Drugs back in spotlight at Tour

AURILLAC, France – The Tour de France just got dirtier.

Veteran Spanish rider Manuel Beltran was kicked off the scandal-ridden Tour and was in police custody Friday after testing positive for EPO.

Liquigas cycling team spokesman Paolo Barbieri said Beltran was suspended from the team and that police were searching other Liquigas riders’ rooms. If a second backup sample is also positive, Beltran will be fired, Barbieri said.

“When are these idiots going to learn that it’s over?” Pat McQuaid, chief of the International Cycling Union, told the Associated Press by telephone. “They continue to think that they can beat the system. They’re wrong. The system is catching up all the time.”

Beltran tested positive last Saturday after the first stage.

“There are not just traces of EPO, there is EPO,” Pierre Bordry, leader of the French anti-doping agency, told the AP. “Whether there is a lot or a little, EPO is forbidden.”

Bordry said Beltran had been targeted after his “parameters were abnormal” during pre-Tour blood testing July 3-4.

“Yes … that was why he was tested (last) Saturday,” Bordry said.

He said other cyclists with “suspicious” parameters from the pre-Tour tests also had been targeted, but he would not say who they are.

Meanwhile, Luis-Leon Sanchez of Spain won the day’s stage, the seventh.

Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg retained the yellow jersey as the overall leader after the windy stage of 99 miles from Brioude to Aurillac in the Auvergne.

Caisse d’Epargne’s Sanchez was part of a group of four riders that broke away before the major climb but was caught toward the end of the race.

There was no change at the top of the overall standings, where Kirchen leads Cadel Evans of Australia by 6 seconds and Schumacher by 16.