CHARLEVILLE-MEZIERES, France, March 26 (Reuters) - Spanish
team Kelme have been banned from this year's Tour de France
after revelations by their former rider Jose Manzano that he
had been forced to take doping products.
Manzano told Spanish sports newspaper As this week he had
been obliged to take doping substances that twice put his
life in danger.
"We know a little bit more about it now and we decided it
was not possible to let the Kelme team take part in our
races, including the Tour," Tour chief Jean-Marie Leblanc
told Reuters.
Even if we're talking about an isolated case, it is obvious,
given the list of products taken, that he cannot have acted
on his own.
"He has obviously been helped by his team director or his
team doctor," Leblanc said.
Kelme did not qualify directly for the Tour de France but
organisers had promised them a wild card if they
strengthened the team.
Manzano said in his interview with As that he had regularly
been given undetectable drugs such as growth hormone while
using erythropoietin (EPO) in training and tampering samples
before tests.
Kelme riders, including Colombians Santiago Botero and Fabio
Parra, and Spaniards Fernando Escartin and Oscar Sevilla,
played a prominent role in recent Tours.