Tour de France: The Tour de France was stripped of two of its biggest names today after Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were implicated in a doping investigation in Spain.
Ullrich, who won the Tour in 1997, Oscar Sevilla and team manager Rudy Pevenage were banned after their German T-Mobile team was notified by race organisers ASO that the three had been named in the probe by Spanish police.
"I feel I'm a victim," Ullrich told ZDF television. "I am in absolute shock. It's the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my career. I can only say again that I have nothing to do with this thing."
The CSC team withdrew Italy's Basso, winner of the Giro d'Italia race in May, when all 21 teams decided unanimously to exclude anyone who featured in the investigation from the Tour which starts tomorrow.
The AG2R team followed suit by withdrawing Spain's Francisco Mancebo. He was also on the list of nine Tour riders provided by the Spanish police to an investigating magistrate.
Basso finished second in last year's Tour behind American Lance Armstrong, now retired. Ullrich was third and Mancebo fourth.
"It is difficult for us to believe what is happening," said CSC team manager Bjarne Riis. "It's a huge blow for everybody. We did what we had to do in a situation like that. It's not about pressure, it's about being responsible."
The doping scandal erupted last month after the Spanish Civil Guard raided a number of addresses to find large quantities of anabolic steroids, laboratory equipment used for blood transfusions and more than 100 packs of frozen blood.
Earlier, ASO announced it was in possession of a list of more than 50 riders involved in the probe after being handed a 37-page document by the Spanish Cycling Federation.
The UCI said it could not be assumed all nine were guilty of doping offences. The Spanish federation took a different approach.
"The degree of presumed involvement in doping is of varying degrees and it is not possible to generalise when talking about names, substances or the practices that were used," the federation (RFEC) said in a statement.
On Monday, Ullrich and Pevenage had issued strong denials about their involvement in what could be the biggest doping scandal in cycling since the Festina affair in 1998.
"At first we had no reason to doubt the riders's statements. Therefore we couldn't make any decision merely based on speculations, rumours and guesses", said Christian Frommert, director of sports communication for T-Mobile International.
"This situation has now changed profoundly. Accordingly we will now live up to our responsibility towards making cycling a clean sport."