Cycling: Armstrong on Offensive Over Basso Deal

Discovery Channel, the team run by the seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, faces conflict with the body governing professional cycling teams after it voted to exclude Discovery for contravening its voluntary ethical code.

Members of the International Professional Cycling Teams' body claim that by hiring the Giro d'Italia winner, Ivan Basso, Discovery went counter to an agreement reached in October that teams contesting the ProTour circuit would not sign riders who were implicated in police investigations into possible drug use. Basso was excluded from the Tour de France in June over his possible involvement in the Spanish blood-boosting inquiry, Operation Puerto, but was cleared to race when the Italian Olympic Committee said in mid-October that he had no case to answer.

"The line is clear," said one manager. "There is no question of hiring a cyclist involved in Puerto." The only other ICPT member to sign a rider implicated in Puerto, the Italian squad Lampre, have since parted company with Giampaolo Caruso. However Johan Bruyneel, the team's manager and the man who masterminded Armstrong's Tour wins, has not excluded the option of taking legal action against the ICPT.

After signing Basso, Armstrong said that his team were acting within the code. "I saw no basis in stopping me from hiring the best cyclist in the world. When the accusations fell against Basso we had four specialist lawyers, who looked at all the rules and ethical codes, come to the conclusion that there was nothing legally prohibiting us to reach an agreement."

Meanwhile Floyd Landis, this year's Tour de France winner, said that he may not race again if his defence against a positive test for testosterone fails. "If I lost, I'm not sure I could carry on. I wasn't the highest-paid cyclist and it's looking like this might cost me $500,000," Landis said in an interview yesterday. His case is due to be heard next month.