Spanish rider detained after positive dope test: Tour de France
Police detained Duenas Nevado, who rides for Barloworld and was 19th overall in the Tour, from a hotel in the town of Tarbes, where his team stayed. He remained in custody Wednesday for questioning, notably about where he may have obtained EPO, a police official said.
Claudio Mansata, a Barloworld spokesman, said Duenas Nevado has pulled out of the race and was immediately suspended by the team. The seven other team riders still in the race started Wednesday’s 11th stage.
“I’m shocked,” Barloworld team manager Claudio Corti said in a statement. “The one thing I will say is that the team is not involved in this story at all and we’ll take severe action against anyone who damages our credibility and the image of our team.”
The case marks the second positive EPO test this year involving a Tour rider, in a sport whose image has been long tarnished by drug use and other cheating. Spanish veteran Manuel Beltran —a former teammate of seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong — was sent home for testing positive for EPO after the first stage this year.
International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid said he felt “great anger, once again.” “I just can’t understand when are these guys are going to learn,” McQuaid told The Associated Press by telephone. “If the ‘B’ sample is positive, then all I can say is the guy’s a fool. The net is closing in.”
Both riders who tested positive are Spanish. Two years ago, cycling’s biggest blood-doping scandal saw blood bags taken from a Madrid-based doctor’s clinic in what became known as Operation Puerto.
“Puerto came in Spain, and Puerto was ... three quarters of the riders involved were Spanish,” McQuaid said. “Obviously the message has not got home in Spain yet.”
Following Tuesday’s rest day, Cadel Evans of Australia took a one-second lead into Wednesday’s 11th stage, just ahead of Frank Schleck of Luxembourg. The 167.5-kilometer (104.1-mile) trek from Lannemezan to Foix features one category 1 climb up the Col de Portel.—AP