Patrick Keil, the judge in charge of investigating the drugs scandal that ruined last year's Tour de France, has told reporters that leading French cyclist Richard Virenque had tested positive for drugs, despite the rider's firm denials.

Keil, who was put in charge after French customs police discovered a massive amount of performance-enhancing drugs in a Festina team car days before last year's Tour, added that, contrary to reports in a French newspaper yesterday, Virenque had not been charged with taking banned substances but for acting as a go-between for the drugs pushers and the other cyclists.

"Virenque's tests were positive for Erythropoietin (EPO, which boosts the red blood cells carrying oxygen around the body), but I did not say that was one of the reasons why he had been charged," Keil said. "It's not possible under French law to prosecute someone for simply taking banned substances. He was formally charged on March 26th for being an accomplice in facilitating the supply of those substances, encouraging others to take them and the administering of them," Keil added.

On Monday Virenque's new team owner, Franco Polti, claimed that there was no physical evidence against the four-time Tour de France King of the Mountains winner and that if the organisers used their new power, in which they can refuse entry to any rider or team implicated in drugs allegations, to exclude Virenque from this year's Tour then he, Polti, would sue them.