, pipped Kim Kirchen to second place, but the Luxembourger stays in the yellow jersey for another day.
With King of the Mountains leader Sylvain Chavanel struggling at the back of the field, De la Fuente capitalised, leading Sanchez and two other riders over the category two climbs of the Col D'Entremont and the misty summit of the Pas de Peyrol. De la Fuente, who finished second to Michael Rasmussen in the 2006 climbers' competition, secured the four points necessary to put into the polka dot jersey when he broke away over the final climb.
Scotland's David Millar led a group of eight riders over the first classified climb, the category three Cote de Fraisse, to pick up the first climbing points of the day. Millar ended the stage in 50th place, and will resume on Saturday seventh overall, one minute and 14 seconds behind Kirchen.
Windy conditions played havoc with the peloton in the mid-section of the stage, dividing the riders into small groups and causing three French retirements. The major abandonment was that of Christophe Moreau, who pulled up in what could prove to be the Agritubel man's final Tour. Francaise des Jeux's domestique, Lilian Jegou, collided with a tree and was forced out, two days after an heroic escape alongside Nicolas Vogondy from Cholet to Chateauroux. John Gadret also pulled up.
