Ludo Dierckxsens of Belgium, who won last Thursday's 11th stage of the Tour de France, has been kicked off his team and will miss the rest of the race - which has once again been engulfed in a drugs scandal.
Pietro Algeri, sports director of the Italian team Lampre-Daikin, confirmed Dierckxens sacking yesterday, a rest day for the race, and said that the disgraced rider had now returned home to Belgium.
Algeri said that the team took the "preventative measure" because Dierckxsens allegedly took an illegal synthetic hormone without their knowledge.
However, Jean-Marie Leblanc, Tour de France race director, said that if the Italian team had not taken action they would have been forced to kick the rider out of the Tour.
"There was no other choice for the sporting director of Lampre-Daikin but to expel their rider after he admitted taking drugs. Morally, it was no longer acceptable for him to participate in the Tour de France," said Leblanc.
Leblanc said that disciplinary proceedings were being opened by the Belgian Cycling Federation into the incident.
Algeri said, however, that a urine analysis given by the 34-year-old after he won last Thursday's 198.5 km Alpine ride from Bourg d'Oisans to Saint-Etienne had been negative.
"He should have declared that he was taking this drug to the team doctor, Dr Fabio Zaretti. We have just applied the rules," Algeri said yesterday.
"When Dierckxsens was tested after his victory at Saint-Etienne, he told the medical inspector that last June after the Tour of Germany he took a hormone-based drug for a knee injury. He said this in good faith," added Algeri.
However, the International Cycling Union (UCI) said that the product taken by Dierckxsens had not influenced his performance in the Tour de France and his drug test had been clear and he did not face disciplinary action.
Dierckxsens was 60th overall in the race after Sunday's 14th stage. American Tour de France leader Lance Armstrong yesterday condemned insinuations in the media that his trail-blazing form in this year's race could be doping related.
Armstrong, who is back in competition after recovering from cancer, holds the yellow jersey and just six days before the finish of the world's most famous cycling event on the Champs Elysees he retains what looks like an unbeatable seven minutes lead over his rivals.
But Armstrong has found that his success on the road has been tainted by a whispering campaign off it even though there have been no specific claims levelled against the Texan.
"France is a country with very strict anti-doping rules at the Federation, organising and police levels. Besides I am living in France. . . If I had something to hide I would not have come to France," Armstrong said yesterday.
Armstrong supported the controversial presence in the race of France's Richard Virenque - imposed on Tour organisers after they had tried to exclude him for his role in last year's Festina doping affair.
