Rumsas set to lose his tour placing

CYCLING: The Lithuanian, Raimondas Rumsas, who finished a surprise third in the Tour de France on Sunday, could face disqualification from the race depending on the outcome of an investigation into alleged use of banned drugs.

The investigation, opened by French police over the weekend, has raised the spectre of a fresh drugs scandal on the world's biggest cycle race, which is still getting over the "Festina affair" of 1998.

The inquiry began on Sunday morning when Rumsas's wife Edita was stopped by customs police near Chamonix and found to be in possession of substances suspected by police to be "medicines which could be considered doping agents", and prescriptions written in Polish. She had been following the Tour for 10 days, and was on the way to their home in Italy.

Mrs Rumsas was placed in custody and a formal inquiry was opened by the prosecutor's office in the Alpine town of Belleville. They will confirm today whether she will face charges.

Rumsas, the 30-year-old who comes from a farming community 150 miles from the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, was provisionally suspended by his team, who said in a statement that they were "completely extraneous to the events", and added: "If the rider is eventually found to be responsible, the team will immediately fire him."

The Lithuanian, whose previous best placing in a major Tour was fifth in the Vuelta a Espana, was the surprise package of the Tour de France, coming close to winning the final time-trial and almost moving into second place overall over the race's final weekend.

"If he were guilty or confessed to doping, then obviously he would lose his placing and would be excluded from the Tour de France," said Daniel Baal, assistant race director on the Tour.

One of Rumsas's blood tests during the race, taken on the rest day on July 22nd, raised enough suspicion for him to be made to take a urine test to check for the presence of the blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO).