Suspended Ullrich out of Le Tour

uberwolf

this scandal looks set to run
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German rider Jan Ullrich is out of the Tour de France after being suspended by his T-Mobile team.
T-Mobile have been notified by the sport's governing body UCI that Ullrich is involved in an anti-doping probe in Spain, a team spokesman said.

Ullrich's Spanish team-mate Oscar Sevilla and team manager Rudy Pevenage have also been suspended.

Ullrich, the 1997 winner, had been among the favourites for this year's Tour, which starts on Saturday.

On Tuesday, the El Pais newspaper reported that Ullrich could be implicated in a widening investigation into blood doping in Spain, but the T-Mobile star denied any wrong-doing.

Ullrich had high hopes of winning this year's event following the retirement of seven-time champion Lance Armstrong.

In addition to his win in 1997, the German has been runner-up five times and was third last year.

Genghis

Sad, sad, sad.

Sad for Ulrich, sad for the tour, sad for the sport.

justfortherecor

Unbelievable. I simply cant believe it. This is the final straw, my favourite rider?? The sport is a joke.

Trojan

Oh no! Not Ulrich! It was his year!

cooker3

This is terrible news for the Tour and cycling in general.
From a purely sporting point of view, we are robbed of seeing Basso versus Ullrich now and hard to see against Basso taking it comfortably.
For sport in general, this is developing to be bigger then festina scandal and really is something it didn't need, just tarnishing it more and more. It's really sad to watch.

smithslist

Basso and Mancebo are out also...still alot more riders who may be out also

Should be fun to c wat will happen before the prologue....

sounds like its all falling into a tour win for a discovery rider!!!!

cooker3

Wow, Basso is now gone, 50 names on the list apparantley, this is going to be huge.
God knows who is going to win it now, looks like just starting the event will be an achievement

Trojan

This is a disaster for the tour sponsors.

cavedave

Sad for Ulrich, sad for the tour, sad for the sport.

Sad that he doped or that he was caught(assuming it is proved)?
I am not acting the troll here but the articles I have read keep talking about how sad this is, Ris said it for example but seem ambigious as to why its sad.

This is a disaster for the tour sponsors.

Cyclists dying is a disaster, the sport is important the sponsors are secondary to this. People wanting to take part and believe in the sport is important without this sponsorship dies with the sport. Surely catching dopers is good for the sport and thus its sponsors?

Davey Devil

I have a bet on Landis to win this does anyone know his situation? Is there a chance the tour might not go ahead if too many get pulled out??

iregk

apparently the 50 names on the list is now 250!!!

el tel

It's merely allegations at this stage yet people are being pulled out? In cycling there'd be very few riders if suspicion was all it needed to have someone pulled from the peleton. Armstrong could come out of retirement and enter...with the others dropping like flies before it even starts, he could be in with a shout!

ednwireland

its allright david millar's riding .........................

Rossonero

Looking forward to seeing how Popovic progresses.

Aoibheann

el tel wrote:

Armstrong could come out of retirement and enter...with the others dropping like flies before it even starts, he could be in with a shout!

Was just thinking that myself! I'd say he'd win it if he did at this stage, he's sure to be keeping in shape, you just can't stop when you've been in the routine that long, the body doesn't allow you to.. slow progression and all that!

An awful shame. Cycling is becoming worse than athletics for doping scandals these days and it's disgusting, to say the least.