Another Doping Scandal Looms at the Tour de France

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Unofficial word has it that at 11:00am Saturday the organizing committee for the Tour de France will announce another non-negative doping result from a "prominent rider". Apparently there has been another adverse finding from samples taken after stage 14 which finished atop the Plateau de Beille. Non-negative is the official term for a test found positive for banned substances after the initial A-sample has been tested.

Regulations mandate daily drug tests for the race leader and stage winner and six to eight cyclists selected at random throughout the field. The pyrenean mountain stage was won by current yellow jersey leader Alberto Contador, and at the time Micheal Rasmussen was the leader of the overall standings (who has since by removed from the tour by his team). Both would have been amongst the riders tested at the end of the stage... the plot thickens.

... watch this space for updates. 

Update: Iban Mayo A sample positive for EPO.

The 29 year old Spaniard rides for the Saunier Duval team. He finished 16th overall in this year's tour. This year had many people commenting on Mayo's return to form after 2 years of sub par performances. Mayo showed great promise when he finished 6th in the Tour in 2003. He joined his current team after two seasons with the Spanish Squad Euskatel Euskadi.

Mayo has never been under suspicion prior to this case and had passed all of his teams internal controls. The Saunier Duval team is waiting for the B-sample before taking any action, but they have confirmed that they will terminate Mayo's contract immediately of the sample also shows traces of the the drug EPO.