Saunier Duval withdraw from Tour de France after Ricco fails doping test

Italian Ricco, the current wearer of the polka dot jersey, produced a positive A sample
for the blood-booster EPO in a test undertaken after the fourth stage of the
Tour, the Cholet time-trial on July 8.

Busted: Riccardo Ricco (right) of the Saunier Duval team, is led away by French gendarmes after becoming the third rider to test positive for the use of EPO in this year's Tour de France.

Saunier Duval, a Spanish team, had won three stages of the 2008 Tour prior to
Thursday's announcement.

Team manager Joxean Fernandez said: 'The organisers allowed us to take the start (of Thursday's 12th stage), but he is our leader - we could not do so as if nothing had happened.

'We are responsible and we have weighed up all that has happened. 'If it had been another rider in our team, then maybe we could have continued.'

Ricco's team-mate Juan Jose Cobo said: 'If this is confirmed, it is terrible news for the team.'

Saunier-Duval's withdrawal will spell the end for the likes of Cobo and Leonardo Piepoli, who won the 10th stage from Pau to Hautacam.

The 24-year-old Ricco, who has won two stages in this year's race, becomes the third rider to test positive for EPO (erythropoietin) on the 2008 Tour after Spaniards Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado.    

However, Beltran's Liquigas and Duenas Nevado's Barloworld squads opted to
continue.

'It's for the same product as the other two,'  said Pierre Bordry, the head of the French anti-doping agency.

Ricco, who was ninth overall, two minutes and 29 seconds behind leader Cadel Evans of Australia, tested positive after the fourth stage, an individual time trial in Cholet last week, Bordry added.    

Police came to the Saunier Duval team's bus in southwestern Lavelanet before the start of Thursday's 12th stage to Narbonne, witnesses said. Ricco then left in a team car escorted by police and was expected to be questioned.    

Ricco triumphed in two Pyrenean stages, at Super-Besse and Bagneres de Bigorre, the second of which was marked by a speedy acceleration on the slopes of the Col d'Aspin.

'It does not surprise me all that much that it is Ricco (who has tested positive)," former yellow jersey holder Kim Kirchen said.

'When you see someone accelerate past you that quickly, you start to have suspicions, though that thought is always retrospective.'

'It's completely shocking,' said International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid. 'It would strike me now that someone would have advised those guys to take some form of EPO thought to be undetectable because we haven't caught guys in this fashion for a long time.'

Ricco, a natural climbing specialist, came 115th in the time fourth stage, three minutes 36 seconds behind stage winner Stefan Schumacher.

Saunier Duval's withdrawal means that Ricco's King of the Mountains jersey passes to Sebastian Lang of Gerolsteiner, as the second-placed rider in the climbers' competition was also a Saunier Duval man, David de la Fuente.

Ricco was also the holder of the maillot blanc for best young rider, so that passes to Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas.

Ricco has come under the spotlight throughout his Pro Tour career as he has a naturally high hematocrit level, which measures the volume of red blood cells.

After exhaustive tests earlier in his career, the International Cycling Union concluded Ricco's hematocrit level could be considered to naturally exceed 50%, around 4% higher than the norm.

Ricco was believed to be among a group of 20 riders who produced an abnormally high hemotacrit level in a blood test at the start of the Tour de France, but not above the allowed limit.

EPO increases the number of red blood cells produced by the body, aiding the flow of oxygen to the lungs and heightening performance. It has only been detectable by testers from around 2000.

Ricco finished second to Alberto Contador in this year's Giro d'Italia, winning two stages in the process and taking the best young rider jersey.